What Makes a Good Paint Roller? Expensive vs. Cheap Rollers, Why Buy One Over the Other.

this paint live TV I'm Christy Idaho painter in this video I'm going to be talking about paint rollers should you buy an expensive paint roller or should you buy a cheap paint roller it's kind of like paintbrushes should you buy a good one or should you buy a bad one well you're only as good as your tool so I'm going to talk today a little bit about paint rollers and why you should buy a professional or high quality paint roller so stay tuned for this [Applause] video all right here we go we've got I've got uh paint rollers all around me they come in all different shapes and sizes and they come in all different prices and they come in all different qualities and I'm going to talk a little bit about you know why I use a highquality paint roller and how it actually gives me professional results if you haven't subscribed to our Channel hit the Subscribe button hit the notification Bell you got to hit the notification Bell or subscribing doesn't do anything and it's just a simple way to help support making these free videos it won't cost you anything and never has and it never will and don't forget give us a thumbs up if you enjoy our videos so I've got um this is the professional quality paint roller that I use and here is a really inexpensive I wouldn't call it a professional but I'd call it just maybe a do it yourself or a cheap roller where you can save money now what is it about these rollers that you will make this roller cost more than this roller so I'm going to set this one aside and I'm going to show you a lot of other different options out there too but we'll just talk about a professional quality paint roller and why this one costs more so some of the features of a professional quality paint roller I'm just going to start from the handle itself the handle is going to be bigger it's going to be easier to grip it's going to be a industrial plastic that is not going to break if you drop it off a rook roof a professional quality paint roller is typically going to have um some type of threads in there that you can thread it onto an extension pole in those threads inside there it's going to be an uh an industrial plastic also that's not going to strip on a professional roller typically your bucket hooks are going to be oversized they're a lot larger easier to catch on a bucket so it takes more plastic to make you know larger oversized ones the industrial plastic is more expensive so your added plastic is going to cost you a little bit more we're going to talk about the wire frame right here too on a professional roller the wireframe is going to be heavier it's going to be a larger gauge steel and it's also going to be a rust resistant it's going to be coated um in like a um a type of coating like a chrome coating that's going to keep it from rusting so the larger gauge steel what it does is it create makes it more rigid and more stiff right here and what that does is if you have a softer roller or smaller gauge steel right here you can see this thing is going to flex a lot easier and as you're rolling and putting pressure on the wall this Flex will cause what we call a trailing Edge it's going to leave trailing edges all over your wall up and down your wall and those edges will show up when your paint actually dries out so you want a stiff roller that doesn't have Flex in it and that's what a professional quality roller does for you it has a larger gauge steel now we're going to talk about the portion of the roller that actually holds your nap or roller on all right I'm going to talk about the differences in these two rollers right here one roller frame right here this wire mechanism is what holds your nap on the frame this wire mechanism is what holds your nap on this professional roller frame right here I'm going to talk a little bit about you know this roller and what happens is you're going to slide your roller on and this it that you can see it kind of bends it's kind of spring loaded right here that loading right there it creat tension on the roller but this is kind of a weak mechanism and this does weaken over time as you put a roller on and off and the roller will have a tendency to slide off your roller if you're rolling in the wrong direction which a lot of us do we're not paying attention to it if you roll this direction it's going to be pushing it on but if you roll this direction it's going to be sliding off and I I know this type of mechanism your rollers have a tendency to um be way too loose and slide on and off this type type of mechanism right here this um metal device right here your roller comes on and this is what crims it on there and it keeps it on a lot stronger a lot longer and it's less likely to fatigue and wear out and allow your rollers to roll off so this is the mechanism that holds it on right here so I'm going to talk a little bit also about the the um roller itself it's spinning on here and how it's kept on over time time if you keep your rollers in water to clean them your water is going to cause rust and damage eventually these things will break fatigue or rust and come off now cheaper rollers these things break on average probably about 50% sooner than a roller like a blue tiger right here would um last so I'm going to show you this here's a cheap 4-in roller right here in the mechanism that is used to hold the roller on is this little um sleeve right here and it's kind of pressed inside here these things probably last you know maybe 10 10 to 12 paint jobs and they rust really fast they do have a lot of flex to them but it is just a 4-in roller so you're not putting a lot of pressure but I I see these things rust a lot right here the spring loading on here this is a lot tighter than it is on a 9in roller so it holds your knps on there better but it is shorter wire so so it's um it's a lot stiffer cuz it is shorter but this is a cheap inexpensive 4in roller and I'll show you that compared to a more expensive like Wooster 4-in roller that has your professional frame it's got heavier gauge steel it's got a lot larger bucket hook it's got a handle that's a lot easier to hold on to in grip than these um basically dollar items right here but if you're throwing away your rollers and not cleaning them this is a really good option versus a larger Wooster roller um like this so another quality about a professional roller is is typically a professional roller or high quality roller the roller is going to spin a lot more freely than a cheap roller so you're going to have a lot less drag if you're using like microfiber rollers and your roller doesn't spin freely the roller will have a tendency to drag on the wall with microfiber roller so you want a roller that's going to spend you extremely freely so there there you have it there's some of the um you know features and options about a professional quality roller so should you spend the money on a professional quality roller you're on average you're only going to be spending like $4 to5 more on a professional quality roller versus a cheap throwaway roller and it's going to last you at least 50% longer it's going to give you better results uh specifically not give you trailing edges and that is really really annoying when it comes to Rolling walls specifically if you're doing like accent walls with dark um colors or thin paints that will leave your trailing edges really bad there's all kinds of options out there we've got um 18in double rollers where you can put two 9in rollers on you do have 4in jumbo rollers out there this is a a 4-in uh professional quality jumbo roller if you like using jumbo rollers there are like extension rollers um you got roller frames that Flex right here there's um that's really cool we've even got jumbo rollers right here here's a jumbo roller that's is got a long extension on it so this could if you have say um a flat screen TV you can't remove from a wall you can paint behind I've used this before painting behind a flat screen TV you can use it for getting behind toilets somebody on um my social media here recently asked how do I paint behind my toilet that's an option to painting behind your toilet you do even have this is something I actually found I think at like a dollar store and um it's a little extension pull so it extends out and I thought well that's kind of Handy with a little 6-in uh microfiber mini you know roller on it I wouldn't say that's a professional quality roller but I picked it up cheap even put my name on it right there and that came out of my vehicle right there here's um I do use you know cheap throwaway 4-in rollers right here and um cuz a lot of times we're not cleaning out our rollers and naps due to environmental regulations or where we're at and so these things are inexpensive and we toss them out but you know my favorite roller that I've ever used of all time is a um Premier blue tiger roller this is a professional quality roller at a very reasonable price this thing is awesome I've been using it for years so there you have it some um some advice or some um thoughts of why you should purchase a professional quality roller invest in professional tools and you'll get professional results if you've got a favorite roller um leave it down in the comment section below which one you use if you got one you don't like just let us know also down in the comment section below hit the Subscribe button hit the notification Bell and like we all say if you want to come back and check us out right here on paint Life TV we'll see you next time out