WEN Drywall Sander, Variable Speed with 15 ft. Hose (6369)

This sander worked great on my awful textured ceilings! I have a house full of terrible painted knockdown texture on most of the ceilings. I couldn’t do a wet scraping technique to remove the texture since a previous homeowner had painted over the texture. After some research, I found the method listed below. The areas I haven’t worked on yet look so outdated and shabby. I’ve done 2 bedrooms so far and they look fantastic!! Having flat ceilings definitely updates the look of the home. I bought a large pack of 60-grit sanding discs, and another pack of 120 grit for finishing. I also bought mouse sander discs (the Wen drywall sander can’t get into corners or all the way to the edge of the wall so I used a mouse sander I already had). The rooms in my house are fairly small (roughly 12x24 or smaller). I covered each room entirely in plastic. Even with the shop vac attached, drywall dust will still escape. I did have to duct tape the hose for the sander to my Rigid shop vac since the Wen sander hose is way smaller and I didn’t have an adapter. Next, I sanded the texture down by using 60-grit paper with the sander on maximum speed. I skim coated the ceilings after everything was sanded down (I used joint compound and a 14” taping knife). Then I let the compound set/dry for a couple days. Switched to 120 grit discs, then did a final sanding with this tool (and my mouse sander) before using a SEALING primer, then a layer of flat ceiling paint. It’s definitely hard work, but the result was worth it for me. I really, really hate the ceiling texture in my home and this tool was the only way I could get rid of it without replacing the drywall. Honestly, putting up the plastic and doing the skim coat was way more tedious than using the Wen sander. The drywall sander made it so easy to take down the knockdown texture to a level where I could skim coat it to smooth it. It’s a hard job but this tool made it easier. It does get heavy after awhile, but anything would. I am happy I purchased this.

Buy it! I think of all the mud I’ve sanded by hand over the years and I want to cry! Just took this for an hour test drive and WOW! They include 60 - 240 grit in the box. Unless your removing a popcorn ceiling you won’t need anything less than 150 grit. 120 even takes it down much to fast. (If you really screw up the mud, this machine will take it off FAST!) Just use light pressure, appropriate grit and variable speed and it works like a charm & leaves you with a beautiful smooth finish ready for primer. It is a little heavy but your hand holds near the motor so it’s not too bad. The suction around the edge works great and collects 98% of the dust but not much suction in the middle. (See photo of clogged holes) Connected to my RIDGID shop vac the dust is minimal. Whether you have one room or remodeling an entire apartment like I currently am it’s worth every penny! *don’t forget to order extra 150 & 240 grit paper. Found a few vendors selling 30 piece for $16 - $18 range. * Update: I did not purchase the sander with both attachments. I only got the round head and now wishing I'd gotten the system with both attachments included. I have not been able to find replacement heads to buy thus far online so have an email into WEN. Hoping to be able to buy the triangle attachement. Will make sanding in the edges / corners 1000X easier. Happy Sanding!

Update: I moved this product up to 4 stars. I still do not love it, but it gets the job done quick. I did another 24x12 ceiling and this just took down the high spots and gave me a uniform finish I cannot speak ill of. It can wobble a bit because of how the motor is mounted and the weight distribution, but at the end of the day as a DIYer I can't beat the price point. I'd feel worse if I had a $600 tool on the shelf 364 days a year. A better shop vac would improve dust collection for me, in a perfect world I would buy more hose and route it outside. Works ok, I really wanted to love it but I do not. Wen tools are decent quality and priced for homeowners like me. It takes a lot of focus on ceilings to not hop or dig in on an edge. The dust gills clog a bit really fast so check often. Moving to a less course grit (150 or greater) on some skim coats I did to slow it down a bit. When I move fast I miss spots. It is reasonably good at dust removal which is why I bought it. Hand sanding a ceiling is just messy, even if I have to touch a few misses by hand it meets that goal of mine.

