Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'd never heard of/seen this gizmo before a few days ago. Was walking through a box store w/a step-ladder, and was looking for a paint tray to hook onto the ladder. Saw this, asked the clerk about it, and made the purchase. Then came home, read the reviews on Amazon and thought I'd made a mistake. I struggled with this thing at first, especially getting it to fill. Finally explained to it that it was a piece of junk and I was going to take it back to the store, and it immediately filled. After that, no problem filling. I think I changed the angle from which I was pulling the paint. It doesn't like to fill straight up, but if you angle it a bit so the port and filler tube are at about a 45-degree angle, it fills nicely and easily. Also seems to fill better with the flip switched one way than the other--I think on the down position. Some backstory: female, older, recovering from extended disability, desk job, and hired painters to work for me. The first one was slow and unreliable, the second I just could not get to slow down and take his time and do it right. Trying to get the upstairs painted and it's been a long-drawn out bad dream/sitcom episode. Finally decided to have a go at it myself. Started in the evening with the ceiling, and decided that I was in trouble and had made a mistake. But there was no way out but through, so pressed onward. Even though it's advertised as being long enough to reach a nine-foot ceiling, I found I could work more easily with the step-stool, and at times wished I'd purchased the 9-foot-reach stool instead of the 8-foot one. It takes awhile to find the groove with this thing, but eventually you get pretty good with it if you are patient and persistent. You develop a feel for how much paint it needs--too much and it skids--and when it needs it. There's a bit of resistance when it fills, and it `burps'--you'll see--and then you roll until it needs a bit more--it becomes reflex after a bit. I watched a video where someone was struggling to twist and paint at the same time, but I found it easy to use if I twisted, then stroked. I'd give it about a half-twist, then three strokes, half-twist, three strokes (roughly). The twist becomes easy, too--the twisting movement is a natural extension of the upward stroke. I had leftover paint in the tube when I finished, and on impulse slapped it on the bathroom wall that I've hated since I moved in. Ten minutes later I wondered why in the world I'd put up with those ugly walls for so long. That was just a base coat--still need to go back, cut in, and do a second coat, but I don't dread the task. (And even like this, it's a huge improvement.) I came back yesterday and did the walls. No, not in one minute. But they went pretty quickly, and I finished the room. When I had almost finished the project I hit on another time-saving use for this thing. I loaded the roller to the squishy point, and applied paint thickly up near the ceiling in about a four-foot wide stretch, then hopped up on the step-stool with my edging brush and used the paint on the wall to pull up to the edging tape. Speeded up the edging process quite a bit, as I had enough paint to cover my reach before I had to move the stool, saved all that dipping-in-the-paint-can time. The critical piece to me is that I was able to develop my technique enough to give me the smooth, even, drip-free surface that I wanted. It's matte, so it's not very forgiving, but I am happy with the outcome. I'm persnickety about the outcome, and this made me happy. Also, in spite of physical limitations, I did not find it too heavy. Yes, I'm kind of sore today, and I got a workout in, and I'm glad I won't be painting today, but I wanted to let people who may not be in great painting shape know that this is manageable. I don't think I would have been physically able to do this project with a roller ad tray in the time I had available. I did not have any problem with the end popping off and the roller falling, so they seem to have fixed the problem some reviewers had with that. Another positive. I had a problem during the first cleaning process of being unable to pull the twist tube down. Just refused to twist or pull. Struggled with it that night, went to bed, struggled with it in the morning, and finally called the 800-number. To my surprise, I was talking to a live person within a minute. She said she had never heard of this problem, said she would ask about it, and call me back. She asked some clarifying questions, and as I was chatting with her, it suddenly released. I asked her what she thought had caused it, and she said it probably just developed a vacuum seal, as it had to be pretty tight in order to suck up the paint. My theory is it's just ornery--wouldn't fill until I told it that it was going back to the store; wouldn't work until I phoned home and talked to it's mommy. So you have to take a bit of a firm line with this appliance, but it's worth it. ;) It is also nice to know that support was quickly available when needed. I also think it's probably a paint-saver. I bought three gallons, per paint store's recommendation. Didn't crack the lid of the second gallon until I was finishing the second coat on the last wall. I usually make a mess when painting, and other than some paint on my hands, I don't have it all over the place. Oh--it will drip if you lay it down. I learned to leave it upright against an unpainted wall while I was edging. The splatter guard is perhaps a bit over-flexible, but it's easy to flip back and forth to get into corners, etc. And it really does work. I taped off window and door trim so I could paint up next to them, but didn't need to cover doors and windows with (more) plastic to protect them from drips and splatters. It's not going to solve all of your painting problems--I wish they made a shorter version of this for getting into tight corners. I'm picturing an infomercial where we are told to throw away our messy paint trays, etc. Nope--you'll still need those for some areas. But I went from being intimidated by the task, thinking I couldn't do a good job at it and needed to pay someone else to feeling that I could tackle this if I needed to. Just wanted to encourage people who might feel that it's too much for them to handle physically. It may not work quite as advertised, but it works very well. If this one failed on me and I needed to do another painting project, I would probably replace it. It's a big piece of plastic, and I hate buying more plastic to end up in the Pacific Gyre, but it seems sturdy enough to last quite awhile. I do my clean-up in a three-gallon bucket that I set in the bathtub, and the only messy part is getting the roller off. It would be nice if they included a little `pry bar' to make that task easier. You'll also want to read the instructions for sucking paint out of the roller when you're done. I didn't do that, and the first clean-up was messier (and more wasteful) than the second. It's easy and intuitive once you add that to the skill-set. Another tip (unrelated to this product): if you're painting a feature wall, or a ceiling a different color than the walls, put your tape on (use Frog tape, don't even consider the cheap masking tape) and then paint the edge with the color that you're covering. So if the ceiling is white and the walls are red, you'd put the tape on the ceiling, then cover the edge of the tape with white paint. This goes very quickly, as you're just creating a seal. When that's dry, you come back and edge as normal with the red paint, paint the wall, and remove the tape. If there's any leakage, it's with the white paint, which then creates a seal so the red paint won't leak down. Saw that on a you-tube video (thank you, whoever posted that), and it works.