[OCDpainter]

Has anyone ever used Imperial Rapid Brush Cleaner?

I have a boatload of respect for the shop where I bought my Tritech T5. When I asked what to use to clean dried paint, he recommended Imperial Rapid Brush Cleaner.

Wilson Imperial Rapid Brush Cleaner - Absco

Wilson Imperial Rapid Brush cleaner leaves brushes like new with its fast acting liquid. No more long soaking required for any nylon or bristle brushes.

absolutecoatings.com

Regrettably, his shop is not close. I tried to pick some up from the local Benjamin Moore dealer that I buy paint from. My price with discount was almost $80/gal. I called the Tritech dealer and asked if he could get me a few cases to make it worth the drive. He looked up the price and said "whoa." I think it was like $65/gal..

Ended up taking a trip out of state and decided to walk into a local paint shop. When I asked about it, they told me it was banned in Ohio--but that it was a huge seller when they had it.

Just wondering if anyone has used this stuff and if it is really that much better than anything else.

As per the MSDS, it is mostly toluene and denatured alcohol

https://media.lifeandhome.com/media/downloads/4470/42917794_MSDS.pdf

I just cannot see spending $80/gal for solvent.

It would probably make more sense to buy the ingredients and mix them myself.

Klean Strip Toluene Solvent 1 gal - Ace Hardware

Alkyd, polyester and epoxy are used to create a tough, high-gloss finish and Klean-Strip toluene is a good choice for a thinner. It dries faster than xylene and is also an excellent cleaning solvent for tools and equipment immediately after useFind the TOLUENE GL at Ace.

www.acehardware.com

 

[celicaxx]

I used to use isopropyl alcohol to clean my brushes, until there was the pandemic shortage. 91% isopropyl alcohol was $2.50 a quart at Wal-Mart before then. Now it's back to normal with alcohol thankfully, but during the pandemic I started using "LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner" which is seemingly a Simple Green type cleaner knockoff, containg some sort of type of alcohol I forget the name of now. Simple Green also has an alcohol in it, too. Either way, when isopropyl was hard to find the LA's Cleaner was $1 a liter at Dollar Tree, and it took longer to work since it was much more dilluted than straight isopropyl alcohol. The other issue too is it contains some sort of actual soap in it, too, which makes cleanout take longer. But, it's cheap and works.

Overall I'd stick to91% isopropyl, I've found it can melt away ALL latex paints, and I've even revived brushes that were just painted totally stuck together, albeit not totally, as usually some paint little fibers would be stuck between the bristles a little, but good enough to be an exterior brush. Toluene is overkill for it imo, though I used to use a toluene thinner (used "washer thinner" meant for cleaning automotive paint guns) to clean brushes before too, and it worked great but alcohol overnight worked just as well, didn't smell as bad,and was a lot less expensive. The only advantage toleune would give is in cleaning out oil based paint, since it can melt that again too, but unless you really need that I would stick to plain 91% isopropyl alcohol, way easier and safer.

 

[OCDpainter]

Thanks for the reply. Gave the 91% isopropyl alcohol a shot. It does work , but it's not nearly as effective as the Kleen Strip brush cleaner from the orange clowns. Much slower.

Going to get some straight toluene and give it a try. I have an outdoor slop sink, so I'm not as worried about the safety issues.