Are you looking for the best paint sprayers for painting ceilings?
You're in the right place!
In this ProPaintCorner Review, you'll discover:
- What are the different kinds of paint sprayers for painting ceilings
- What to look for when buying a paint sprayer for ceilings
- Our top ceiling paint sprayer picks!
And much more!
Below is a quick list of all our top products. Keep scrolling to learn more about how to choose and use the perfect paint sprayer for you!
| Image | Product | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our Top Pick
| Our Top Pick | HomeRight Super Finish Max
|
| View on Amazon |
| Best Budget
| Best Budget | Graco TrueCoat 360
|
| View on Amazon |
| Best High End
| Best High End | Graco Ultra Cordless Airless
|
| View on Amazon |
|
| Wagner Spraytech Control Spray Max
|
| View on Amazon | |
|
| Wagner Spraytech Power Painter Plus
|
| View on Amazon |
Our Overall #1 Rated Pick
Updated On May 19, 2023
The HomeRight Super Finish Max wins our overall pick for the best ceiling paint sprayer.
It's a great all-around device, definitely one you'd bring out for some detailed tasks like furniture, trim, and the like.
It'll also come outside with you for those fence, deck, or outdoor staining or painting tasks that you might endeavor to tackle.
Top 5 Best Paint Sprayers For Ceilings
In a hurry? Check out our Top 5 paint sprayer reviews below! Keep reading to discover more about these best paint sprayers for ceilings.
What Are The Different Types of Paint Sprayers For Ceilings?
Spraying a ceiling can be accomplished in a variety of different ways, using a variety of different paint guns.
A professional painter will eventually acquire their own particular preference.
Here, our goal is getting you up to speed on what your options are, so you're in a position to be well informed enough to make a decision that will get you spraying a ceiling soon.
Compressor-Powered HVLP and LVLP Spray Guns
Anytime you find these four-letter abbreviations, they're referring to either a high volume, low pressure (HVLP) or low volume, low pressure (LVLP).
Either spray gun type will need to be attached to an air compressor to create the pressurized paint stream.
LVLPs, because of their lower pressure, are safer to use, but they spray paint far more slowly.
An HVLP paint sprayer is great for many painting projects and you could surely manage to paint ceilings with one. That said, an HVLP sprayer is better suited for shop work.
Tied to your compressor, even with 100 feet of hose, you're not nearly as nimble as you'd like to be going throughout an entire house, painting ceilings.
Read More >> How Do You Clean A Graco Paint Sprayer?
Airless Paint Sprayers
These are absolutely great for painting projects like spraying interior walls, and they're not bad for ceiling jobs either. Large projects are airless sprayers' forte.
A ceiling is a large surface, but with detailed items like ductwork, lighting, ceiling fans, and more, we opt for handheld electric machines for ceiling work.
We intentionally didn't pick any airless sprayers, except the Graco Ultra Cordless, because we wanted to recommend only the best handheld project devices that are ideal for painting ceilings.
The Graco Ultra Cordless is technically an airless sprayer but it has the form factor of other electric paint sprayers.
Graco Magnum is the series of airless sprayers that you could look into if you wanted something geared more towards large surfaces.
Another hallmark of an airless sprayer, perhaps their biggest trade-off, is the overspray they nearly always produce.
The paint that goes beyond the area where it seems like you're aiming the jet of paint, that's overspray.
Handheld Electric Sprayers
These paint sprayers pack all their components into a more compact form factor.
Their maneuverability makes them ideal for ceiling paintwork.
Some are made rather robustly with stainless steel piston pumps and other professional-grade features.
What makes them particularly suited to homeowners and DIY mavericks is their relatively low volume of paint that they can handle in a given year.
This level is generally lower than with any comparable airless paint sprayer.
Handheld paint sprayers are affordable compared to some popular airless paint sprayers that we'd possibly recommend for painting walls, and even ceilings if you already had one on hand.
Read More >> How Do You Clean An HVLP Spray Gun?
