Should You Use The Smart Roller? Wagner Smart Roller Review!

this paint life tv i'm chrissy idaho painter in this video i'm going to be using and reviewing the wagner smart roller so if you want to know is this a tool that you as a do-it-yourselfer should buy or a professional painter stay tuned for this video [Music] all right here we go we are going to uh get started with our wagner smart roller i'm going to un-package this thing i've never used it before so um i don't have like professional experience i'm gonna be just like anybody else opening it up and starting fresh i've got my clear paint we're gonna be testing out and reviewing i've already rolled my ceiling um and so you can check that review out when i think of claire flat ceiling paint and then we've undercoated our walls right here to put our pink over the top so we're going to be rolling a pink hallway we're going to be loading the wagner uh smart roller up so technical data says it holds 22 fluid ounces it's 2.1 pounds and um paint flow the 0.36 fluid ounces per stroke capabilities latex oil based paint manual operation with ratchet triggers so overall length is 40.9 inches it says on the front it says it's faster than a manual roller we'll find that out a no tray required because the paint is housed inside and says even coverage so here we go let's put this thing to the test and our clear paint to the test we've got the pink paint i've already tested out uh the clear pink paint on a bathroom and now we're going to be testing it out on a hallway so it comes with a instruction manual right here and um instructions uh quick start guide step one two three and four looks fairly easy uh notice we've got a notice i don't think i care about that assembly instruction parts and components um loading the roller um here we go a lot of instructions um but actually not a lot because they're different languages so here it is so there's a little um petroleum jelly thing a lubricant um assume that's probably going to be important don't lose that right here i can see this thing is how you draw your paint out of the can so this is going to attach right here to your gallon and that's how you're going to be pulling paint out so we've got that hooked up we're gonna assemble our head so here's our head and this is um interesting uh this looks very familiar so here's your head your roller head right here your roller cover this is what i um have seen on a titan interfeed roller that's the same exact device on a tight interfeed roller this is the roller cover right here so there's your roller cover got a roller right here perforated holes this is identical to a titan inner feed roller cover same exact core for the titan interfeed roller don't lose these these do not come with the roller covers themselves if you're going to reuse it so i'm going to put this back together and a handy little trick when it comes to removing this if you try to pull it like this it does not come out very easily use two thumbs pop it up and it actually comes off simply and easy and i know that because i've used a titan interfeed roller a lot so one thing you want to check right here if i just pull on this there's a lot of lint coming out of this roller that will actually be left on your walls if you don't pre-clean or pre-de-lint your rollers so here's a good little tip to de-linting your rollers take some tape and you can wrap tape around this roller just like this and you can use cheaper production tape instead of expensive frog tape but we're going to de-limp this roller first if you get lint all over your walls you're going to have to sand your walls off because this thing um i gotta say that's one um one cheap roller so it's it's not a high quality roller we'll see how it lays out the paint now pulling our tape off you can see there's lint all over this tape that would actually be left all over your walls so really really important to delint i actually like taking it out and actually running water through it like you're actually cleaning it and spinning it and pre-wetting it first but that's the de-linting process right there let's see and pull there's still still some lens coming out so i'm going to uh de-lint it one more time with production tape because production tape the adhesive is a lot stronger and it's going to pull more of the lint off all right now we're going to assemble our wagner smart roller so the head of this goes you've got two um devices right here that's um are basically like spring loaded this thing's gonna just snap right in place right there and now our heads on paint roller slides on it's got a thumb lever right here that locks it into place to release it push it so now it's attached on there ready to roll i would assume our lubrication is for right here so it slides you know well if it starts to um gum up or not run very well all right so our lubrication this is petroleum jelly if you just check your instructions out there is a whole lubricating process when it comes to the roller uh eight steps to lubricating the roller including the o-rings on it so the o-rings are pretty important to keep the paint sealed inside the roller so here we go you can pull this lever it says to pull it out and it's not coming out so let me see okay squeeze trigger that's loose so make sure that's tightened something's locking it in place okay that's not working so well why is it sliding now and it wasn't sliding before okay it's locked in place all right start all over again squeeze trigger i guess you don't squeeze the trigger unlocks it okay here we go we're drawing our paint up um it's not doing so well drawing the paint up our smart roller is not so smart okay let me see is it don't know why smarty pants is not pulling up paint so well probably could have had half the hallway painted by the time i get pain in this thing hmm okay look at that go okay i think something like i tightened everything up and i think there might have been an air leak somewhere so this is a good like shoulder workout here okay now all you got to do is