Dulux Aquanamel Gloss

I used this on the weekend and have the same complaints as most others….streaking and dragging and patchwork finish, even after three coats. I will need to buy something else to go over it. Worst paint I’ve ever used. Show details

Absolute hack here. Well.....I painted a couple of walls in my home 20 years ago. That's the extent of my experience. I practically studied to use this aquanamel paint. I watched a few YouTube vids, including from Dulux themselves. I read loads of opinions and experiences. So then I felt confident in what I was about to embark on. The first… Read more ·  1

couple of inside window frames, originally painted with oil based gloss, were sanded back to a dull finish all over. I washed the whole frames with sugar soap and allowed to dry. I gave two coats of Dulux 1 Step Prep (probably should have done just one coat). I've put one coat of the Dulux Aquanamel Gloss onto one frame so far, and it looks magic. I used a 100mm microfibre roller with a 4mm nap. I took care to roll it out in small sections, then lay it off. I think the complaints about this paint probably stem from using it in hot weather, or using the wrong roller nap size, or playing with the paint, as in fidgeting with it after painting it on (let it do it's thing!), or poor preparation. Maybe poor quality brushes if your brushing, or bristles that are too stiff (you need a SOFT brush for this stuff!).

It's a great paint. My only problem is I took notice of someone who said the gloss is more like a semi-gloss. No idea what gave rise to their assessment of that. The gloss is very glossy.

I'd like to have used semi-gloss, in hindsight. I might still grab some and redo the windows.

Great paint folks, if you follow the correct advice on how to use it.

5 stars love this product – We’ve been using aqua enamel on doors, door jams and window frames for years. Love this product. It’s defiantly sensitive to different temps but after using it for so long it’s easy to work with. I’ve tried other enamel paints in different brands and they are awful. Will always stick with dulux aqua enamel, it’s worth the money and always leaves a perfect finish. An added bonus is it doesn’t smell awful! Show details ·  1

Nice paint – At first I found it a bit hard to use as it left streaks (Brush strokes). After having used it for a while I noted it’s very sensitive to heat and humidity. Where I live is quite hot and dry so I usually paint when it’s early morning or the humidity is up a bit. For doors I use 100 mm expensive brush and end up with a mirror finish. (I remove door and paint flat) Very happy with the product. Show details ·  1

Painting over five coats of undercoat should be a dream but this paint is thin and has no depth.The can this 2 coats,this is not true .This paint needs 3 or 4 coats to even look rubbish.I am an experienced painter using a good quality Purdue brush.If you are not happy with this paint please take it back to the retailer. Show details

Very disappointed with this paint. After all the effort of sanding and undercoating door frames and doors only to have a poor finish with the final gloss coat is frustrating. Most door frames are steel. The brush strokes look terrible. Tried mixing in floetrol which was a improvement, but still substandard. In anycase why pay the extra for an additive to improve an already expensive product. Will sand back and revert to oil based gloss paint. Show details

Hopeless product – I gave up after 2 coats because the paint just wasn’t able to cover basic marks - and these were pencil marks! No depth and probably the worst paint I have used for a long time. Going back to get another brand and crossing Dulux off my list! Pleased I read the other reviews as I was trying to figure what I was doing wrong. Answer is nothing. Do not buy this paint folks! Show details

Should have gone with a cheap brand! – Normally wouldn’t buy Dulux paint because of past experience with their other brands, however the colour I picked for our front door was a Dulux colour so to avoid any colour discrepancy went with Dulux. $74.00 for 1 litre of paint I expected a reasonable quality. The paint was so runny it was difficult to apply. Coverage is meant to be 16sqm per… Read more

litre…. We painted one door and the tin is bone dry. Calling it Gloss is a bit of a stretch as well. Last time we will use Dulux…..

No gloss – I do maintenance in a hotel and we thought we would give it a go on the doors as the oil based stinks the hotel out. We got gloss but there is hardly any sheen to it at all. There's not much difference between that and the Dulux wash and wear we put on the walls . Disappointing for a 2 litre can costing $90 from Bunnings. Odd product. Show details

Avoid this paint! – Dulux Aquanamel - avoid at all costs! We've renovated more times than I can count and I've never had so much trouble getting a good finish from a paint! Cheap rollers...expensive rollers....paint brushes of varying size and quality....nothing gets a good result! Everything leaves marks or streaks. Never, ever again! Show details

Paint chips easily – I barely tapped my bathroom door and paint chipped off. You need to put like 5 coats of vivid to get any decent cover. It’s watery and doesn’t harden as it says it should. I am disappointed in dulux. Use to be my favourite paint. Not anymore.