I’ve rented the expensive porter cable sander for prior renovation, this Wen accomplishes the same thing. Getting a clean finish is mainly about technique. Sure it wobbles a bit if you let it chatter, but it’s easy to adjust pressure, direction of travel, tool orientation, arm movement, or RPM to make it stop, same goes for the porter cable. Take all this with a grain of salt, I’ve only sanded <2000sq ft combined with either brand. My mistake with the rental is that I sanded too much. Near zero dust if you have a filter sock or other prefilter thingy on your vacuum. Didn’t bother to put up plastic for what you see in video. No thin layer of dust on nearby surfaces. Just let the pad breath occasionally so you don’t cake up and reduce suction. Brush off your filter sock when you hear your vacuum motor starting to stress and your CFMs drop (every 10-15min?). Wen specific feedback: -No complaints on build quality. -Pad size is fine, the included sandpaper does not hit bristles. -You may need a hose adapter, I just taped together something I had on hand. (I’m usually against using tape) General Tips, some of it common sense: -Scrape off your high spots before sanding, careful not to gouge or else you get to mud some more -Center the sandpaper as best you can, this really matters -Don’t overheat your vacuum. Reduce suction with breather on Wen if you have to, more prefably where your hose diameters change -Use a bright flashlight <b>parallel</b> with the surface to easily check for imperfections. Gradual humps are fine and expected if you floated a non-recessed seam. -Don’t oversand your new/untouched drywall, the paper will start to pill, feather, etc -Let the pad and hoses breathe ocassionally to clear any caking to keep your CFMs up -If you’re new at this, there’s an art to not sanding too much or too little. Have confidence, you’ll do great. -Use a filter sock or prefilter device For the project in this video, the finish became good enough to project directly on the painted wall with an Epson 5040ub. ~150”. Used to be a fireplace. Will eventually have a ceiling mounted recessed drop down screen and a new fireplace. Only temporary. Video wasn’t really meant for a review, but here you go.

I had no idea how easy sanding a large wall could be. I needed to remove the textured paint from a bedroom wall. I am a 56 year old woman. This was the easiest and fastest way to remove multiple layers of paint from drywall. The product performed very well. Very sturdy and durable. It was very comfortable and easy to use. I was amazed at how easy it was to sand such a large room. The only thing that I would prepare for is the dust. Even though some dust was eliminated there still was a bit of dust. I would close off the area and have a way to circulate the dust outside. Overall if you have a big area to sand, then I would highly recommend this product.

I took on the challenge of renovating my home myself, and one of the biggest headaches was taping and sanding drywall. Hand sanding was a complete nightmare—dust everywhere, uneven spots, and my arms were ready to fall off. I finally caved and got this sander, and it made a world of difference. It saved me so much time and effort, especially on ceilings, which now look smooth and even. That being said, it’s not perfect. The build quality feels decent but not super durable, and I wouldn’t rely on it for professional use. The hose is long enough to give good reach, but it does get in the way sometimes. The dust collection helps, but it’s not 100%—there’s still some cleanup involved. Still, for personal projects, it does the job well, and I don’t regret getting it. It saved me from hiring a pro, which meant more money in my pocket.

For the easy price of this drywall sander, I wanted to see how it would do on my old (large) pine deck with 2x6 deck boards, so that I wouldn't have to rent a large professional sander or hire someone to do it. Using 40/60 grit discs, it actually did a fair job, albeit slow. Given the age of the deck, some of the boards are canoe-warped (sagging in the middle between the edges) and some are ridged with age and years of power-washing. This sander won't handle either of these very well. It just wont shave off that much wood. Overall tho, it livened up most of the deck pretty decently, taking off a thin top layer of wood. The machine itself is a workhorse, no problems at all, even putting some downward pressure on the sander.

I bought this because I had a 22 sheet room to finish and 2 more smaller rooms to do also later and I am sick of drywall dust in my contacts and lungs and all over everything in the house even though its a construction site. Also bought a dewalt 10 gal self cleaning dust extractor (awesome!) to go with this sander. I got the dewalt dw9180 adapter and took a dremel with a cutoff wheel and ground out the inside threads out of the adapter so it fit over the end of the wen hose end and then epoxied the adapter onto the end of the wen hose. it works perfect. I added an extension cord between the sander and the vac and now with the vac hose attached to the wen hose and the extension cord I an get easily 20 feet or so away w/o dragging the vac along. just me but I found out running the sander on a slow speed with a 120 grit disc is what works good for me. I found laying the sander off to the side of the mud on the drywall first and moving the sander over onto the joint leaves less gouges in the mud and pulling it quickly away from the wall also helps but of course ymmv . this is a work out so don't think it is easy but it makes a nice smooth joint and you can move along pretty fast until needing a break. also you will still have to hand and pole sand angles etc the sander obviously wont get in corners. I recommend it the price is imo real decent!