When I began developing PaintBlazer I didn't want to reinvent the wheel, but make a tool I could use on my jobs. I built on existing tools combined with new wireless technology.
I started my painting business in 1979 when I bought my first airless sprayer and I've discovered sprayers, brushes and rollers haven't changed that much over the past 47 years. They're a little better, but brushing, rolling & spraying is basically the same.
Graco and Wagner came out with two kinds of power rollers that sound great in theory, but in practice they don't work very well. In fact you're better off rolling out of a bucket than wasting valuable time setting up their machines that are too slow.
The Pressure Roller uses a standard airless pump with a hose, custom wand & roller. The paint travels through their hose to the inside of their specially designed frame & roller.
There's little holes inside the roller frame allowing paint to seep through to the roller cover, soaking it with paint, so you won't have to dip the roller in a pan or bucket.
The theory sounds good, but there's too many problems that make it slow and clunky. The holes in the roller constantly get plugged up causing it to stop working. Then you have to take it apart and clean the holes, which takes valuable time.
You can't use different size rollers or extension poles with this unit, but only their proprietary roller and pole, which are quite often the wrong size roller and pole for the job.
The Jet roller is an airless spray roller that's connected to a spray pole and tip that attaches to an airless spray gun. A standard roller then attaches to this pole and frame.
You can spray the paint directly on the wall while laying it off with your roller simultaneously. This method is much faster than a pressure roller.
However, the paint is atomized with tremendous force, (2000-3000) PSI causing a considerable amount of OVERSPRAY! It's also very expensive. The 18" Graco Jet Roller retails for around $800 for the attachment alone, not including the sprayer.
A small airless sprayer powerful enough to make it work properly costs a minimum of $1,000. to handle the 9" roller. $2,000. for the 18" roller and at least $4,000 to handle the 36" roller, not including $800 for the 18" Jet roller frame.
The complete PaintBlazer system, with pump and all the attachment should be around $500 - $1,000 which will put out up to a gallon per minute to handle the 36" roller or turn the pressure down low for the 9" roller.
PaintBlazer was created for people like me who actually paint houses for a living. It was made using the best ideas from existing tools, building upon the roller, sprayer, wireless technology and good old fashion ingenuity.
My concept is similar to other airless spray rollers in that the paint is sprayed directly on the wall while the roller lays it off or rolls it out. But PaintBlazer incorporates a new advancement in spray dynamics making this far superior to the current method.
The Jet Roller atomizes the paint at 2,000-3,000 PSI, whereas PaintBlazer sprays at low pressure-high volume, so there's no atomization, and the PSI is less than a tenth the PSI of an airless sprayer, which means no overspray, less pressure, no bounce back, less costly and it's much safer.
Instead of using a heavy, expensive paint pump, the PaintBlazer is much lighter and costs only a fraction the price of an airless sprayer.
Additionally, my unit is designed to work with any size roller and any size extension pole. You can change from a 9" to a 36" roller in less than a minute simply by unplugging the nozzle, plugging in the new one, unclamping the spray tube from the frame and clamping it on to the new frame. The wireless trigger clamps on an off within a few seconds.
Because I have to drag my tools up several flights of stairs I wanted to make this unit light and easy to carry, yet strong, durable and very powerful.
I also wanted to make this very inexpensive because I plan to sell millions worldwide. The more I sell, the more it will help the environment.
A couple years ago I was painting a 2 story exterior mostly with my sprayer, but a very large wall was too close to the house next door. The neighbor had a nice home, nice cars and was worried about me spraying so close to his property. I was worried too.
So, I decided to roll the wall instead of spraying, as I didn't want to risk getting overspray on his property. It was a very big wall, 2 story, about 25 feet high, but because I was rolling I didn't have to mask as much.
I used a 20 foot extension pole that enabled me to reach the top when I extended my arms, but I had to constantly lower the extension pole to dip the roller in the paint bucket, then raise it back up again to continue rolling.
It took me about a minute to lower the pole, dip it in the bucket, raise it back up again, put it in position and resume rolling and because it was thick stucco I had to dip it a couple hundred times to get enough paint on the wall. It took me about 4 hours to paint that wall with about 15 gallons of paint,. My arms got very tired, not from the rolling, but from the dipping process.
If I had my PaintBlazer I could have used the 18" or even the 36" roller and turned up the volume to a gallon per minute. 15 Gallons at a gallon per minute is 15 minutes of rolling, but you have to allow time for walking around, adjusting the roller, etc.
Instead of 4 hours, I could have finished it in about 1/2 an hour and my arms wouldn't have been as sore.
In that situation the dipping process took about 6-8 times as long as the rolling itself. And by using the PaintBlazer I could have used an 18" or even a 36" roller, many times faster than the standard 9" roller.
Each situation is different and you won't always paint 6-8 times faster than standard rolling, but there will be many times my customers will be grateful they purchased this tool. It will save time, money and insure much better quality, while making the painting experience more enjoyable. and more profitable