A Wagner sprayer puts stain on a fence, deck or piece of furniture, and a Wagner FURNO heat gun strips paint, thaws frozen pipes and handles small repairs. Both lines are built for a first-timer. The Double Duty is aimed at beginners, and FURNO heat adjusts to the job.
Wagner Spray Tech is based in Minneapolis and has more than 50 years in the industry. It develops and markets painting and decorating products for home improvement, commercial painting and industrial fine finishing, and its products make surfaces easier to prep and paint easier to put on. The company includes three businesses, among them Wagner Industrial Solutions, and it acquired HomeRight.
Pick the line by the job
Putting finish on is a sprayer job. Taking paint off, thawing a frozen line or doing a repair that needs heat is a FURNO job. A porch with a peeling railing and a bare fence needs both: strip the railing first, then stain.
The Control Spray Double Duty stain sprayer
The Control Spray Double Duty is an HVLP stain sprayer. HVLP stands for high volume, low pressure, so the finish goes on softly with less bounce-back than an airless rig gives you. Wagner says it lays down a smooth, consistent finish, and it lists fences, decks, furniture, lattice and detailed staining as its jobs. Lattice shows the difference fastest, because a sprayer coats every edge of every slat in a few passes.
The Double Duty is meant for small to medium projects, so a whole house of siding calls for an airless sprayer.
Using and cleaning the Double Duty
If you’ve never held a spray gun, you’re the buyer this one is made for: Wagner aims the Double Duty at beginners who want an easy-to-use HVLP stain sprayer. You can learn the technique in ten minutes on a sheet of cardboard. Hold the gun about 6 to 8 inches off the surface and move your whole arm, keeping your wrist still. Start moving before you pull the trigger, let go before you stop, and overlap each pass by half.
Stain goes through an HVLP gun easily. Anything thicker, like paint, has to be thinned before it will spray. The most common mistake is skipping that step and then blaming the gun when it spits. Thin a little at a time and test on cardboard again until the pattern goes on wet and even.
On a deck or a rough-sawn fence, spray a few boards and back-brush them while they’re still wet so the stain works into the grain.
Clean the sprayer the minute your last pass is done, because stain that dries in the nozzle clogs it on the next job. Run warm soapy water through it after water-based stain, or mineral spirits after oil-based, until it sprays clear. Then take off the nozzle and air cap and wipe them down.
Strain paint before it goes into any sprayer, since an intake screen won’t catch every bit of debris. Priming is a step for airless sprayers. If an airless unit won’t pull paint, take the hoses off, turn it upside down and pour a small amount of water into the paint intake valve.
FURNO heat guns
FURNO is Wagner’s heat gun series. Its heat is precise and adjustable, and Wagner lists crafts, paint removal, pipe thawing, repairs and other household projects as its jobs. Being able to adjust the heat is what lets one gun do all of those: turn it low to soften old caulk, or high to lift layers of paint.
To strip paint, keep the gun moving over a small patch and scrape as soon as the paint wrinkles and bubbles. Holding it in one spot scorches the wood and bakes the paint on harder. On a house old enough to have lead paint, test before you heat anything, because heat-stripping lead paint puts it in the air.
To thaw a frozen pipe, open the faucet and start warming at the faucet end, working back toward the frozen spot. Keep the heat moving and away from insulation, framing and any dust in the wall cavity.
For a full day of stripping trim, a corded gun keeps running as long as the job does. When the frozen line is in a crawlspace with no outlet in reach, take the cordless FURNO 550.
Other Wagner tools and the warranty
Other Wagner tools include the HT1000 and HT3500 heat guns for stripping and thawing, the Control Spray 250 sprayer for putting on finish, the Paint Eater orbit sander and its replacement discs for sanding off old paint, and knit fabric roller covers for rolling paint. Wagner lists warranty terms for each product. Its standard warranty statement covers the original retail purchaser against defects in material and workmanship for two years from the date of purchase, as long as the tool is run according to Wagner’s printed recommendations and instructions.
Wagner at a glance
| Product | Type | Made for |
|---|---|---|
| Control Spray Double Duty | HVLP stain sprayer aimed at beginners | Small to medium projects: fences, decks, furniture, lattice, detailed staining |
| FURNO series | Heat guns with precise, adjustable heat | Crafts, paint removal, pipe thawing, repairs, household projects |
| FURNO 550 | 18V cordless heat gun | FURNO jobs away from an outlet |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you spray paint with a Wagner sprayer, or is it just for stain?
You can spray paint once it’s thinned, and what you thin it with depends on the paint: water for latex, mineral spirits for oil-based. Check the can before you start, because many paints give a maximum amount of thinning, and going past it gives you a weak coat that needs a second one. If the label says not to thin at all, roll that paint instead.
How do you use a Wagner paint sprayer?
Most of the work happens before you pull the trigger. Mask windows and trim, lay drop cloths wider than seems necessary, and cover plants and cars downwind, because fine overspray drifts farther than most people expect. Skip breezy days, and stain in the shade or during the cooler part of the day, since stain that dries too fast in direct sun leaves lap marks.
How do you clean a Wagner paint sprayer?
If stain has started to set in the small parts, soak them in the matching cleaner, and clear a stubborn nozzle with a soft brush or a toothpick, never a wire or pin, which can scratch the opening and ruin the spray pattern. Let every part dry before you put it away. Rags soaked with oil-based stain can heat up and catch fire on their own, so lay them flat outdoors to dry or seal them in a metal can filled with water.
Do you have to prime a Wagner stain sprayer before it’ll spray?
The Double Duty is an HVLP sprayer, so there’s no pump to prime. If it sputters or won’t spray, the usual cause is material that’s too thick or a nozzle with dried stain in it. Thin a little more and clean the nozzle before you look for anything else.
What should you know before using a Wagner heat gun?
The nozzle stays hot for several minutes after you switch it off, so set the gun down on a surface that won’t burn and point it away from anything that will. When you strip siding or trim, heat can reach dust and old nesting material behind the boards, so check the area again after you finish for smoke or a burning smell. Keep a fire extinguisher within reach any time you’re working on a wood house.
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