Best Paint Brush Cleaner. Remove Dried Paint

This is Chrisy Idaho Painter here on Paint Life TV. Today I got Journeyman John with me and today we got a really cool test. We are going to be testing some solvents and cleaners to see if you can restore a brush that has been abused, destroyed with paint. So here's one example, and this would be John. How'd that paintbrush get like that? Well, I think there are some things in your family that you need to have a talk about. That would be my daughter. She took this brand new brush and she used it to paint for the day. And that's what you get when your daughters use your paint brushes. So, we've got a bunch of cleaners right here. We've got vinegar. Well, we don't know if vinegar is a clean or not. This is our own little um gadget that we're going to try to clean a brush with. Inquiring minds want to know. Want to know. We got Simple Green. We've got Reducer 54. That would be what we cut epoxy with or thin epoxy. We've got paint thinner. We have acetone, which we do get a lot of people telling us acetone will restore a brush to life. We have CRUD Cutter brush wash and that was specifically designed to clean brushes with dried paint. So, we have a whole different a whole bunch of scenarios. We've got brushes that have been sitting in the van that got um some abuse, you know, put to them by our own painting crew and painting staff. So, some of them are really dried really hard. But, but in order to make this fair, we're going to create a situation and a scenario that is fair for all the cleaners. How are we going to go about doing that, John? Well, we have five of the exact same brushes. They are used. They're uh what we would probably qualify or categorize as duster brushes, but we're going to dip all of them in the same product. We're going to let those dry and then we're going to see how they do in each of these cleaners. And then we also have just for our own curiosity some of these brushes that are extremely dried out rollers and things like that. We're going to test those out in a couple of these products too. These would be the three items that my daughter used. And this would be the 4-in roller. This was a brand new white dove pretty roller. We're going to see if you can restore a roller back to life. This is um pretty much as hard as rock. So I don't think that's really going to work too well. But this was a brand new chalk brush that she kind of destroyed, too. So, we're going to put those to the test. But we're going to put the products in each one of these plastic containers, let it set overnight, 24 hours, and then we're going to come back and take a wire brush, clean them, and see how simply it works or how difficult it works or whether it works or not, and whether the brush will function properly when it's done. We did take a $45 Deck Boss brush. It was brand new. We were staining for a couple days with it. And what happened to that brush, John? You know, it got left out in the sun and then that semi-transparent stain just dried it hard as a rock. So, and it was um the brush was pretty much ruined. We did uh and I heard from some people that Simple Green worked. I soaked it in Simple Green for 24 hours and it was amazing. It cleaned up and the brush was almost like brand new again. I was shocked. And so that got us very curious. Will these other items work? So, we're going to put it to the test, let you know. So, stay tuned because we're gonna do something and then go to bed and get back up and do something and then see what happens. It's like a science experiment. We'll see you soon. All right, we're back with the magic of YouTube. So, with the magic of a camera and YouTube. So, here we are. Now we've moved from the back end of the truck to out under the trees. We poured each one of our chemicals into one of these containers. It's been setting now approximately 24 hours and we're going to see if it actually does anything. Some of these are disappointing looking. Some of them are very disappointing. Some of them are very encouraging. But I do have to say I don't think any of these brushes are going to be usable after this test. So, um, here we go. I think, you know, we did have some success with stain on our brush with Simple Green. And so, we'll set Simple Green up here. And I'm going to just lift the brush out. And you can see the brush. There's some bubbles on the paint right here. So, it did soften the paint up. I can take and pick away at the paint right here. So, it is um it did The brush is still pretty dang stiff. I don't think a wire brush is going to clean that out. Probably not. What we will say is that we did let the paint sit on these brushes for a couple of days. So, we did give them a good amount of time to dry. Yeah, I would think that they