As a Pro, the idea of a portable airless sprayer appeals to me. There are a lot of jobs that fall under that “pick-up-an-go” category where it would be nice not to have to pull out the full airless sprayer. For these, it would be nice to ditch the full setup for a smaller job that a cordless solution could handle. The Graco TrueCoat Pro II cordless paint sprayer is an airless sprayer that includes a ProControl pressure control system. It lets you adjust the pressure via the side-mounted dial to spray a wide variety of applications. While larger jobs may have you reaching for the Graco Ultra Max II 490 PC Pro paint sprayer, touch-ups, and small work might benefit from this cordless system.
The Graco TrueCoat Pro II cordless paint sprayer also includes a new Tilt-N-Spray pendulum suction tube that gives you a full range of motion for spraying. Having used the former trim model, this new version also includes a lighter-weight “G20” 20V lithium-ion battery.
Finally, the TrueCoat Pro II is fully repairable so you can rebuild it and extend the life of your sprayer. That’s a definite advantage for the Pro painter. Our testing placed it in an environment where we could dedicate it to smaller jobs—the exact application for which it was designed.
Graco TrueCoat Pro II Cordless Paint Sprayer Features
Graco’s big selling point on the TrueCoat Pro II airless sprayer is that it offers the same performance as Graco’s traditional airless sprayers. It just does it in a smaller form factor and with less capacity. You can spray materials as you’d expect—with or without thinning—and you get nice, consistent coverage.
The key feature of the TrueCoat Pro II cordless paint sprayer is the adjustable pressure control. By turning the pressure knob on the left side of the tool you can adjust your spray finish to work perfectly with both thicker and thinned paint and stain. As you can imagine, this expands the range of materials you can work with—and on. It also helps reduce overspray and compensate (slightly) for a lack of a selection of finer spray tips.
The flexible tilt-n-spray pendulum suction tube fit limply into the paint tray, allowing it to pull out a majority of paint from the container without losing suction. It was sufficiently adept at its job regardless of position. This ensures you get the most paint possible out of the 32 once container.
Disassembly and Maintenance
The Graco TrueCoat Pro II cordless paint sprayer can be fully disassembled and all parts are repairable and/or replaceable.
The 20V lithium-ion battery (two are included in the kit) will run for roughly an hour or through about a gallon’s worth of paint. Recharging takes about an hour. As anyone familiar with lithium-ion batteries can attest to, there is a significant weight saving over a comparable NiCd battery pack. For a portable product, this is a huge advantage and results in a better, more ergonomic product. These batteries will work with any other Graco Pro handheld cordless sprayer.
Lastly, the system comes in a nice hard case with storage for the sprayer, batteries, charger, and some extra tips and filters.
Using the Graco TrueCoat Pro II Airless Sprayer
With a portable system like this, you’d expect some fine finish tips. For that, you’d need to purchase the Graco TrueCoat Pro Finish cordless sprayer that comes with 210 and 312 fine finish reversible RAC tips (but supports .008 – .012 TrueCoat Pro fine finish reversible tips). That sprayer includes slim 20V batteries and a 24-ounce container.
On the contrary, the Graco TrueCoat Pro II sprayer has no available fine finish tips, which is disappointing since those would expand the use of this tool. This unit supports only .011 – .017 TrueCoat Pro reversible tips (311, 315, 515, 517, and MC1). Additional tips cost around $35. We had a Fine Finish Pro Airless sprayer on hand to compare with and found they don’t have compatible parts—at least not with respect to the tips and filters.
Using the Graco TrueCoat Pro II cordless sprayer, we found it to be a well-built machine that’s great for touch-ups. It’s good for small jobs, and I’d go a step further to say that, as it comes in the kit, it’s only ideal for tiny jobs. Adding paint to the cup creates an unavoidably messy situation that you probably don’t want to exacerbate with the multiple refills it takes to paint more than a garage door.
Improving the Workflow
One key accessory that should probably get more attention (we think it could even do well being marketed as part of a larger kit) is the ProPack Portable Spray Pack. This is a backpack attachment that replaces the cup with a hose that goes to the gallon of paint on your back. That accessory would open up the options for this cordless handheld sprayer considerably. It would reduce the weight of the tool, making it less cumbersome and tiring to use. It would also multiply the capacity by four as well.
When using the Graco TrueCoat Pro II to paint some closet doors as part of a whole home paint job (inside and out) we found the ergonomics to be very good. The angles and feel of the grip are perfect, and the controls are well-placed and easy to get to. The weight of the paint makes it tough to work with for long with one hand—even with the use of lithium-ion batteries. The stub is definitely flexible enough to get to all the paint in the cup from any angle you’d want to comfortably paint from.
Graco TrueCoat Pro II Cordless Paint Sprayer Specs
- Adjustable Pressure Range: 1000 – 2000 psi
- Maximum Working Pressure: 2000 psi
- Weight: 6.48 lb
- Dimensions: 13.75 x 5.25 x 10.25 in
- Storage Temperature Range: 32° to 113°F
- Operating Temperature Range: 40° to 90°F
- Storage Humidity Range: 0% to 95% relative humidity, non-condensing
- Noise (ISO 9614-2 measured @ 3.3 feet): 73.2 dBa
- Charging Time: 45 minutes to 80%, 75 minutes to 100%
- Battery: 20V Max, 2.4 Ah (43.2 Wh)
Conclusion
We’d love to recommend the $449 Graco TrueCoat Pro II for all Pros, but we’ll have to restrict that to those not needing fine finish tips. We also think those who have smaller projects and don’t want to pull out their regular airless sprayer will find it most useful. Several improvements would be great upgrades for any future models. That would include eliminating having to buy the entire housing with any replacement tips. This makes them a tad more expensive, and we’d like to see Graco make the tips standardized across all their products. This would keep them compatible with the airless sprayers Pros will more than likely have on hand.
