Cleaning an airless paint sprayer

[Scott Radetich]

I purchased a 2016 Titan 440i sprayer on Craigslist  recently and used it this weekend.  How do you clean this thing?? I watched a few vids online and did what they said, but it took me forever, i mean like an hour plus while flushing the system out to get the color of the water to look a lot more like water vs the color of my paint.  Was i just overdoing it?  I mean i gave up and just packed it in after an hour, the water was still colored when flushing it out of the system but a lot closer to clear than an hour ago.   Day 2 and 3 i let the water sit in there several minutes between flushing it out to let the water do its trick, that reduced the amount of water i used, but my cleaning time was still an hour plus.

How do you normally clean out these sprayers?  Any tips appreciated.

[Dana Whicker]

I'm not a professional painter but myself and my handyman have done all of the painting on 4 rehabs now using a sprayer very similar to yours but a different brand. 

One thing you'll learn is the system will hold a lot more paint that you first think. If I'm using latex, which I almost always am, I move the feed hose over to straight water when I still have a few square feet left. With experience you'll be able to judge this. If you don't do this it's just that much more paint that has to be cleaned out.

The first time I cleaned my it took an hour. With practice you will get much quicker at it. I hope I'm allowed to link to u tube. This guy cleans your exact model in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7K0q46qGq8

Also, I'm sure you know this but never let paint or water sit in the pump for long. There are some pump-saver type products that you suck up into the pump when you're done cleaning.