What To Consider When Buying A Paint Sprayer For A Ceiling Paint Job
There are two main reasons why painters begin to consider using a paint sprayer to paint a ceiling, rather than a paint roller and brush.
The first reason is to save your back and neck. The National Institute of Health has actually studied the risk of injury associated with regular painting work.
The second you might use a paint sprayer for a ceiling paint job is to get a better-looking end result than you would with a paintbrush and roller.
Because we're specifically honing in on the best paint sprayers for painting ceilings, we're looking for portability, ease of use, and anything else that makes a great ceiling paint sprayer.
How to Prep For Spraying Your Ceiling
There are a few steps to prepping your work site for a ceiling spray painting job that generally mirrors the prep steps for any other paint project.
Prep Yourself!
You absolutely want goggles whenever spraying paint. Here, spraying it above your head, you'll definitely want goggles protecting your eyes.
Get some gloves to keep your hands clean, a NIOSH-rated respirator, and whatever body covering you prefer, be it a full-body suit or a cap.
Drop Cloths and Tape
The premise is simple and not unique to spray painting ceilings: Cover all the things on which you do not want paint.
Considering you'll be spraying paint upward and that gravity will eventually pull this ceiling paint material back downward, you're going to want to cover the entire floor.
Masking tape can be used to cover outlets, but for the crispest of edge lines, go with FrogTape, it's the best.
If you intend on painting the walls as well, go ahead and leave them uncovered as you'll be going back over them later on anyhow.
Read More >> What Are The Best Paint Sprayers For Walls?
Remove Fixtures
Strip the ceiling as bare as possible. Again, this is true of painting a ceiling whether with a spray gun or a paint roller.
Light fixtures come off or get taped around and covered in plastic drop material.
Air ducts, vents, smoke detectors, ceiling fans, and anything else that you may not want to be painted-- all these either need removing or covering.
Deep Dive and Sprayer Prep
For the best smooth finish, you'll want to get a very intimate knowledge of your paint sprayer including features like pressure control knobs.
Ideally, you've got the time and willingness to invest in fully disassembling your unit down to its smallest components and reassembling it before your first use.
You want to know where all your filters are, what tip size you're spraying, and where potential clogging could occur. All this foreknowledge will make your ceiling paint spraying process a fruitful one.
Test and Go!
Make sure to salvage a scrap piece of cardboard for your paint spray test.
Once your paint sprayer is primed, full of ceiling formula latex paint and ready to spray paint, shoot a quick burst at your piece of cardboard.
You're looking to see that the spray shape or pattern is tight, and not drippy or making splatter marks.
Do a confirmation test with a bit of a side-to-side strafe pattern on that same piece of cardboard to see that your adjustable pressure knob is letting you shoot high pressure enough, but not so high that it's going to shoot a hole in your drywall!
Read More >> How Do You Paint A Wall Like A Pro?
Our Reviews Of The Best Paint Sprayers For Painting Ceilings
Pick #1: HomeRight Super Finish Max
For a ceiling paint task, this is an excellent tool to have on hand.
You'll probably end up using the standard tip size because of the medium fan pattern that's ideal for painting a ceiling.
Narrow is best for detail work like painting fences and cabinetry.
Cleanup on the HomeRight is time-consuming, but that's the case with any handheld electric paint sprayer.
The word finish in the product name is the clue that this is a finish sprayer by design.
A ceiling paint project is about as a large a job as we'd recommend you tackle with the HomeRight hand sprayer.
Pros
Cons
Pick #2: Graco TrueCoat 360
What you're considering with the 360 is: do you want a nifty little electric sprayer from a brand you trust, but at a budget grade?
You're talking about a Graco electric paint sprayer that comes as a kit with two paint cups, two sprayer tips, and all for a really affordable price.
Price is absolutely one of the factors that put the TrueCoat over both the Wagner models.
More options, same or greater power, and higher quality components.
One could gripe about the size of the paint can on the TrueCoat, but the fact is with the FlexLiner bag system, you can quickly and easily swap out colors, rather than having to empty, clean and refill.
This simply saves you a chore that'd be incredibly time-consuming with a different sprayer.
