Spraytech 0520000 Power Tex Electric Corded Texture Sprayer, Sprays 3 Textured Patterns - Popcorn, Knockdown, and Orange Peel, 1 Gallon Hopper

As a non-construction-background woman whose only experience is with buying a fixer-upper (for the 3rd and final time!), I wanted to review this item from a woman's perspective. I wanted an electric texture gun as opposed to the pneumatic as I find an electric cord much less cumbersome than an air hose. Plus, it's hard sometimes to get "dibs" on our air compressor as my husband uses it for many, many things. So this was the only home-use unit of that nature that Amazon sells. The price is well worth it, however I have never used another one so cannot really compare, only say that I am very pleased despite the cost. I agree with everyone else that "pancake batter" is the right thickness, although I found that it was better to make it slightly runnier. ONLY slightly, any more and the stuff will drip on the walls, so it has to be at least a little bit thick. I practiced on my actual wall, but behind a door that is always open. It only takes a couple of squirts to get the idea of how it will work and if your stuff is thick enough or thin enough. We did all medium orange peel. So far we have done one whole bedroom plus the ceiling and two hallways not including the ceiling. Save yourself some trouble and DO NOT buy the Homex texture powder they also sell on Amazon unless you want a popcorn texture. That stuff really sucks. We used it in the office and used up two whole boxes and it was like a mixture of popcorn and orange peel. Luckily, the next day when it was dry I just went over it with a drywall trowel at an angle and knocked off the weird bits and it looks great now, no need for a do-over. I highly recommend that you just use pre-mixed/wet drywall mud and then thin it down with water. Also, spend the little extra to get a paint-mixer drill attachment. I got one at the hardware store for six bucks. Well worth it and it really saves your arm from hand mixing. I did pre-paint the walls with an inexpensive paint to prime the walls as per the directions, but I'm not 100 percent sure this is necessary. I do think it is necessary to paint the texture with a primer or regular paint before you use whatever expensive paint on top. It is drywall mud, so soaks up the paint very quickly. On raw drywall I would say it used almost twice the paint that you would expect from start to finish and on previously painted walls about half again as much. Paint is expensive so I went with some walmart paint to save money on the real paint that I finished with. This unit works as the directions state so I won't go over that again. I will recommend, especially if you are a low-upper-body-endurance person like me, that you only fill the hopper halfway to do the ceilings and 3/4 of the way to do the walls. It is very heavy with the mud in the hopper! Prep is the biggest issue. Make sure you cover everything you don't want sprayed. Don't think you can use drop cloths on the floor, you really need to use plastic and tape. The unit has a pretty powerful exhaust and when you are spraying near the bottom of the wall, it will blow away your drop cloth and you will spray the floor. Thankfully the mud comes off with water, but I wish I had taped down plastic and then put a drop cloth on top of that to stand on (it gets slippery on just the plastic). After you spray, wait until the next day to remove the plastic. All the bits will be dry then and fly off, but it is less mess this way than trying to do it when everything is wet and risking marring the new texture you just put on. Also, wear knee pads. You will be getting low to do the bottoms of the walls and it is much easier on the body to kneel than to bend over. Clean up of this model is slightly a pain, but easy enough with the flexible brush they give you. Pay close attention to the fact that where the hopper screws in and where the stuff comes out are not directly connected and need to be cleaned out separately. Where the hopper screws in there is a gap under the rubber where the mud will collect but this must be cleaned out! It is easy but time consuming. The interior is all black, so if you see any white, it ain't clean. I've done a ton of home remodel for my own homes and I wish I'd gotten something like this years ago. It is much cheaper in the long run and leaves a much nicer texture than the cans. We paid some guy to do this in one room at our old house and not only did he make a huge mess, but he charged us like three hundred bucks for just one room. So this pays for itself very quickly. So: your shopping list should include a paint mixer drill attachment, lots and lots of plastic and tape (2 mil or better), some pre-mixed/wet drywall mud, a large bucket with a lid, extra paint, drop cloths, knee pads, and eye protection (because it goes everywhere!). This is totally possible to use with only one person, but we ended up doing it with two and one held the cord so it didn't scrape the walls and the other did the spraying. It is actually a pretty fun and satisfying process despite the extensive prep work. I'm very pleased with this and would recommend it to anyone.

So heres the thing, it works exactly as advertised. I used it to apply a knockdown texture to my ceiling. For the price it is much cheaper than buying a compressor and all the other stuff. However, there are a few things to keep in mind, you REALLY need to make sure the mud is watered down more than you probably think it should be. The turbine does its job but the mud doesn't travel very far outside the nozzle, the flow was very sporadic and not predictable at all. I think a compressor and hopper would probably be more consistent. Also keep in mind that if you are doing a ceiling, this thing is a workout to hold it at the proper angle and distance from the ceiling. It seems like it is much better suited to wall texturing. Overall it is quick and easy to assemble and easy to clean. It will certainly get the job done, but if you have multiple rooms with a lot of square footage, its going to be a workout!

