Earlex HVLP Spray Station Pro 5000

by Earlex

Product Description

The Spray Station 5000 is a professional unit designed for the light contractor, occasional maintenance, woodworker and serious DIY enthusiast. It is ideal for use in the workshop, garden or home to spray walls, ceilings, doors, fences, shutters, cabinetry, spindles, iron work, sheds, decking, furniture and cars. Water-based and oil-based coatings can be applied with the HV5000. An air jacket on the gun ensures minimal overspray. This means you will save time in preparation, complete the job faster, and get a great finish in the process. 13 ft. air hose. 5.5 ft. power cord. Comes with turbine unit, onboard storage pod, onboard hose and power cord storage, one quart Teflon-coated paint container with metal spray gun and stainless steel needle, viscosity cup, long carry handle and spray gun cleaning kit. Cleaning kit includes five brushes and two nozzle cleaners for fast, efficient cleanup

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 11.8 x 26 inches ; 13.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 pounds
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0000C6ZOS
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: ELXHV5000
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #188,605 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great way to start with HVLP, July 1, 2010

By 

CA Gator (Palo Alto) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Earlex HVLP Spray Station Pro 5000 (Tools & Hardware)

After doing considerable research into finishing and paint sprayers, I decided to get this gun and here is what I found.

I found no shortage people who bought cheap ($100) HLVP sprayers and were disappointed in how they sprayed and found them a pain to clean up.

Next I found that unless you owned a large compressor, most people recommend getting turbine units as they are portable and the air quality is better.

Now while there are plenty of very good professional HLVP sprayers if you are willing to spend $1000 and some good workshop HLVP sprayers at $500, the Earlex 5000 (aka professional paint sprayer) was the only consistently recommended $300 price range sprayer. Note, Earlex does carry a $100 sprayer with good reviews, but I opted for the 5000 given what people have told me about low end HLVP sprayer experiences.

Now after purchasing this product, I am very happy with my choice.

Unlike the Earlex low end sprayer, this unit has an all aluminium gun with a Teflon coated pot. Not only is this more durable, but also it makes cleaning much easier.
For the most part, cleaning is basically rinsing the gun, filing the pot with solvent (water in my case), spraying it until the liquid comes out clear and then wiping it down.

I also found the design of this unit to be very convenient in how is stores it cord and hose compared to almost any other unit on the market (high or low end).

But at the end of the day what matters the most is how is sprays and I will say I am very happy with how my projects have turned out.

My experience is they key to spaying is getting is getting the viscosity of the finishing material correct. The easiest way to do this is use finishes designed for spraying, much as ML Campbell that don't require thinning. If you have to thin, it is important to follow manufacturers recommendation for solvents as modern paints and mix it well. I found this process hard to be consistent with, so I am now sticking to ML Campbell finishes.

I also found you do need to buy a Earlex HV5ACC10USR Ultra Fine Finish Needle to enable you to spray dye stains.

Now saying this I can now appreciate the advantages of the higher end guns.

1) There is only one adjustment (paint volume). For a beginner this is a real advantage because it makes setup simple, but I can see eventually I will want to adjust air pressure for specific projects.

2) This is a single stage turbine so doesn't have the same power as multi-stage turbines do. The professional guns use multi-stage turbines to let you spray with higher pressure (faster spraying and ability to use higher viscosity finishes) and have cooling fans to prevent the air from getting too hot.

3) The hose attaches to the bottom of the gun versus the side on this gun, so you can get into tighter spaces

4) They are quieter. While not as bad as a shop vac, if you are doing a big job, you should plan on using hearing protection.

But for my needs as an amateur cabinet maker, this gun gets the job done for me to create professional grade cabinet finishes.

A couple of notes for first time sprayers.

1) You really need to use a respirator and cover everything in the room you are spraying as while the over spray is is minimal, I found you will get dust cloud finish in the room that is a pain to clean up and certainly you don't want in your lungs.

2) You also need eye protection and glasses wearer you either be prepared to get new glasses or something to cover your eyeglasses.

3) Bright auxiliary lighting really helps you see what you are spraying.

Now, this all might turn some people off (including me for years). But since the finishing results are so good and easy with a little practice, I now actually enjoy doing finishing and thus I am very happy with this purchase.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Earlex Promises but what a miss, January 21, 2007

By 

Andrew Colliton "Andrew Colliton" (Methuen,Ma.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I'm a master carpenter with 37 years. I make custom built in's. Cabinets and other finished products.Most customers want a smooth paint finish to match existing colors.My airless is to strong for detail spraying,so I decided to purchase an HVLP.Money is always a consideration.I though I did my research ,but was I wrong. I bought the Earlex pro 5000 after calling the company,spoke to the main rep. What a mistake. This sprayer,could not spray water with out looking like orange peel.I even went to a larger (2.5) needel.Was told this would fix problem.NOT!Save your money. This is a toy. Not a professional tool.Just to get sray to come out of gun,one needs to thin paint or primer so much,it goes beyond paint specs.If to thick,looks like little bumps(orange peel).To thin, either runs or drys and cracks ,looks like old paint.Have had to fix more than my share of projects because of misleading advertising.Buyer beware!

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't even think of using this for latex, like Earlex advertises as a capability., May 9, 2011

By 

SamSpade (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Earlex HVLP Spray Station Pro 5000 (Tools & Hardware)

Earlex advertises that you can spray "thinned" latex with this product. This HVLP sprays latex HORRIBLY. I tried thinning it down way beyond what was recommended by the paint company and it still didn't have the power to spray a standard latex paint. I tried adjusting paint volume, needle size and nothing worked as recommended by Earlex. Too bad I can't return this item because it is a TOTAL disappointment.