Customer Reviews

Magnamagic Magnetic Receptive - 1 Qt Wall Magn Paint

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Love love love this idea and product! My daughter wanted a wall that she could hang stuff on, so she got this paint as a gift. She painted it on and voila...instantly magnetic. The only down side would be if you had a light colored room...it would take several coats to cover, as it's dark grey. Fortunately, her room was already grey at the time. I just repainted to a slightly lighter color...it took 2 coats to cover and the wall seems to hold the magnets even better now. It's just a fun idea and I'm looking to do more areas of the house!

I purchased this same product in the 1 Gallon size, below is my review of the Active Wall paint.

Let me start by saying that I usually do not have the time to submit product reviews, but I decided to do so in this event to try to help provide others with valuable information on magnetic wall paint. When I started searching for a magnetic paint product I was shocked to see the spread in ratings for the various products. Some people would note that a product worked excellent while others would say that their application could not even hold a kitchen magnet. After much review I decided to purchase the Active Wall product since it overall had better reviews (albeit far less reviews) and it seemed to have less VOC's than other products.

As the product goes, let me state that the Active Wall paint works excellent for the purpose of creating a magnetic wall. Let me however clarify that if it is not applied correctly I could easily see this product not producing the results which I and others have experienced. In fact, after creating a magnetic wall, I am a firm believer that anyone who provided a poor rating in regards to the magnetic capabilities of this product did not take the time to correctly apply the product or had expectations above and beyond what any magnetic paint can provide. That said, after I completed my wall, I was able to easily hold up multiple sheets of paper using a ½" x ½" rare earth magnet. I was also able to hold up a cloth dinner napkin with the same magnet, and it seemed to have the capacity to hold even more. Going into this project my expectation was to create a wall that could hold my son's school projects and artwork so in this respect the Active Wall product has exceeded my expectations.

While I have raved over this product above, let me get into the details as it relates to the application of this product because it is not nearly as simple as painting a wall and viola. The goal of my project was to create a chalkboard wall using a magnetic primer so that the wall had magnetic properties in conjunction with it being a chalkboard wall. What makes this product and other magnetic paint work is the inclusion of iron powder in the paint. However, by adding the iron powder it inevitably thickens the paint so the consistency is much thicker than ordinary latex paint. The Active Wall instructions call for using a foam roller, this is a must. With the paint being as thick as it is, even with a foam roller, it is very easy to get too much paint on the wall which creates a rough texture (especially after multiple coats). The goal when applying is to get a very smooth thin coat, so to minimize adding texture to the wall. In my case I wanted as smooth as surface as possible since I was creating a chalkboard wall over the magnetic paint.

After one coat of paint I could get a magnet to stick to the wall but that was about it, at this point I realized that multiple coats of paint were a must. After four coats of paint (roughly half a gallon of paint over 50 SF) I had a wall with great magnetic properties. The biggest issue that I had was that I should have tried to use less paint and more coats to achieve a smoother finish, my wall was fairly textured when I was complete. To combat the texture I used foam sanding blocks to knock down the roughness of the wall. I thought that I would have greatly reduced the magnetic capabilities of the wall after standing it down but surprisingly it had minimal effect. The sanding was a very laborious task and it took seven foam sanding blocks to reduce the texture down to an acceptable level. I never got the wall down to a completely smooth finish but was able to greatly reduce the texture via the sanding.

To finish off my project I painted over the sanded wall with two healthy coats of chalkboard paint which did not seem to affect the magnetic strength of the wall or it was such a small decrease that it was not noticeable. At the end of the day, I was very pleased with the way this product performed and would highly recommend it to others.

After looking at the reviews for Rust-oleum Magnetic Latex Primer from Home Depot and Lowes I decided to go with the Magprime product (fewer reviews, but better). I put on three coats (this required 2 1-qt cans for an area about 5x6 ft), and then overcoated with 2 coats of regular latex wall paint (needed to cover the dark gray of the primer). I think the key with this stuff is to use rare earth or neodymium magnets, which are much stronger than regular magnets. I bought 3 20-packs of Magcraft 1/4 in cube magnets from Amazon. One of these little guys will hold up 5 sheets of copy paper on the painted wall (and many more on a fridge). I'm creating a wall of quickly changeable large photographs--saw it in Germany and thought it was a great idea. I recommend the cubes because they are easy to move around (compared to disks) and a small size because they are so powerful!Magcraft NSN0606 1/4-Inch Rare Earth Cube Magnets, 20-Count

I bought this stuff for an art space where I sometimes hang my paintings.
We painted four coats of the paint.
I had hoped to be able to hang unframed works on paper without using tacks.
We tried it with those little high power magnets.
The bigger stuff tended to want to slide off the wall...
but the smaller stuff ( say 1' x 2' and smaller) seemed to stay up okay.
I also sometimes use magnetic sheets to make car magnets.
Those work really well on the paint.

I was skeptical. The reviews I had read were mixed but also gave advice on how to make this primer work. I followed all of the guidelines as best I could (frequent mixing, smooth roller, multiple coats, rare earth magnets), and I had a strong magnetic surface when the primer coats were complete. However, the final guideline - only one coat of paint over the primer - was impossible. This primer is very dark - think chalkboard gray. It is very difficult to cover. I had to use 2-3 coats of paint over the top, which considerably weakened the magnetic effects. I can still get single sheets of paper to stay up when held by multiple rare earth magnets, but I had hoped for better.

My advice - if you have a lot of time to apply the primer carefully and have a very dark color scheme, you'll probably be successful. If you aren't interested in compulsively painting multiple smooth layers or don't intend to use battleship gray in the surface coat, you should save your time and money.

It takes at least two thick coats, but magnets stick and are capable of holding sheets of paper in place. Be aware though, this is very dark graphite colored paint and I can't imagine painting over it.

The company did a good thing in changing the product heading. It's much clearer now (used to say "Magprime 4 quart").

The stuff works. I did one wall of my boys' room with it. If you have a paint-stirrer that goes on a drill, use it. This stuff separates and wants to stay separated. Also, I had to use 6 coats (and go out and buy more cans) to get it to work well. Now, I can get light stuff to hang if I use really strong magnets, like Rare Earth magnets. Pretty much does what it says, just be ready to invest some time & effort. It's a nice idea, especially for a kid's room.