Behr Paint Colors Chart 4054
Paints from Benjamin Moore, Kilz and Valspar accept replaced Behr in the No. 1 spots in Consumer Reports' latest ratings of autogenous paints.
It had been a Behr bazaar aback 2003, with the Home Depot cast application every top atom but one in Consumer Reports' ratings categories of autogenous paints. But in CR's latest tests, paints from Benjamin Moore, Kilz and Valspar belted into aboriginal place.
Behr hasn't collapsed to the basal of the best interior-paint archive - its collapsed and semigloss paints arete an accomplished all-embracing score, and the low-luster a actual good. But the casual of the acrylic stirrer, er, billy is a admonition that paints are in connected flux. Manufacturers boggle with formulas to advance performance, accommodated ecology regulations and cut costs.
CR called the afterward articles as CR Best Buys: Amid low-luster products: Kilz Casual Colors Satin (Wal-Mart) $19; for collapsed paints, Behr Exceptional Plus Enamel (Home Depot) $22; Kilz Casual Colors, $18; and Dutch Boy Home (Wal-Mart), $15; and amid semigloss finishes, Dutch Boy Home (Wal-Mart), $18.
The compound revamping can accomplish it difficult to analyze the argot and claims consumers see on cans at a home centermost or acrylic store: Valspar touts its "Advanced Ti3 Technology," Benjamin Moore reveals its "Authentic ColorLock" system, Dutch Boy promises "Single Covering Application" and Ace pledges "25 Years of Durability."
To advice bodies acquisition the best choice, CR's experts ran dozens of paints through a array of tests to admeasurement ambuscade power, stain resistance, apparent accuracy and added characteristics. Here's what they found:
¢ Mixed marks for low-VOC finishes. VOCs are solvents in acrylic that get arise into the air as consumers use the finish. They can account headaches, blackout and added astute symptoms. The abiding furnishings are beneath certain, but, according to the U.S. Ecology Aegis Agency, some VOCs acclimated in paints are accepted or doubtable carcinogens.
To advice barrier blast pollution, the federal government caps the VOC agreeable of acrylic at 250 grams per liter (g/l) for collapsed finishes and 380 g/l for others. The beating adjoin the aboriginal low-VOC paints was that they lacked the backbone and the burnish alternative of higher-VOC finishes. (No zero-VOC paints CR activated best afresh were awful rated.) But companies now accomplish top-quality lower-VOC paint. High-scoring Benjamin Moore Aura, True Value Accessible Care and Glidden Evermore low-luster articles accommodate beneath than 50 g/l of VOCs. Look for the VOC akin on cans.
¢ Bright spots for achromatize resistance. Fading has continued been a problem, consistent in walls that get lighter over time as they're apparent to sunlight. But manufacturers arise to be convalescent the achromatize attrition of their paints. More than bisected of the articles CR activated in the best autogenous paints advised bear acceptable or bigger protection.
¢ One-coat options expand. CR's testers articular 14 paints that are acceptable or bigger at accoutrement a allegory blush with one coat, up from nine in CR's aftermost report.
How to choose
¢ Avoid dark artefact loyalty. CR's latest tests acknowledge that consistently affairs the aforementioned acrylic ability not be a astute choice. The Cast X accomplishment consumers admired the aftermost time they corrective is apparently not the aforementioned as what's on shelves today. Consult www.ConsumerReports.org for ratings on autogenous paints to accomplish abiding that a above admired accomplishment still shines.
¢ Accede the gloss. Collapsed paints adumbrate imperfections but are not the best stain resistant, so they're best in adorning settings, such as a active allowance or dining room. High-sheen semigloss paints are accessible to apple-pie but their appearance can change, so use them on trim, windows and doors. Low-luster paints about amalgamate the best of both categories, consistent in an all-around abiding acrylic that's accessible to clean.
¢ Think quality, not quantity. Consistently accede top-of-the-line products. Factoring in the absolute amount of painting, which includes materials, activity costs and activity span, a acrylic that endures for 10 years will set bodies aback beneath than one that lasts bisected that time. Consumers won't accept to biking far for exceptional paint. Articles awash at Home Depot (Behr), Lowe's (Valspar) and Wal-Mart (Kilz) are amid CR's top performers.
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