Customer Reviews for Varathane 1-qt. Woodcare Sanding Sealer (2-Pack)

As done many times before using lacquer based sealer, I thought I’d avoid the respirator and use this water based product to seal and get a clean sanded edge on laminated 1/2 ext grade sheathing. Applied with brush and waited for it to dry. Hour later the edges all furred. Waited another day for product to dry completely, then applied high VOC lacquer based sealer to repair edges. Waste of time and money. PS. Not all reviews posted online are bogus.

Home depot stopped carrying zinser alkyld Sander sealer so I figured I would give what they had a try. Dries milky, looks splotchy and every nail has a radiating black stain... I just suffered over $20,000 loss. This is a disaster. I am furious and am considering a lawsuit and that is something I just don't do. This product is that bad!

Thought I'd give this a try. Horrible mistake. It did not dry clear and yes, I applied a very thin coat. I sanded it down with 220 as always. Wiped it down and applied polyurethane. You can see a milky white haze under the poly. Absolutely horrible product. Attached a few pics. Look worse in person.

I have used 30+ gallons of oil based varathanr in the past with outstanding results, prompting me to purchase the sanding sealer without question. WRONG, BAD IDEA!! Applied to vintage distressed barn wood. As other reviews indicated... WHITE despite temperatures, humidity, and wood moisture content as manufacturer claims. Impossible to apply a light enough coat on such wood in order to get it into the natural desirable defects and deep grain. This crappy finish can not be removed with sanding in my situation rendering this rare commodity as firewood. Not only am I out the $80 for the white wash sanding sealer, I’m out hundreds in wood and untold hours in preparation. Exceedingly disappointed. I won’t bother to contact the company as their acceptance of poor performance is clear based on reading through the reviews. I wish I had prior.

I've always used an oil based sanding sealer. HD no longer carries it at my local store. I was very worried that it would work as well as the oil based product. To my great delight it works even better. My drawer fronts had the grain raise more than I am used to seeing, but it sanded easily with 220 grit paper to a glass smooth surface. Top coating with sprayed satin oil based finish took only 2 coats to provide professional results. The 1hour dry time really speeds up the process. This is now my go to sanding sealer.

I read a lot of reviews and questions, on this product and thought the pros outweighed the cons. Wrong. As you can see by the photo, this does NOT dry clear. This was applied to birch plywood after sanding and thoroughly cleaning. Room temp was about 65, very low humidity. After 3 hours, this is what I had. I've sanded it all off and will try the Minwax that others have suggested. If I can find it. Our local HD has a poor selection of anything I need, including Minwax products.

Great stuff. Worked great on live wood Osage Orange tables. I incorporated different color epoxies then aplied the Varathane( gloss) and sanded in between coats down to 2000 grit.then added feet on reverse.

DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT!!! STAY AWAY!!! USE MINWAX SANDING SEALER ONLY!!! Working on a high end project so I picked this product up instead of the Minwax sanding sealer that we normally use. Opened the can and it was really white but it said it dries clear so we put it on our table. Put the pieces inside to dry overnight and the table pieces have dried WHITE!!!! This table has live edge on the outside and inside of it and we have several cracks and crevasses that are white. I called the company and they said that Denatured Alcohol would take the white out. So we used that and then sanded the flat parts. The white comes back after sanding. OMG!!!! This is a complete disaster. Called them today and they said the product was not used in optimal weather conditions so hate it for you. Are you kidding me. When we use MinWax Sanding Sealer in any weather condition it drys clear and shinny.

Brushability was poor, drying too quickly, and not remaining smoothe. Required lots of sanding between coats. I went back to an Minwax product to finish the project.

It dries within the hour depending on temperature. It seals the wood good and accepts the lacquer well.

What a difference it makes! I've never used a Sanding Sealer before. Its job is to seal the wood without making itself noticeable and this does. It is water-soluble, easy to apply and to clean up. It dries very quickly. You can apply, sand it down (I used a 220 grit sanding sponge), and then reapply. If you are diligent, you can apply three coats in a day. My clear Varathane poly coating afterwards and it applied beautifully, coating the wood and looking clear and smooth. I will be using this again, on future projects.

I have always use sander sealer. Will I continue to use it? NO....It was unbelievably high priced. Good luck selling it. If I looked at the price before I checked out. Well I would not have bought it.

Rather have minwax stain

Terrible, terrible. Disastrous. A nightmare. Dried crumbly and milky; the required sanding with 220 grit did nothing to improve the appearance. Had to sand my project back to bare wood. Lost two days of work. Sticking to Minwax.

This is a water-based sealer. May react with woods that have high iron content do to soil conditions where the tree is grown, etc. Water based sealer/ finish may cause black spots by causing reaction of iron with tannins in the wood when contacted by water. This sealer caused the exact problem which I purchased it in order to avoid. Never using this sanding sealer again and will stick with shellac-based sealers.

Really evened out the stain versus staining on bare wood

Sealed the wood prior to the application of poly. It provided a rich deep enhancement to the wood. It brings out the grain and provides a good base for the poly..

Luckily I tested this on a hidden part of the work before applying to the whole thing. Like everyone says, it goes on *very* white and stays that way. Doesn't level well and thus sanding causes some burn through on the stain (very visible with dark stain). Next, coated with poly and compared the finish to an area without the sanding sealer : the visual "pop" in the wood grain was completely gone where this product was applied. Redid another part with minwax sealer and got FAR better results.