Pros: this unit gives awesome, professional-looking results. Indistinguishable from the job my contractor did. Beautiful! Cheap. No compressor necessary. Uses ordinary joint compound. Simple to set up. I started on wall with no testing. It was fine. Cons: cleanup. This is a bear to clean. Takes forever. They need to redesign unit so the spray, business end comes apart. I can get it clean, but takes a lot of time. I imagine if the mud drys in there, you will have to unscrew unit. I used regular joint compound, worked great. Just mix it to pancake batter consistency. You'll have to use a fairly thin mix to get top of walls and ceiling. It makes a mess. Cover everything (course joint compound dissolves in water, but... Heavy. Wet joint compound is heavy. I could do only one wall before taking a break. Luckily, unit sits upright when you set it on the ground. Overall, this is a good tool. A pro is not going to use it, and for smsll areas, hand applying joint compound then knocking down is best solution. This is ideal if you are doing a room or two. You could do whole house I suppose, but it will be a messy ordeal. Wear work clothes! And mask and safety glasses.

I purchased the Power Tex to actually save money. I borrowed a regular texture hopper/sprayer from a friend, but it turned out my small compressor didn't produce enough CFM to keep up with it. Really big mess there, so make sure you know what your sprayer requires before starting. Fortunately, that was during a test spray outside on scrap material. So my choice was to spend $350 and up on a compressor capable of the airflow required, or take a chance on the Power Tex. I opted for the latter. I read tons of reviews because, frankly, I haven't liked Wagner gear in the past. But the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. I am working on a small room, on new sheetrock, with intentions of continuing through the house as time and money allow. Amazon had a better price than anything local, so I ordered and had the unit in under a week. Good service, as usual. From reading the reviews, I got the idea hammered into my head: mix it thin. Over and over. Well, I don't know what people think pancake batter consistency is, but mixing it thinner made a mess. I was completely unhappy with the pattern and look. Then, I mixed it like I would for any other sprayer. You know... pancake batter. Went back, and... perfect! Sprayed like a champ, looked great. So, here is the lesson; mix it right. Test it. Don't mix it like concrete, and don't mix it like a milkshake. Go to IHOP if you need a demo. Pancake batter consistency works great, just like the manual says. The "no compressor" turbine, extension cord only was fantastic. The hopper capacity was the only negative, at about 2/3 of a regular hopper. Mix plenty, have it available for as many refills as your wall requires. By the way, speaking of the hopper, the ceiling/wall rotation of the hopper also works without a hitch. The unit is designed for small areas and rooms, so I couldn't mark off for the hopper capacity. As noted earlier, it does what it was designed to do. Last up is cleaning. In a word, easy. The easiest cleanup I have ever experienced. Take it apart into the several pieces it comes in (no tools required), move the turbine out of the line of fire, and take a garden hose to it. That's it. Dry off, a touch of lube (Vaseline) where indicated, and back in the box looking like new. So, all in all, it's a fantastic little tool used for what they suggest, used the way they suggest, cleaned like they suggest. I tend to think those unhappy with it are varying somewhere in there, or possibly got a defective unit. There's not much to screw up if you follow instructions. Great result, very happy with the purchase. Wife also loved the finish, which (as all men know) is the ultimate gauge of how much you'll enjoy your work. If there was any "negative" at the end of the day, it was that the wife is now ready to use it all over the house!

I'm absolutely shocked how easy and fast it was to texture a small bedroom. I watched a few videos online about it to prep myself and practiced on some cardboard boxes. My first go was in a closet in case things went wrong, and they did. It was easy enough to smooth over and let it dry to come back around and try again. Things went well and I figured out the timing and distance to spray from. I achieved a decent knockdown using the black tip, with a little thicker "pancake batter" diluted mud (roughly one handful of compound to a shot glass of water). I pulled the trigger fully and sprayed about a foot or two away from the surface. I timed it to about 18-22 minutes for set time. I used a 18" knockdown tool I found on here to knock it down. Overall, this was much easier than I expected, I prolonged this process and was pretty nervous about it but I achieved pretty good results. It may not be professional quality but with a good paint job it'll be just fine. The cleanup is also ridiculously easy. Everything hosed off quick and simple. Cons: About 3/4 through, my hand was cramping up from how stiff the trigger is. I really wish it was lockable or even just like a regular paint sprayer. The spray pattern can be a little inconsistent, near the end of the 11x10 room I noticed I got more long stringy types of spatter compared to the rounded type. Possibly my mix changed or my hand wasn't giving it the full beans. I also had to kind of pump the trigger on and off to get the thicker drops to spray out, which could be from buildup or a sign the turbine is failing already. I used way more mud than I anticipated, about half of a 4.5gal on a 11x10 room including the ceiling. I'm doing a full remodel so it will be used plenty, I'll update if things go bad. Update: Just completed my second room a couple months after the first review. My results came out even better this time, possibly better mud mix or a little experience goes a long way. Either which, I'm becoming a big fan of this sprayer. My hand still cramps up pretty good near the end but I noticed I can use the brush that's provided when it starts getting stringy and it clears up to help not require the trigger pumping technique which in turn helps the cramping. And no I'm not alone with that, the friend helping me said it's a ridiculously firm trigger.

