Customer Reviews for Powermate Air Sandblaster with 50 lb. Hopper

Kinda works. Not durable at all. If you have a job you can get done with this in an hour or two and then you plan to toss it in the trash, go for it. I used Back Bull no. 80 garnet in mine. It lasted about two hours before the ceramic nozzle insert had a few holes blown in the side of it. Maybe glass beads would be better? The garnet was right out of the pot...so I know it was dry. The flow was intermittent. I'm using an 80 gal/5hp compressor. It is very easy to set up, though. You can be up and running in five minutes right out of the box. You will need a male air nipple (sold separately). I had a 9 sqft area of brick I wanted to remove paint from. I got about 2/3 of the way done before the blaster gave up the ghost. The nozzle provides a very narrow stream of abrasive. It was pretty slow going.

Rating provided by a verified purchaser

Pretty much worthless. One must have a very large compressor for it to even function. I tried multiple mediums with minimal success. Literally less work to sand off paint and rust. You get what you pay for, in this case a 50 dollar paperweight.

Good for light blasting projects

Product is a waste of time. Spent over half a day attempting to get it to work following directions. Air compressor was adequate. Sand was new and dry. Bought other parts to go on airline. Finally returned all items to store.

Any sandbluster requires industrial grade air compressor, and it should be specified in the description. These items should not be sold at HD, but at the professional stores. You will not be able to use it at home with a regular air compressor.

This product deserves 0 stars. I had read the reviews and some reviewers gave it a good rating. I figured after 45 years as a mechanical engineer and numerous patents that if anyone could make this work then I could. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I have spent the last 2 days trying to get this piece of Chinese junk to work with absolutely no success. My air compressor is 60 gallons and plumbed to deliver over 25 scfm of air at 90 psig with a centrifugal air filter/dryer rated at 98% efficiency, even threw in another dryer at the end of the line. Living in Colorado where if the humidity is at 10% everyone complains about how damp it is two dryers are more than enough. All I ever got was a stray bit of sand. I bought this about 9 months ago and just yesterday needed to use it so I believe it is non-returnable. I truly do believe that the good ratings were bought. I'd say this sandblaster sucks but it being a siphon feed sand blaster I would be very happy if it did suck. I challenge Powermate to prove me wrong.

The gun in this kit is junk. Very cheap pot metal, poor machining, and just plain doesn't work. I tried 2 different medias, with the same result. Have disassembled and reassembled the gun numerous times to figure out what is going wrong, but to no avail. The plastic hopper is nice, but if the gun won't pull the media, what's the point. I even shortened the hose to 3 feet, but still only get a few seconds of sand, then nothing but air coming out the nozzle. Buy a different product.

I prepared to use this to sand blast part of my foundation wall. After setting everything up by the book, I tried to use it, but no sand would come out. After trying several things, I contacted customer support. It turns out that my compressor did not have the CFM to operate this unit. You need 7 CFM at 90 PSI, which I would assume that most DYIers do not have at home.

If you're sandblasting large items, look elsewhere. But for the hobbyist looking for a small unit for light duty work it does the job. I used it with walnut shells for a small job and have no complaints, it did exacly what I wanted. I'll keep it for other small jobs even though I have a larger unit due to it's small size, light weight, and ease of use. A respirator or a dust mask is a good companion to this unit.

The hopper worked well for my at home jobs. I purchased a coal slag to work with the sandblaster, and it worked pretty darn good. Easy to put together. I actually needed to purchase a connector for the gun but, that's about it. I sandblasted my outside metal chairs, harmonic balance, pulley, and headers. Still need to do a metal door. So I would definitely recommend this hopper. It is at an affordable price and does the job right.

it worked as advertised, you will need the special sand and couplings to attach to your air compressor.

I had great success with this but you have to follow some basic rules. First, It needs a ton of air. I was shooting 5cf at 50psi. Anything less won't work. I was using glass beads on my pool/spa tile. It took 15 years of white off. Second, you must use a dryer. I used throwaway ones from HF for $1.99.

If you are thinking of buying this unit with Walnut or Pecan shell media....forget it. It won't remove anything. This unit works well with play or silica sand or blaster media. It needs a dryer because a small amount of moisture coming out of the compressor will choke up the media. Be sure to use it with a mask cause you can get silicosis.

While the proper parts are there, they just didn't function and when I tried to clean it out after use it became clear the parts were just cheaply made and would not last long. The product only worked for approximately 15 seconds and then continually clogged. I replaced this with a product that cost 1/2 the price and worked great from the 1st try on.

inferior product........product operated for only 10 minutes before plugging up. I got less than 5% of the job done. Product is uselss. May as well rent a more superior device .....at least you can get your job done. A waste of money and time