So I love Zinnser products, a company of Rustoleum, things like BIN have never let me down. So when Smart Prime came out and claimed to have all the benefits of oil primer in a water based product I jumped. First application, something I hate to do, seal wallpaper to be painted over. This I hate but in this instance it was required. So I challenged Smart Prime to seal in the little red flowers from bleeding through my top coat. The challenge was to do one coat Smart Prime, two coats quality finish paint. Fail.
Next was using Smart Prime to prime already painted trim to receive two finish coats of quality latex paint. This resulted in a poor bond after a few days but the company assured me that in a full week I would need "a chisel" to scrape it off. Well although it was extremely fragile for several days after that seven it was indeed solid. Pass
Try number three was to prime new pine trim in a house and then spray a fine finish over the top. Well after the primer dried for a few days I went back through and sprayed my finish, a few days after that the wood started to tan. Fail
Most recently I used the smart prime on a light water stain on a ceiling. I applied two coats as suggested on the can for tough stains and let dry then i put on the finish paint. Fail
Safe to say that at $30 a gallon I'm not using this stuff any more.