I purchased this item in April 2023. It worked great the first time. I had to leave town, so I did not finish using it. I cleaned it up. Really good and stored it in the closet. I came back and try to use it again in July 2023 and it did not work. I tried to troubleshoot it using the documentation and it still did not work. I contacted Amazon, they told me I was past my 30 days return window. They told me all they can do is give me a refund but deduct 20% for a restocking fee. I explain that it was my second time using it and I paid $117 for it so I should get more than one use out of it. Amazon said they would refund it but charge me a restocking fee. I asked them how do you charge a 20% restocking fee on an item that’s doesn’t work. All the business I do with Amazon they made me take a 20% loss on an item that only worked once in less than 90 days. Amazon should start doing a 90 day return on any item that’s electrical and tools like Lowes and Home Depot. This has taught me to just get in my car and go to Lowe’s or Home Depot to buy these type of products. I also discovered that a lot of the items on Amazon is really cheaper if you just get up and go to the store and buy it. Amazon third-party vendors are awful. And Amazon is just as awful with them. I decided to not purchase anything else from Amazon, the third-party vendors and close out my Amazon credit card. This is the second incident like this one. Amazon customer service after purchase has changed a lot.

This item gets the 5 stars it deserves. The only issues were all my doing, and I love using it! I am in the process of finishing our basement. After hanging the drywall and embedding metal corner beading in setting-type compound (I don't want cracks), the plan was to call in the professionals to finish off. I had done the playroom area a couple years ago and did not get a good result from roll-on texture paint. I needed the bathroom ceiling textured first, which would not be possible unless I did it myself, so, when Amazon dropped the price for the sprayer, I decided it would be more cost-effective than getting in a professional for only one room. I went with SheetRock QT Medium popcorn texture and mixed up 1 gallon to start, thinking that would be sufficient. Using the yellow spray nozzle, the practice shot on a spare piece of drywall gave a great spray, only to become very watery on the ceiling. I battled through the rest of the mix and was not very pleased at all with the result. Not quite a mess, and it did look a lot better after it dried, so perhaps another mix would fill in. The texture is a 40lb bag, to mix with 5 gallons of water, so 8 lbs to one gallon. A margarine tub held exactly 1 lb of powder. The mistakes became clear as I prepared for the second mix. Overconfidence got eights and fives confused, and the first mix had only 5 lbs to the gallon. I used a bent wire hanger as a paddle. Worked fine for paint, so... At Menards I found an inexpensive paddle - one that looks like a propeller with a guard that allows it to be used even against the side of the container, and it's not imported. That, and getting the ratio right (I mixed 7 lbs to the gallon to have some wiggle room), produced a mix that was right-on. The second coat made all the difference. I did overload one spot which did not look too good while it was wet, but now that it's dry: if I don't tell you where it is, you won't notice. I'll be more careful to get the mixture right next time and be prepared for two coats right from the start. Application is very simple. The sprayer works precisely as advertised. The biggest problem is to overcome the temptation to do it in one pass. Spend more time in preparation, especially protecting the floor and masking the wall thoroughly to avoid unnecessary cleanup. Start by painting the ceiling with First Coat to even out the surface, and let it dry before applying texture - as recommended by SheetRock. Spraying into corners is tricky. The mix seems to blow everywhere except where the walls and ceiling meet. I plan to try spraying corners obliquely next time to avoid this. Relax and take it slow while texturing, realize that it will look a lot better after a second coat, and even better after it dries, and you will get the finish you deserve. January, 2012 update: Since doing the bathroom ceiling, I have now also completed the kitchen and one bedroom. This is so much fun, it's a pity, after all the necessary prep work and masking, that it's over and done with so quickly!

The sprayer is working ok except that it came with three spray nozzles and the black one is considered a small nozzle but the texture came out is very large. I have changed the mixture three times, from thick to medium and then thin but the texture size is the same .38-.50. The nozzle is fixed and is not adjustable. If you're looking for a small texture sthe size of .125-.25 orange peel then this machine is not for you.