Customer Reviews for Wagner 9 in. Smart Roller with Manual Ratchet Trigger

This product should make painting easier ...well it didn't. I could hardly pull the plunger to load the paint. Once loaded I started painting. The entire roller set up was too heavy. I was absolutely exsusted very quickly. I also ran out of paint quickly. It took one "fill-up" to load the roller, then had to refill before starting. At clean up time there was a terrible mess and I know a lot of paint was wasted. So...works great if you're a he-man who is detailed at cleaning. Also doesn't mind wasting.

works Great!!!! easy clean up

Didn’t work well at all. Paint wouldn’t come out.

I really enjoyed this product. It is easy to use and easy to clean, albeit it taking a long time. The 3" version is the one I didn't like

First time using and I do believe it saved time and was easy to use. Very practical. I didn’t not give five stars because the paint has not yet completely filled the tube when filling tube. Any suggestions? Cleaning the roller is a lot of work though but necessary. Wonder if they’re refill roller

I think if the paint storage were thicker and 3-6 inches longer it would be a much better product. Cleaning process could be improved as well. So I think you make up time painting and not having to go to the pan as often but clean up is a slow process. If you have a garage sink its best.

I'm giving it an Excellent rating even though I haven't used it yet. If it's anything like the one I used before I know it will be. My old one made painting a breeze and I'm hoping this one will be the same since it's by the same manufacturer.

It took a little bit to figure out how to get the best results of of the Smart Roller, but overall it is a dream. Much neater and easier cleanup than traditional roller & pan methods. We did have a little issue with it spraying at the beginning, but that might've been user error. Definitely a fast, easy, and efficient way to paint a wall.

Very good tool.

When your painting a wall and use the handle to reach the high spot the handle will go in and push out more paint then you need

Great idea if it would have worked. When I started rolling it didn't cover completely. I pumped it more and paint dripped from both edges of the roller. Good thing it was an outside job. Going into the trash. Not worth my time to clean it and return it.

I answered yes to recommending this product BUT it depends on how you intend on using it. Rolling stain or paint on a flat surface like a deck its fine but its a mess waiting to happen if you roll a wall or ceiling. If you push left to right with it loaded with paint the roller slips off the roller frame and sends paint everywhere. I wouldn't dream of using it inside unless it was new construction or a floor you don't mind spilling paint on. If the roller would stay on the frame it would be a great product. A four on flat surfaces and a 0-1 on anything vertical or overhead.

Purchased this Smart Roller Saturday the 29th of September. I have the Wagner Power Roller but did not want to set it up just to paint a small porch and handicapped ramp. Worked like a dream! No mess no spilled paint ! Was sad? that it went so fast to paint the porch and ramps. No second coat needed and clean up was a breeze!

This roller is excellent for painting ceilings and walls as well. I highly recommend this product !!

I feel like it uses a lot of paint though. But overall much easier.

Unable to get the leak stopped on the fill valve. So every time I try to paint and ratchet the plunger all the paint comes out of the fill valve.

Just finished about 500 sq. ft. of interior latex using the 9-in. Smart Roller yesterday. I can confirm that the roller cover or 'attached catch pan' is no longer provided. The Smart Roller has its place, but a hand roller still has its place also. The UPS delivery was on-time, as scheduled. The box was thrashed at the ends and then taped together (may have been a HD second or open-box, since UPS does not try to tape damaged boxes together, and this was as disappointing as the now-absent roller cover). I took pictures before opening. The Smart Roller was undamaged inside the thrashed box. I followed instructions, and it worked. It always pulls some air through the fill valve, but that was no problem either painting downward (bubble stays at top of tube) or upward (bubble is squeezed out first before paint). As others recommend, leave an inch of paint in the tube just before refilling, and then push the inch of paint out into the can before pulling new paint in ('burps' the fill tube). Air still enters at the valve, but not as much. Getting the paint started was the most worrisome part for a new user. It takes a half-tube of paint to wet the roller fully, and then one stroke of the trigger for each up-down stroke of the roller worked well to keep the roller wet. It's more risky to let the roller apply paint too thin than it is to keep the roller so wet that it splatters. We learned that the hard way -- had to go back this morning with a hand roller to fill-in thin spots. The overall length of a newly-filled Smart Roller is about 63 inches, although you should be holding the white handle and white tube (not the black plunger) while rolling. That means that, in a stairway or hallway, you'll have about 30 inches of plunger sticking out behind you while you're painting, requiring a different hold on the roller when painting above the waist and then below the waist. No big deal. The Smart Roller proved its best value on open-area walls, away from narrow areas around doors and windows. Open areas go very quickly if the trigger is pulled once for each stroke up-down, and the coverage was much more reliable. Good job there, no doubt. Around doors and windows, the tendency is to forget squeezing the trigger, causing a thin application. Also, work around these details requires frequently changing positions holding the long unit, and so it's much more frustrating than using a hand roller. For the area just painted, with three windows, one door, and a stairway, I would use a two-person team -- one with a brush to cut-in 3 inches around trim, a second following with the Smart Roller on open areas, and then the trim painter would follow-up with a hand roller for areas between and over windows and within narrow hallways and along stairwells. Good lighting is, of course, essential. Cleanup was significantly worse than with a brush or hand roller, but not so bad. The instructions would only clean 95%, leaving paint around the six rubber parts (o-rings and pinch valve) that would dry-out and render these seals useless after about the third use. The unit disassembled easily, allowing the seals to be thoroughly cleaned with warm water and a vegetable brush. Vaseline is provided to relubricate these rubber parts. A 1/4 inch bottle brush is needed to clean inside the pinch valve thoroughly. Since I don't have such a brush, I expect the dried paint in the rubber pinch valve to cause the first failure after about 10-15 uses. 22 dollars for ten to fifteen uses looks to be the value of the Smart Roller. Maybe. For painting open area walls, it'll save a lot of ladder climbing.

