Tip clogging can be a real problem with airless sprayers if the paint you are spraying is not filtered well. Before getting into how to filter the paint to prevent tip clogging (or minimize tip clogging), I must state for those not so familiar with airless sprayers that you should be using a reversible tip.
The reversible tip
Almost all manufacturers of spray equipment make a reversing tip for quick, trouble-free unclogging. In general, these tips, once clogged by a large particle or bit of dry paint (or corrosion) from within the spray hose, can be unclogged by simply rotating the tip and triggering the gun into a empty paint bucket.
Once the debris are dislodged, the tip is again rotated back to it’s spraying position to continue spraying.
If you are new to airless spraying see also Airless Spraying Basics.
Pre-paint straining
Most of the time you will be siphoning paint from a 5 gallon bucket. The trick to good clean painting is to first stain the paint before using it. To do this, you will pour the new paint (yes, new paint straight from the manufacturer as well as yesterday’s left over paint) through a 5 gallon bucket strainer and into an empty 5 gallon bucket awaiting the transfer of paint. This is the first of the filtering process with trouble-free airless spraying.
The machine filter
The sprayer itself will have a filter down stream of the pump, but upstream before the spray gun. The Graco sprayers that I use call this a manifold filter. The manifold filter is located (on my Graco’s) after the pump, but before the spray hose. The manifold contains a “dump valve” for pressure relief and priming as well as a filter for the paint. This filter can be either be a fine mesh (approx. 100 mesh) or a coarser mesh (approx. 60 mesh) , or very coarse (30 mesh for thick paints) depending on the paint used. Latex paints are coarser than oils or lacquers and will need to be filtered with a coarser mesh machine filter. If you use too fine a mesh with heavier materials you will “choke” the machine and it will lose pressure and have a hard time spraying the material. I have always used 60 mesh (or thereabouts) in the machine filter with standard latex paints and 100 mesh with oil paints and enamels.
Note: Sprayers without an upstream machine filter, which rely solely on the gun filter, will usually clog up the gun filter pretty quickly.
The final filter
The final filter as a rule, is the filter in the spray gun itself. Not all spray guns allow for filtering in the gun. If your spray gun does not allow for a gun filter, you can still filter just before the tip (“tip filter”), to make up for this short coming. If you have a gun filter, don’t bother with the tip filter (you will be overdoing it, and you might choke the flow too much) -it is not needed. If your gun doesn’t allow for filtering (located in the handle of the spray gun), then use the tip filter.
The advantage of the gun filter over the tip filter is that it is MUCH bigger. The bigger filter will not clog up with debris as quickly as the tiny tip filter will. A clogged filter, while doing it’s job, will choke the sprayer which will affect sprayer performance and pressure at the tip. The final filter, like the machine or manifold filter, should be in the 50 - 60 mesh range for most latex paints and 100 mesh for finer oil based paints and enamels..
Combining gun and tip filtering
Note: If your machine does not have a machine filter (upstream of the gun), you may be able to get by with using a filter in the gun only.
If the gun filter clogs up too quickly, use a coarser mesh in the gun and add a finer (normal for the type of paint used) in the tip. For example, you could use a 50 mesh filter in the gun and a 100 mesh filter in the tip.
The goal with good filtering is to allow for good paint flow ( i.e. don’t choke the sprayer) and yet filter out the larger debris with the proper sized filters. Good filtering will minimize, or totally eliminate any clogging at the tip. The occasional clog at the tip can then be dislodged with the handy reversible tip when and if you get a clog.
Filtering as such, eliminates the down time and hassle of constantly cleaning out clogs with the reversing tip.
The inlet strainer
I think all airless sprayers have an inlet strainer which will prevent big stuff (which may have blown or dropped into the 5 gallon bucket from wherever…) from being siphoned into the pump. Big stuff can not only clog the tip down line, but can cause problems upstream at the pump itself. To prevent this the inlet strainer (a metal mesh device) is used to block out all bigger particles from even entering the siphon tube itself.
Wagner SprayTech
Note: if you are new to airless spraying click here to learn about the dangers of injection injuries caused by airless sprayers and read your manufacturer's equipment cautions.
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Filtering Your Airless Sprayer
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