Pros
Cons
Pick #3: Graco Ultra Cordless Airless
Frankly, this is one of the coolest paint tools around right now.
It's an airless paint sprayer in the form factor of a DeWalt brushless drill.
The thing is super compact, unbelievably maneuverable, has no cords, and no hoses!
With this tool, you can be that painter up a ladder, painting those tucked away places, safely and with peace of mind.
Yes, it comes with a battery charger and two DeWaltXR batteries to get you going.
Oh, and you might have to deal with the jealous side-eye you'll be getting from other contractors on the job site.
Pros
Cons
Pick #4: Wagner Spraytech Control Spray Max
The Wagner Spraytech is an easy pick for most DIY projects that entail painting.
A small job like staining a chair is its strength. It could paint a ceiling or a wall, but that's right on the extreme edge of what this paint gun is made to do.
The adjustable pressure control is a really nice feature to see on a homeowner-grade model like this.
When you finally get to that nice open stretch of ceiling, with no obstructions, you want to kick that sprayer into high-pressure mode and lay paint down fast.
Pros
Cons
Pick #5: Wagner Spraytech Power Painter Plus
This is a great little project sprayer, excellent for painting ceilings, and it's also great for spraying stain.
Be sure that you don't let your paint reservoir go empty, or even close to it, as that will cause your paint to splatter.
This Wagner sprayer is not very unlike the other four on our list in this way: They all need meticulous cleaning after every single use- no exceptions!
Watch this video from Wagner to see how simple it actually is to disassemble, clean, and reassemble their Wagner Spraytech paint sprayers.
Pros
Cons
Our Top Pick: HomeRight Super Finish Max
As for ceilings, the HomeRight Super FinishMax is our top overall pick.
In the sprayer game, we're usually advocating airless sprayers and Graco in most of our paint sprayer reviews.
In this case, the HomeRight is the right choice for painting ceilings.
Its nimble form factor, combined with its incredibly accessible price point, matched with its ease of use; we had to pick it.
Any of the five we've highlighted here are worthy devices. Any of these may be the perfect paint sprayer for the type of DIY projects that you may have planned.
If you do decide on the FinishMax, check out this short video detailing how to select the correct tip and nozzle combination before spraying with it.
Check out the lowest price now on Amazon!
Final Thoughts on The Best Paint Sprayers For Ceilings
That you've made it this far shows you're really serious about learning how to use a paint sprayer and you surely want to end up with the right tool for the sort of painting you plan on doing.
Here are some final thoughts to consider while you wait for your sprayer to arrive in the mail, or while you get up to speed on all the finer details of using one.
One low-risk practice method
If you're looking for a way to practice with your new paint sprayer before you load up ceiling paint and start spraying for real, here's one idea:
Go ahead and load up that new sprayer of yours with fresh water.
Head out into your garage, or wherever water can do no harm-- and just spray away. Doing this, you'll get a feel for the particular features that your unit is equipped with, like adjustable pressure knobs, sprayer tip options, and sprayer pattern control.
You won't harm anything by running water through your sprayer, nor will you need to worry about laying down drop cloth for this sort of testing method.
A long road to mastery
Ceiling painting is not very heavy-duty work, but it is absolutely a scenario where you may want to spray paint rather than apply it with a paint roller.
Paint every ceiling in a house with rollers and tell me how your back feels after.
While full-on paint spraying mastery might be many painted ceilings down the road for you too, you can start mastering your technique painting some ceilings with one of the easy-to-use, homeowner-grade paint sprayers that we recommend in this review.
Another pro tip is to begin work immediately once your paint cup is full of strained, thinned, clean paint.
Any sitting time causes the paint in your cup to dry and that could potentially clog your device.
Make sure that every last preparation is made and that you are fully prepared to spray once you've added your paint to your sprayer cup.
How crucial this point is cannot be overstressed.
Understanding thinning will go a long way towards your paint spraying success.
This same watering-down strategy that you see in the video below easily could be used for any of the other spray guns on our list. It just so happens that she's using the HomeRight Finish Max, our top ceiling sprayer pick.
