Handheld Paint Sprayers

Airless sprayers pressurize the paint itself and push through a small tip, handling thicker unthinned coatings and covering large areas fast, making them the standard choice for house painting, fences and decks. HVLP sprayers use low-pressure, high-volume air to atomize the coating more gently, producing a finer finish with less overspray — the better choice for furniture, cabinets and other fine finish work where appearance matters more than raw speed.

Tip size is coded by orifice diameter and fan width, and must be matched to the coating's viscosity — thin coatings like stains use smaller orifice tips, while thicker coatings like unthinned latex need a larger orifice to avoid clogging. Manufacturer tip charts typically list recommended sizes by coating type as a starting reference.

Many cordless sprayers are designed primarily for lighter-viscosity coatings like stains and thinner paints, with runtime and pressure output limited by battery capacity — check the specific model's rated viscosity range and expected runtime before relying on it for thick, unthinned coatings or extended jobs.

Orange peel texture commonly results from a tip size mismatched to the coating's viscosity, spraying at too high or too low a pressure for the material, or moving the spray gun too close or too far from the surface — adjusting pressure and confirming the correct tip size for the coating typically resolves it.

Flush the sprayer with the appropriate cleaning solvent for the coating used — water for latex-based paints, mineral spirits or manufacturer-specified solvent for oil-based coatings — running it through the entire fluid path including the tip and hose, since dried paint left in the system will clog the tip or damage the pump on the next use.