My husband is partially disabled and this product allowed him to help with the painting we were doing. It was quick, didn't drip or run, and really made the job go so much quicker. Much easier to clean up than I expected.

We have used the Wagner Smart Roller in numerous times for painting standard walls and ceilings. I have a bad back and despise painting ceilings but this guy works like a champ - as long as you check and double check all your connections are secure. We did have an OMG moment with the product about 5 yrs ago when we had taken it apart, cleaned it, and failed to get it back together securely and paint went everywhere and it was not good - BUT it was not the product, it was the operator of the product coming off night shift and thinking that it was a good time to work on painting 12 foot ceilings. No, it was not. The only problem I have ever had with this product is keeping up with the pieces, again, on me, as I am not what one would call organized. AND when I go to buy a replacement my local Home Depot never has them in stock. My only complaint.

It worked great for me. I am not professional painter. Whenever I tried to paint any wall, I spilled paint on floor. I decided to use this roller for one of my paint project. It worked great. no spill and I painted the room very fast. Before starting the paint job, make sure all parts installed correctly and tight. When you need to fill paint in roller reservoir, push the area where is filling attachment connects. otherwise it get air in reservoir.

This roller was lightweight, easy to assemble together. The clean-up after using the roller was so simple! Definitely recommended this to anyone that wants to paint their ceilings and walls

Purchased 2 units after watching video. Upon use I was very disappointed. First, it states you could paint 70 sq ft per tube, both units did around 20-25 sq ft per fill up. Second, it somehow consumes way too much paint. After a couple of hours of frustration, purchased old school roller and painted happily ever after.

Ive used these for 10 years any time i paint a room in our house or rent houses. But ive had two lemons over the past two months...both times they leaked from the side of where to roller connects to the stick. Home depot exchanged the first one and will likely refund me when i take it back but the quality had gone done...imho

Might be ok if you’re painting a wall white. I would not suggest using this with a darker color. Total waste of time and money. Had to go buy another gallon of paint to start all over again. Need new carpet now too, as the roller popped off a couple of times and spilled paint all over the carpet.

Works as advertised the first time. Then, following cleaning instructions carefully, it's an absolute mess the second time: The roller continually and messily comes off time after time. Yes, I did reassemble exactly as before. Result: Big mess, time wasted, and wondering who in the world designed this thing. Felt like I was conned. Looked like a good engineering design, but not worth living with. I'm getting my money back--but that doesn't compensate for the lost time and effort in cleaning up the mess.

Bought two thinking it would help get things done quicker with two persons using the sticks. Could not have been more wrong. The rollers pop off, they drip, they are all but useless in non standard paint can and they even somehow get grease into white ceiling paint. Even ordered extra parts (at my expense) to "fix the problem". Wrong. My white paint was ruined, drips of paint everywhere (thank god plastic sheeting catches most of it. Home Depot wouldn't take them back because I hadn't started the project immediately after buying the paint sticks. More junk in the landfill.

I’ve never been so frustrated with a tool that’s supposed to make your life a little easier. The good. It’s light even when full. That’s the only good I can say about it. The bad. The roller pops off all the time. When it comes off paint goes everywhere. Filling is inconsistent. Sometimes it just sucks up air and makes the paint bubble a little.

this roller is a little tough to use, 1st if you are painting a ceiling like I was its really not long enough to use unless you are directly under it (I am 6ft) if you fill the whole cartridge with paint after a while it gets a little heavy so I only did 1/2 to 3/4 full but overall it did a good job, no leaking or splashes.

I had one of these years ago and could not find it, so I bought 2 more because we need to paint the interior of our house so we can sell it. One person was cutting in while two of us were rolling with the Smart Roller. It takes seconds to load the tube. We made short work of 2 bedrooms on Sunday and should be able to have most of the house done by the end of next weekend with minimal effort. As long as the collar stays tight at the handle you will have no trouble. It tends to loosen up once in a while when using it. These things work great as long as they are kept clean and all the seals are lubed with petroleum jelly. Lube the roller seal, plunger o-rings and the suction tube seal and make sure they are clean when you finish using it.

The clip that holds the roller assembly on is too weak. Please review this design. While painting a ceiling the roller came off of the handle three times before I gave up and threw then thing in the trash. the plastic clip released and when the head started sliding off a stream of paint ran down on to a rug. If it wasn't for that this would have been a lovely tool, I was about 3/4 through the job and it was going very well. I do not recommend this at this time.