I still haven’t worked out what to do when I grow up! I’m mainly a writer, an artist, and a fairytale dressmaker with various crafty hobbies! Here (and on YouTube) I share bits of my life, thoughts, and what I’m learning along the way. Let’s find magic and inspiration; join me for this creative living adventure!

 

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The Paint Runner paint roller

You may have seen the adverts on shopping channels – this morning I saw Tommy Walsh (from Ground Force and challenge Tommy Walsh) advertising one called The paint wizard pro.  It’s the type of roller that you fill with paint on the inside, therefore no need to have a paint tray.

It’s the sort of review I think will be useful because you never want to spend the extra money on something you’re not sure of. Well, spend the money! This is the best thing ever!! The study was the first room in the new house I painted, and I did it with a ‘One coat’ paint with your normal roller and tray system. Yes it did cover in one coat (though it really could do with another as it was on textured lining paper), but it took forever. The whole time I was constantly re-loading the roller and it really got on my nerves.

When it came to painting the living room I decided to buy the Paint Runner roller I’d seen on a shopping channel on the telly. Except I actually bought mine from ebay for £10 cheaper! Anyway, on to the point: I was amazed! I can’t tell you how much easier it is.  It’s so much quicker – you really can just keep going. I’ve just done the dressing room – about 7′ by 8′, one door and one window to go round, and a full roller did the whole room in less than an hour. My biggest worry was that it would put the paint on too thickly or unevenly – but it doesn’t – it’s much better than a normal roller in this respect. The paint goes on very smoothly and the easy extension poles it come with mean you don’t have to go around with a ladder.

However, of course nothing is as good as it looks on the telly. They say in the advert you can do it in a suit. Well you can’t really because the process of pouring the paint in can still be messy and it goes on your hands when you close the cap. And it can splatter very slightly on your wrist. I found the small roller intended for the edges was useless. The raised plastic edges meant there was never enough pressure to get the paint going, so I still use a brush for going along the skirting and window frames etc. Also, on very shiny smooth surfaces the roller could occasionally slide instead of roll so I had to do those areas more slowly.

NB The instructions say that you should fill the provided pouring container to the first line with paint, and then to the second line with water. Don’t. It makes the paint far too thin and it actually drips out of the roller everywhere. It was a messy business the first time I used it as I had to pour some of it out into another container while I thickened up the rest to use. So my advice is only add about 3mm of water on the top of your paint and then mix it up. The cheaper the paint, the less you should water it down I think. I used Farrow & Ball in the living room; the first coat watered down quite a lot; the second coat just a little, and the walls look fabulous. I’ve just used Crown Period Colours in the dressing room (which I wouldn’t ordinarily class as cheap paint) and it took 5 only slightly watered down coats to cover the walls. It may have been less if I hadn’t watered it down at all, but I don’t know if the roller would have worked as well.

You should also note that the Paint Runner one I bought says in the instructions you can’t use ‘One coat’ paint with the roller. However, the Tommy Walsh advert said all types of paint can be used, including varnish. It sounds like this is the better upgraded version, though they looked identical on t.v. Though I’ve just read the reviews of that one and they aren’t as good.  Some of the reviews for the Paint Runner aren’t so good either, but I think they may have been hasty. They said that the roller is heavy when it’s full – this is true, but I just saw it as a good workout. I certainly didn’t struggle and I’m not muscley! Some also complained that the paint didn’t come out and when it did it was patchy. Well, the coats of paint I did on the floor weren’t watered down and it did take longer and more pressure on the roller to come out, but eventually it did and then I whizzed away with the rest of the floor done in minutes. I really do highly recommend this product! Click on the picture above to buy and let me know how you get on.

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5 Comments

THE SLG TRADING

Hello,

We are the original manufacturer of the Paintrunner and Edger from Singapore and are happy to learn that you were satisfied with the performance of the Paintrunner.
However, the Edger should work equally well, we therefore suspect that you did not get the original Edger. We would like to send you a piece of Edger if you are willing to pay for the shipping cost.
For your information,
Paintrunner received the National Design Award of Singapore
PAINTRUNNER® IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF THE SLG TRADING,
PROTECTED BY WORLDWIDE PATENT AND PATENT APPLICATIONS.

Reply

Helen

Sorry for the delay in replying – I’m always wading through lots of junk messages. Yes please, I’d love to try the Edger directly from you. Please e-mail me helen@wickedfaerie.co.uk
Thank you!

Reply

hank

Had a paint runner for years. Scared to use it due to the end caps on the roller. These caps do not fit tightly at all and only seem to ledge in, consequently with not much imagination that I am rollering away, off comes one of the end caps, emullsion over me, the carpet, the furniture, the dog and the cat.
That’s my take on the paint runner.

Reply

Shell

We purchased the paint runner roller as we were up against time to get Things decorated. We found it great when we first filled it with white base coat paint and finished quite quickly but when we tried to paint the feature wall in red the paint just poured and sprayed out the side, staining the new white walls. Meaning they were to be repainted. Also the red paint went on very unevenly and we had to be extremely careful how full it was and how much pressure we used on it to spread the paint, it was only a small wall we tried to paint red but we had to wait for each coat to dry before adding another as it was soo badly patchy. We did nt use cheap paint either. Also cleaning the roller of the white paint before using a different colour was extremely hard. Another thing, what s this edger and pole attatchments as we didn’t receive either and had to use step ladders throughout our experience, we were very disappointed with this product as we were expecting to get a product that represented the advert on tv, it was nothing even close to it!

Reply

David Cameron

I have used Paint Runner for years and it works faultlessly, other than for me being a bit nervous about the loose fit of the end caps. I haven’t ever had a problem with them, but I always wrap a bit of PTFE tape round the end cap mating surface before fitting it. This works perfectly. As for paint viscosity, thinning the paint with some tap water helps when applying emulsion. With Crown paints I add 10% water and mix thoroughly. You CAN use undiluted paints, but you are just making hard work of it. I get two-and-a-half litres onto the walls in less than an hour. The Paint Runner is actually faster than spraying! The slight downside is that it takes a while to clean it properly, although you can leave it dirty in a polythene bag if you are going to paint again tomorrow. I can buy replacement roller quite cheaply, but I would like to be able to buy just the cover material as that would mean that I could clean up fast and simply dump the used covers. A recent quote from a local painter to do an area of my house was almost £800.00. I used £80 of paint, maybe £5 of filler/caulking and it took me less than two days (working less than four hours per day). I can’t recommend Paint Runner highly enough! I have NO CONNECTION with the makers or the sellers of this product.

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