they dried about 5 days probably. So, these were what you would call pretty toasted brushes. Yeah. And but we've heard I've heard on social media that you can revive these brushes. Um, here's CRUD Cutter. And this was designed to um clean brushes right here and revive a brush with dried paint. So, there's CRUD Cutter. It's still stiff. Um, ouch, that hurt. Um, same like Simple Green. It's got some bubbles on it. What do you think? Are you going to be able to save that one there, John? Uh, it is uh doubtful. This is not looking very good with all these. Um, so many brushes sacrificed themselves in the name of science. Yes, we just kind of ruined a lot of brushes here. Here's vinegar. So, this one's letting me pull a comb through. Comb's getting through it. Yeah, it's going to take a lot of work to make it happen. But, I mean, what what I can see like with this right here, I can see where I It is like the paint is softened. John's going to start digging on it. He might be able to wire brush it and stuff. the amount of time that John would spend on this brush right here with um CRUD cutter. It's not going to be worth saving that brush, I don't think. No, it wouldn't even be worth it if it were a Corona brush. I think Yeah. I wonder what like if it was a chax brush, you know, what would have happened? We these these that something we might want to say what the there these are nylon polyester brushes. So there's what your bristle is. So here's the vinegar. So we did hear I think you heard somewhere on with vinegar. Um vinegar absolutely I think negative. I think vinegar actually hardened it more. It's it's now it's like solid as a rock. So John, you've got paint thinner there. Why don't you show us what's going on with paint thinner? Paint thinner that is uh about the same as vinegar. Maybe a tad softer. Just a tad softer. I didn't think paint thinner would do anything to a latex paint anyways. Um that's um I'm not sure what you could use that for, but you can't use it to paint with no more. That's non revivable. Reucer 54, which is This one's going to be a little interesting. This is kind of fun. Um reducer 54 uh did something to the paint. It did something. We're not sure. It restored the brush. I turned it into some kind of experiment. Um, the bristles look a little bit like frayed out now, but that paint comes right off. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this so far is the most promising. So, this is um that's pretty those bristles are looking pretty dang clean. And I got a frog in my throat. Hey, that's looking pretty good, John. I would uh almost soak that in some simple green and uh I think I think you might actually be on to something that might be wa that thing is really soft. Yeah, those bristles are really soft now and they don't look um this was an extremely used brush so it didn't look great to begin with. It probably looked like that when we dipped it into the paint. Yeah, but it was definitely hard down in here and like not like 5 days hard. Like it had been that way for for weeks. lot of paint inside there. A duster brush. It was a duster brush. And that thing I would call that revive. I uh Yeah, I would almost I would say probably one more step inside a uh I think you probably took about 2 weeks off of your life from the chemicals that just went through your skin into your liver. But you my liver's got to do something. You you got to make it do something. It can't just sit there and do nothing inside the body. You got to put what is the word? So reducer 54 is it's a combination I think wasn't it xylene it's um I think it's xylene based and it's ketones xylene and alcohols alcohols um spelled in a different language I'm just kind of reading that um alcohols ketones and xylene I just read it the English portion so that's what reducer 54 is so cocktail I say the reason why we have it is um because we do epoxy floors so we do have acetone and acetone look pretty promising, too. So, I I think we would take this brush now and we would dip it in Simple Green and clean it with Simple Green and you probably have yourself a revive brush. In fact, let's uh let's let this soak for a couple minutes here. Put it in Simple Green and see what happens. I do have an interesting concoction I made right here. Um we're going to get the acetone. This is 50/50 simple green and crud cutter. Okay. So, here we go. acetone. Acetone. And what was interesting about this one is uh it evaporated really fast overnight. A lot of the Yeah. about this much of the acetone evaporated out of the cup. So, there's a loss of some product. This one looks similar to reducer 54. I'm going to be able to run a brush through it or a comb. That's pretty cool. Paint's just falling right out of there. That's looking like that's