5 Essential Graco Hacks | Keep Your Sprayer Spraying

Time is money. Unnecessary downtime = unnecessary money loss.

So, to keep your sprayer in your hands and off our service bench,

Here are 5 essential Graco hacks:

1. Use Throat Seal Liquid (TSL) every sprayer usage.

The use of TSL before each job to help lubricate the pump internals and helps reduce the need for services.

It takes 5 seconds. Just, dispense a little TSL into the lower housing located behind the guard - the Graco "G" - at the front of the sprayer (see image below).

TSL comes standard in all sprayer purchases and is worth the $26 reinvestment when you run out - you might be saving yourself a new pump that starts at $450... That's good math.

2. Use pump armour between use.

Graco Pump Armor - or "armour" for us Aussies - is an anti-corrosive lubricant that reduces the risk of pump wear.

This ties closely with Hack #4, but essentially leaving paint or water sitting in your unused sprayer will clog/corrode the pump and its internals. By priming the sprayer with Pump Armour between uses, you'll keep your sprayer ready for top performance.

If you're using it tomorrow, use a diluted mixture. If months, use pure.

Check the bottle for further details.

3. Carry a spare piece of cardboard.

Okay, this isn't quite a service-saver, but it qualifies the "hack" category.

Carry a spare piece of cardboard at each job to test the spray pattern of the material before spraying onto the job surface. 

This ensures your sprayer is atomising the material with no tailing (lines each side of your spray pattern) and no runs or puddles of paint. 

Tailing indicates the need for more pressure and runs/puddles indicates too much paint output and is a sign of using too much pressure, moving to slow, or having too large a tip. 

4. Clean lines after use.

Clean up. Might seem medial or unnecessary if you're using the same paint the next day, but it is essential to keeping your sprayer tip top.

After the day's over, budget in a few minutes to flush your sprayer lines through completely with a diluted Pump Armour mixture (Hack #2). 

This is essential to reduce wear and ensure that there are no future blockages due to dried paint within the unit. When cleaning your unit remove your tips, guards, strainer and gun/manifold filters and rinse in water until clear. This is because paint can get caught around these areas and reduce the life of your filters, tips etc. 

5. Is your spray gun spitting? Try reverting the spray tip.

If you experience a gun spitting, you may have a blocked tip. 

Try reverting - 'RAC' tip means 'Reverse-A-Clean' - the tip and spraying into a waste pail or that spare cardboard. 

If this doesn't solve the issue, two other factors could cause spitting:

1. Using an extension without a Clean Shot Shut Off Valve - there can be a build of back pressure that gets released when you let go of the trigger. 
2. A worn spray gun needle - which, depending on the model, can be simply replaced with either a repair kit or a replacement cartridge.

Check Out: Airless Spray Tips Made Simple - A Step-By-Step Guide To Choose The Right Tip

Conclusion

Whether you're a Graco rookie or veteran, these hacks will keep your gear in top shape and sort out that unnecessary downtime.

Got questions? Give us a call or leave a comment below.

Happy Spraying.

The GO Team.