The Good: Good durability, Spreads paint wonderfully, Easy to clean and use
The Bad: A little more expensive than most other paint rollers.
The Basics: Arguably the best paint roller cover on the market, the Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover is durable and makes smooth paint strokes!
When I owned my own house, it seemed like every year I was painting or staining something. No home project, inside or outside was more consistent than my need to stain the front deck. In the last year of owning my home, I did a bit of painting inside. My point here is that I did a lot of painting and staining and in the process, I used a lot of rollers and roller covers. So, when I declare the Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover the best one I've found, it’s saying something. Between national and store brands, I went through about twenty different types of paint roller covers.
The Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover is a standard 9” long cylindrical roller cover which is designed for the standard metal roller with the single bar. The single-bar rollers tend to be smaller and more manageable and the covers, like this one, tend to come in thinner diameters because the cover only has to go around a steel dowel which is about ¼” in diameter. As a result, covers like the ¼” knit are only a little more than 1” thick, as opposed to the old style paint rollers where the roller frame is almost 2” in diameter. This thinner paint roller cover allows one to get into tighter corners easier and with less mess.
The Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover easily snaps onto a 9” standard paint roller frame and none of the ones I used ever had any burrs which caused them to catch or roll in any way other than smoothly. The paint roller cover has a spongy foam material which is coated (or infused; it never actually wears off) with Teflon. This causes paint and stain to flow off the roller much easier than with standard foam covers, which absorb quite a bit of the paint or stain before they actually release the fluid for spreading on a wall, ceiling or floor. The result is that the Teflon paint roller cover allows a smooth paint stroke from the very first application. This is a nice benefit for those who do not like to have to paint.
However, the Teflon also means that one has to coat the roller a little more frequently than with more absorbent paint roller covers. This is not enough of a detraction to make it not worth buying. In fact, the Teflon also makes it much easier to clean, no matter what medium one is painting with. If the paint is water based, this paint roller cover rinses right out under running water. I still have three or four of these paint rollers that I used with water-based paints and because they rinse out so easily and so thoroughly, they are ready to use again, as if they were new!
As for oil based paints, these paint roller covers work well for them as well. Using mineral spirits or paint thinner to clean off these rollers works as easily as rinsing them under running water. I never had these melt from using more harsh cleaners and that makes them a surprising value.
That leads us to the expense. The Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Covers are a bit more expensive up front than many paint rollers, which are often found in the $1.00 (or, in bulk, less) range. Still, the up front expense is more than mitigated by the durability. Because these rollers may be used over and over again if properly cleaned out, they become a far better value than the ones which might be initially cheaper.
Time after time, roll after roll, the Shur-Line Teflon Paint Roller Cover holds up for painting making smooth, beautiful results.
For other paint and tool reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Stanley 66-052 6-piece Precision Screwdriver set
Keter 16" Toolbox
DAP Weldwood Contact Cement
9/10
For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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