pull this off and i'm ready to go now i got to do is pull the trigger all right we're going to attempt to begin loading so we've almost used half of it and it's not even loaded up yet starting to get loaded now so it took one whole thing to actually load it up so now we're gonna load it up again [Applause] so one thing your thing that your plunger is going to hit the floor that's kind of interesting it's not like a regular extension pole would just end right there so that is a little now it's going to hit the ceiling what the heck because you can't lay out your wall you can't that's interesting i wonder if anybody thought about that one and you can't lay it out upwards because that's gonna the plunger part works fairly freely you don't have to squeeze too hard [Music] okay i see it stippling the wall really bad it's a high quality roller you can see the pain is splattering really bad this thing is pretty dang heavy um let me see here we're gonna load her back up again this is the third time and we only got we're not even halfway done with the first wall so it's loaded up seems like it's got a tighter seal now so it's now that i've loaded it up a few times it's loading up faster that thing is it's pretty dang heavy so um with all the weight of the paint because you're carrying all the paint inside here with you all right here is the wagner paint stick and i had the opportunity to use it i'm all done you can see it's used and so you know what's my opinion of this device you know before i tell you don't forget hit the subscribe button hit the notification bell that way you get notified every time i come out with a new product review and it's just a simple way to help support our channel it doesn't cost you anything it never has and it never will just send you an email hit the subscribe button hit the notification bell so here it is it's just a simple little device very similar to a titan interfeed roller that hooks up to an airless sprayer that feeds your roller without having to dip and roll all the time so you know some of my observations it um i set it up fairly quick um probably less than 10 minutes and um it is dripping paint so you can tell i did use it so um we'll have that mess to clean up a little bit later all right so now you know what is my opinion you know of this device and you know after using it for the small project that i use it for it definitely is a um not a professional painter tool this is a do-it-yourselfer tool what's interesting is uh my two videographers that were videoing the entire thing they are do-it-yourselfers i asked them what their opinion is and uh both of them said they would not buy the device one of them tyler said it reminded them of those pool toys that you suck up the water and chase each other around and squirt each other with and that's kind of funny because it that is very similar so um it definitely is a do-it-yourselfer not toy it's a do-it-yourselfer tool so some of my observations about using the device and a pro tip if you do end up buying one or if you have already bought one make sure when you start drawing the paint up when i first started drawing paint up it wasn't drawing paint up at all and or very fast at all and what i noticed is i was having air leaks so i just snugged everything down tightened everything down once i got everything nice and tight and snug then it actually started pulling the paint up and pulling it uphill fairly quickly and um and it just it's simple you're just all you got to do is just pull the plunger and it fills up now you know what's interesting about the device is once you fill this thing up with paint you are actually carrying all the paint with you now so instead of it like being an extension pole and a device you're dipping and rolling with you're actually carrying your paint and so as i was rolling i definitely was starting to get a little bit hot a little bit tired a little bit sweaty and yeah i had to turn the air conditioner out because you know you do have to actually hold this paint and carry it so um and it's not light that was i'm full but it starts to empty fairly fast it does go about anywhere between on an eight foot ceiling it goes about five to ten feet before you've got to refill it i think when i was doing the small hallway i had to fill the thing probably around six or seven times so i know they they claim it's it's a smart roller and you don't have to dip your roller you don't have to dip your roller but you do have to fill it up quite often so another observation that i had working in tight spaces in a hallway so i would highly recommend if you're purchasing this for any type of a small project or doing a hallway or tight spaces like closets and stuff that you don't buy it i mean and here's the reason why is once this thing is fully loaded right here your plunger will hit the floor and you can't actually lay your wall out because the plunger is going to hit the back of the wall the um the the back of the the opposite side of the hallway it's going to hit the bottom of the floor if you try to turn it upside down it's going to hit the ceiling also so it's definitely not a tool that you can use in hallways or tight spaces now when it comes to using it out in the open field the plunger being fully extended um doesn't become an issue because you're laying out your wall and the plunger is out behind you but you know what like i say when you're in a tight space or a hallway that plunger is going to hit the back wall and you won't be able to lay the wall out so another little tip i want to just talk about too is this is a um inner feed roller it's basically a titan interfeed roller or wagner smart roller interfered roller they are perforated rollers with a lot of holes so there's a lot of lints in them and stuff they are not super high quality rollers don't use them on a smooth wall because they will texture the wall so if you've got a really smooth surface and you don't want any stippling or texturing it's not recommended to use this roller and i wouldn't recommend