Everyone knows the best practices when it comes to paint booth maintenance—but not every shop follows them. As paint booth experts, we have answered thousands of maintenance, service, and repair calls. But rest assurance, if you’re making these three mistakes, we’re here to help break those bad habits.
A huge mistake we see many shops make is leaving their paint booth filters unattended. Dirty, broken, and clogged filters can lead to many issues, including unpredictable airflow, increased overspray, and stress on exhaust fans.
Filters are crucial to every step of the painting process, which is why they need regular upkeep, including cleanings and replacements. After all, a paint booth’s basic function is to take air in and out of the cabin, making filters essential to its operation.
Ceiling filters get neglected more than anything else in a paint booth. This is because they are high up and difficult to reach. However, once ceiling filters get clogged, air still has to come through them—meaning clean air passes through a dirty filter. For this reason, the booth’s airflow pattern can be disrupted. It also causes dirt and debris to enter the cabin, which negatively affects paint finishes.
Clogged floor filters can cause the paint booth’s outside motor to malfunction and create an inability to pull air out of the cabin. They can also cause exhaust fans to become caked in overspray. In both cases, clogged floor filters put premature wear on motors and exhaust fans.
Pro-tip: Ceiling filters should be cleaned once a year while floor filters should be cleaning every one to three weeks (or whatever runtime hours allotted for the filters).
Too many times we see a cabin’s light burn out or break and left without being replaced. Proper lighting is crucial for spraying, as it helps to see the exact color match of the paint. Sometimes, a shop will simply replace a bulb with another that fits, which can cause metamerism. Replacement bulbs should be the same color and kelvin as its predecessor. A burnt or broken bulb can also cause a painter to see poorly, creating more margin for mistakes, which is another reason to replace bulbs right away.
Shops should keep replacement bulbs stocked up and ready to be replaced at a moment’s notice. If your shop is running low on replacement bulbs, be sure to order more before they run out. It’s also beneficial to upgrade to LED lighting if possible. LED lights help to save money over time, as they’re less prone to failure and have longer lifespans.
Overspray is inventible, but it can be cleaned up. While it may seem like removing overspray is only for appearances, that couldn’t be more wrong. Overspray can actually cause significant airflow disruptions as well as improper lighting conditions. To stop this mistake, be sure to get in a cadence of removing overspray and reapplying protective coatings every few months.
Beyond overspray, every part of a booth should be cleaned regularly, including the cabin walls, window glass, and booth hoses. A painter’s equipment should also fall under booth cleaning, such as their PPE and spray guns. We recommend booth cleaning every quarter for best performance. If it only occurs once a year, it significantly increases shop downtime because there is so much more build up.
The biggest mistake paint booths owners make is not working with a professional company. Accudraft makes it incredibly easy for our customers to create a routine maintenance plan with us—whether they own an Accudraft booth or another manufacturer’s. We also offer many services, including cleanings, replacements, repairs, and emergency responses.
To learn more about our paint booth maintenance plans, contact us online.