working, too. That's uh you know, it didn't It's still It's pretty soft in there. It It's probably hard cuz so much evaporated out. It wasn't all the way buried into the acetone anymore. So, that could be But that's looking if this was like a really expensive brush, um one of your babies, and you needed to save it, looks like acetone's going to, um work, too. And you know, ac acetone is um nail polish remover. That's all nail polish remover is. So you can just get a bunch of um things of nail polish remover, dump them into a thing. There you go. It's going to be a little more expensive that way, but wo that's looking pretty good. I mean, this one's in simple green now, so it's a little hard to say. See how it feels. Oh, bristles are nice and soft. Wow. So, now that it's in almost say the uh scrub that with some I almost say that acetone did a little bit better. You think acetone did better? Look at that. I think even after brushing that guy. So, this is reducer 54 here and then a little bit of simple green. Yeah, that thing is that the bristles are nice and soft. I'm impressed. And it's all the way up inside the fereral where it was completely hard. That's all soft again. Now I think after some simple grain, some warm soap and water and that brush might be usable. And that's acetone right there. The acetone one. This is acetone. You think acetone's better there? E. Wow. I'm impressed. I really do think the acetone did uh I feel the acetone I it did better. I I think it's, you know, this may have softened things up. This I feel like still has that nylon polyester feel on the bristles. Yeah. Like maybe the reducer 54 soften those bristles up a little more than they used to be. Yeah. I think it broke down um broke down the bristles a little bit too much. Um it feels more like just a nylon um nylon brush instead of a nylon polyester which is more stiffer. It is wet. So, but it's still when you compare, this is still stiffer than this one. And out of the two, the acetone looks cleaner. Yeah. And I will say too, I'm probably a little more comfortable carrying acetone in a vehicle with me than the reducer 54. I I totally agree because one thing people don't even know what reducer 54 is. And so, most people are familiar with acetone. And um there you go. I think we got a clear winner. The roller. Tell me, what do you think? Is it revable? I would say negative. That thing is toasted. Um here's our This is the chalk paint roll um brush that my daughter, you know, used one time and that's been soaking in Simple Green. Is that savable? I'm going to say no. Yeah, I mean it maybe with a lot of work you might be able to clear those bristles, but a comb isn't even that's a lot of work to get through that with a comb. Let me here's something interesting. So, let me let me see that um wire brush right there. This is this brush has been soaking in Simple Green. And this one, I'm not sure if this was paint. This was one we found in the van. And that's Yeah. See, and I think that one had been cleaned but not cleaned very well. That's right. And so I think it had probably some leftover acrylics or resins or whatnot in it. And so it looks like the simple green does a better job of cleaning that out. And I've used Simple Green like our spray guns. I'll soak them in Simple Green overnight unc or concentrated I suppose and then clean all the dust and overspray and it makes the guns and stuff look brand new. just don't know if it's quite strong enough to deal with that much of paint. Yeah, cuz now I remember this was somebody cleaned this I found in the van um a day after they had cleaned it. They didn't clean it good enough. It was all completely hard in the barrel and stuff. So, it was just like diluted acrylic and diluted paint and but now that's to me that would be a completely revived brush and good to use again. This brush right here, I don't know. I mean, this was a brand new rolling dog brush used once. And well, the brush revive is that um that's the mixture. That's Oh, that's the mixture. This is the combination of Simple Green and Simple Green and brush. The CRUD Cutter brush cleaner. hits. Oh, it's still pretty It's taking it off on the outsides, but it's pretty solid down in there. That's going to take a whole lot of work. Where's your See, we stick this through here. I don't know. This one, like this brush right here is probably like a $10 to $12 brush. And I would probably spend 10 to 12 dollars of my time doing this and getting this nasty stuff on my hands. And I think I'd probably just rather go buy a new brushed toasted bread and butter toast and eggs. Hopefully you've enjoyed this video. Hopefully you've um seen how you could possibly revive a brush. Um save it from the graveyard. Bringing it back to life. Reanimation.