trying to clean the roller out um because it's going to take you a lot way too much time to even clean it out you can buy these rollers um the roller covers themselves separately and they're somewhere around five six dollars in that range and um if you are going to be using it you know you know multiple days you can just wrap it in plastic and then reuse it but don't attempt to try to clean out the roller cover so once i set this thing you know up well i think i mentioned it was about maybe five ten minutes you know setting it up it wasn't very difficult to set up um really anybody can set this device up and get it ready and going when i first started using it it was a little bit frustrating how long it took to get the roller loaded up on the wall and actually i'm rolling paint but as i started to use a thing you know i um it actually kind of started to grow on me i kind of started to like it and and the the trigger pull on it it's a very soft easy trigger pull so it doesn't take a lot of energy to pull the trigger and it is nice not to have to dip your roller and just squeeze the trigger as you need pain that actually the device itself the trigger mechanism the plunger actually functioned really well and i began to really like the device so as i was using the device as i said it you know i i started it started to grow on me and i started to like the device but eventually you got to get to the cleanup and i took it out to clean this device up and and oh my gosh it took it it did actually time wise it took me about 10 minutes to clean the device up but there's so many little parts and pieces you have to take apart you got to take apart this entire thing the plunger everything to actually clean it and get it you know thoroughly clean the roller cover itself i would definitely would not clean that but you got to take the um inner sleeve out of that you got to take this out there's some parts inside here that you got to clean out you got to make sure the inside of the tube itself is cleaned out you got to take this off plunger comes out there's a lot of pieces that you got to actually clean out so when it comes to the setup time and the cleanup time if you add that together you know you're looking about 20 minutes of setup and cleanup versus if you just got a pan and a roller and just started rolling if you're you if you're working on just a small project one one bedroom or a small hallway or something this is definitely is not going to be the device for you if you've got multiple rooms maybe two probably at least three rooms or more this could be a do-it-yourself device you know that could function you know well for you it is uh not made very well it's a very light plastic device um inexpensive plastic i think you know if you dropped it off a ladder something can break on it you know fairly easy if you step on it it could break so there this tube itself the plastic end of it it's not an industrial plastic it's definitely not a professional professionally made device so the device you know you're going to pay for this device anywhere from 26 to 27 i know you can you'll purchase them at lowe's you can purchase home depot you can purchase them at ace even um online i think amazon you know sells the device is it something that i would purchase and use as a professional painter i would never purchase a device like this and use it just to set up the tear down the quality of the tool it's not going to last very long in a professional painter's vehicle it's going to break extremely fast so just once again i said you'll clean it up it's really frustrating cleaning it up now when it comes to the professional version the one that hooks up to an airless sprayer that titan cells the inner feed roller that's absolutely an amazing device if you have an airless sprayer that's one that sets up quick cleans a lot easier because you're using forced air to clean it with that definitely is worth purchasing as a do-it-yourselfer or a professional painter all right so i got to my ladder out and where does um the wagner smart roller fit on our ladder when it comes to this device is it a top care device is it a bottom tier device well it's not a professional um painters tool if it was classified as a professional painters tool or if i was reviewing it for that purpose it would actually be on the bottom tier i mean i would not use it i wouldn't recommend it to anybody as a do-it-yourselfer is this something you um would like to use or you should use or i would recommend it was interesting because i was using it and it actually i really started to a like device the setup and teardown was a little bit annoying to me i think i can paint faster with it dipping on my brush or dipping my roller in a pan is it very annoying to me but you know it's a device that you know once it's set up you know the painting process you can actually paint a little bit faster with it so i think this device as a do-it-yourselfer's device is going to be right in the middle right we're going to sit right there in the middle of our ladder i think that's a middle tier device so it's not on the bottom it's not on the top it's right in the middle and partly because the cost it's only 26 you could actually uh paint three rooms with this thing four or five rooms with it one day and then just chuck it for 26 and not even worry about cleaning it so then the cleaning doesn't even become an issue there you have it it's a middle tier device what do you think of it let us know down in the comment section below have you used it if you have let us know in the comment section below if you got any questions or comments for me leave them down there don't forget hit the subscribe button hit the notification bell that you need to do that because it really doesn't do anything if you subscribe and not notify if you've enjoyed this review give us a thumbs up if you want to see a review of another product that you want to see leave that down in the comment section below also and we'll see you next time on paint life tv right here out