Painting rollers

Baldytyke88

I have always washed and reused my painting rollers, but my daughter cannot seem to understand that it needs to be washed thoroughly.

It's occurred to me that some might buy a new roller every time. That wouldn't be frugal!

woody7777

You can wrap the sleeves in clingfilm. This saves cleaning them off every night if you're using the same colour the next day. 

Silvertabby

Apart from the overnight clingfilm trick, I confess to binning my used rollers and buying new for each job.  Life's too short to faff around cleaning roller sleeves, and then having to pick of bits of the old roller from a newly painted wall.  

marcia_

 I stick them in a plastic bag and tie the handle if I want to use them again soon with the same colour. If not they go in the bin. 

jackieblack

If you put a hole in the lid of a Pringles tube and slide it onto the stem of the handle before attaching the roller you can slide the tube over the roller and seal it to the lid at the end of the day. It’s reusable (unlike cling film) and the lid also saves your hand from paint splatter 

kimwp

Cleaning the roller uses a lot of water (and puts paint in the water system), it's a difficult one to say which is better. 

Baldytyke88

kimwp said:

Cleaning the roller uses a lot of water (and puts paint in the water system), it's a difficult one to say which is better. 

Perhaps rollers have become cheaper, made of foam, so those types are disposable.

GrahamLM52

I have one of these:

https://www.diy.com/departments/harris-revive-roller-cleaning-tool/5056287406078_BQ.prd?storeId=1372&&&&&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21158206276&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn8vBnaywkAMVgJFQBh353C0CEAQYAiABEgKQl_D_BwE

It gets a lot of paint off the roller before you start to clean it.

I also agree with those that use the cling-film idea, although a tightly sealed bag will do if you have no cling film

Baldytyke88

GrahamLM52 said:

I also agree with those that use the cling-film idea, although a tightly sealed bag will do if you have no cling film

I have always used foil to keep the paint on paint brushes from drying out, but rollers are so quick that I have finished with them after an hour or so.

twopenny

My Grandfather taught me to clean all painting materials throughly.

But then water wasn't on a meter and the price almost doubling. Ditto to White Spirit.

It took a while before I realised that it was more expensive to clean a brush or roller than buy a new one.

You can keep the handle and tray and just buy a new 'roller' bit.

I found the best way was to first scrape then soak the roller in a bucket of water after use until the next day. This disolves a huge amount of the paint left and it rinses off easily.

Still clean out my best brushes though.