Air Assisted Airless or Graco Ultra handheld

[Mace]

I currently use and love my Graco Ultra handheld sprayer. I use it on residential repaints (trim) and kitchen cabinets.  A sprayer mechanic at my local paint store told me to use an Air Assisted Airless sprayer because it has less overspray than my handheld. Another mechanic told me likewise. When I called Graco the tech said there is basically no difference in overspray between the two.
I'm asking because I do a lot of interior work ie. trim...old woodstain going white and I want a unit that I do not have to dilute and have minimum overspray.

I have never used an AAA unit. Does anybody have any idea which unit has less overspray?  Are they the same?

If it matters, I usually spray Breakthrough by PPG

Thank you.

 

[tjbnwi]

If your using FFLP tips in the hand held the over spray will be the same.

My Graco FP 395 AAA PC weighs about 130 pounds.

The finish is better if I'm using a flat tip in the AAA rather than the FFLP tip. My Triton lays down the best finish, my Fuji is a very close second.

Tom

 

[Marc2010]

I have the cordless ultimate and the 9.5 HVLP pro-comp sprayer. I got the cordless first and used the heck out of it in interior trim work. Not much overspray plus clean air. I like that I can change the tips for the right application. Then when my 9.5 arrived, I used it in my home to spray trim. I did get more mist in the air than I wanted. I adjusted the settings in many ways and did get to control it a bit better but, I’m not used to it quite yet. I like it.
The Ultimate  version is set the material volume and pull the trigger. All or nothing. Sometimes you have to move fast if your touching up a spot.
The 9.5 is a nice feather touch so you can fade in air and or material. It goes on thinner and dries faster than the ultimate. No thinning down with the Ultimate but a little thinning for the 9.5. (Pro-classic in both)
It’s hard to compare the two against each other. It takes about 20 seconds to paint one side of a door with a great coat with the Ultimate. The 9.5 same time but lighter coats.
My reason for having both was the Ultimate for production work - trim & doors on site and the 9.5 for more furniture, urethane, lacquer based fine work in the shop. 
I got a free second gun with my purchase. One for water based & one for solvents.
I hope my input helped.

 

[escan]

Coming from an Apollo 1050, HVLP, to a Merkur 30:1, there is a considerable difference in overspray. With this unit I can separately adjust fluid pressure and air pressure, meaning a can spray without using air pressure to the gun. This is how you start to set up the unit for spraying. You achieve your fan width and then add the necessary air to eliminate the tails.

So if I want a heavy coat I pull way back on the air, an lay more material. I have two videos of me spraying on my instagram feed.

If you spray water-borne, look into the stainless units.

 

[Mace]

Thank you all!

 

[LDBecker]

I have the cordless ultimate and the 9.5 HVLP pro-comp sprayer. I got the cordless first and used the heck out of it in interior trim work. Not much overspray plus clean air. I like that I can change the tips for the right application. Then when my 9.5 arrived, I used it in my home to spray trim. I did get more mist in the air than I wanted. I adjusted the settings in many ways and did get to control it a bit better but, I’m not used to it quite yet. I like it.
The Ultimate  version is set the material volume and pull the trigger. All or nothing. Sometimes you have to move fast if your touching up a spot.
The 9.5 is a nice feather touch so you can fade in air and or material. It goes on thinner and dries faster than the ultimate. No thinning down with the Ultimate but a little thinning for the 9.5. (Pro-classic in both)
It’s hard to compare the two against each other. It takes about 20 seconds to paint one side of a door with a great coat with the Ultimate. The 9.5 same time but lighter coats.
My reason for having both was the Ultimate for production work - trim & doors on site and the 9.5 for more furniture, urethane, lacquer based fine work in the shop. 
I got a free second gun with my purchase. One for water based & one for solvents.
I hope my input helped.

Marc2010 - I just this week got the Graco UltimateMax handheld and the Graco HVLP 9.5 ProContractor units. I am in the middle of a big project and wasn't happy with what I was getting out of my current sprayer (Graco FineFinish handheld) - too much overspray, lots of wasted material, difficult to control the finish. I decided to upgrade to the UltimateMax - the 4 free tips offer kind of pushed me over, and had been wanting to get a decent 4 or 5 stage HVLP. My previous HVLP experience was with an old Campbell-Hausfeld single stage unit that I never did make peace with on anything. very frustrating. The new improvements on the Graco HVLP units, including the guns that use the same cups as the UltimateMax handheld, got my attention - the free gun until 12/15 kind of pushed me over.

Any tips using the Graco HVLP? The gun with the artisan adjustment looks promising, and being able to spray both units without regard for how the gun is being held because of the cup sounds good, too. I have been using General Finishes Hi Performance waterborne topcoat (satin). What topcoat do you use?  I am in California, so I am gathering that I'm limited in what I can purchase locally...

Thanks!

Larry