Paint is a Milky yellow colour – I brought the aqua enamel gloss. Have used the same product in the past and loved it. The paint is a milky yellow colour whic I thought weird. Then tried to paint with it and i it had no colour and was like painting with egg yolk. Is my tin of paint off??? It is unuseable Show details

Dulux instructions are pitiful – I have found the lack of clear instructions by Dulux on what preparation, Primer type and how to apply Aquanamel over existing enamel, to be less than One Star. No wonder the product is failing. The product may be better than reviewed if instructions were far better. Show details

Bloody awful! – Using Dulux Aquanamel semigloss in white, I found relative easy...then moving to the tinted gloss for the trims and a two doors was not only difficult to apply as it kept streaking and drying so quickly (like in a few a minutes), that's it, and I have only painted one side of the door. A waste of time, money and effort...not cheap at $120 as only… Read more

1 litre or 4 litres and the outlet advised the latter quantity. My only consolation; it is not my application skills...looking at the reviews, and being able to vent my spleen here.

Drippiest paint ever – What's the point of an enamel paint that won't hold a bead. Finish is ok but it runs like water if put on thickly and drips off a cut skirting board even when put on lightly. If a product needs to be used with an under coat perhaps make sure the people selling it know to tell the customer?

Tried this product about 5 years ago and hated it – I am about to paint 5 exterior doors and I was considering using aquanamel hoping it may have improved since I last tried it. After reading the reviews on this post I can see nothing has changed. The paint is appalling to apply and trying to get a good finish is near on impossible. My local paint shop keeps pushing it over enamel but thanks to these reviews I won’t waste my time and money. Show details

What's happened to this paint ?? – I had seen a lot of negative reviews of this paint, but , I went ahead and purchased it to paint a fair bit of trim around the house (14 window frames). First 4 lt tin I purchased went on fairly smoothly. Yeah brush strokes are visible but nice clean look. Decided to purchase a 2nd tin a few months later to do door trim. Paint was on back order… Read more

with 3 week wait from Bunnings. Gave me a ring when it came in. Door frames prepped and ready to go while waiting for paint to arrive. Got it home, stirred it up and straight away it didn't seem right. Started painting and the paint seemed to dry immediately on the brush. Really dragging the paint. Couldn't get a decent coat. Had a few drips on floor that sat for around for 2 mins. Wholly crap !! I could literally chip them off with my finger nail. Whatever the hardener or setting agent is in this paint is , is obviously way out of proportion in this tin. You just can't use it. Really frustrating as now I am going to have to strip it back and go with traditional enamel which yellows quickly in our hot area. Oh well, unfortunately Dulux have changed my mind on this paint and I join the knockers of this paint. Quality control is an important part of any business.

Rubbish – What rubbish this is. Bought the Gloss Vivid White from Bunnings (of course). I did undercoat everything as well. Same problems as a lot of others. Touch dry in 30mins, Crap. Painted in 22 degrees inside temperature of house and doing side of Window Frame and getting drag brush marks within a minute of painting. Doesn't hide well or smooths out. … Read more

Tried this morning in 16 degrees inside temperature and still have to be careful with brush marks and still does not smooth out. I had my suspicions when I read sand between coats. You shouldn't need to. As for the advice given by another reviewer about watering down and specialise equipment and techniques, you shouldn't need to. It suppose yo be for home handy persons not specialists. I bought a Monarch Brush that handles water base and oil base paints. $20.25c, not the dearest and also not the cheapest. Worst paint I have ever use. Do Not Buy. Don't bother trying to contact me. Try fixing your product. Daisie71 in the Semi-gloss part recommends getting Haymes Paints Gloss. Have a read.

Update: Added 10% Flood Floetrol this morning. Same 16 degrees temperature. It lasted a bit long before drying and a bit smoother, but, still bad. Why pay for a additive when you are already paying top dollar. I also returned 10 litres of Dulux Wash and Wear back to Bunnings just now. It had only 1.9 star rating and same problems. Since Dulux is no longer Australian owned I have no reason to stick with them and shall now on be buying Haymes products.

Impossible to get a good finish – I bought this paint for 2 exterior doors as recommended by Bunnings. I'm a DIY home painter but by no means inexperienced as I have renovated/painted 4 houses. After priming, sealing and undercoat with light sanding in-between I'm now looking at my 5th coat to try and get a smooth finish. I've tried foam and microfibre rollers of various sizes, in… Read more

fact the cost of the equipment is now almost equivalent to the cost of the paint. Not ideal when you're on a pension. The paint is touch dry in a few minutes which makes it virtually impossible to achieve an even spread of paint without roller/brush marks. Today I'm going back to Bunnings to buy a different brand and hopefully after sanding back I can achieve the result I want.

Avoid this paint [vivid white] at all cost. It is relatively expensive and has minimum coverage – Water clean up convenient but does not compensate for the shortfall in coverage. [vivid white] Perhaps other colours may give a better result but I will be looking for alternatives in the future. Up to 5 coats necessary to achieve satisfactory coverage on my internal balustrade and small cabinet. Waste of money and time. Show details

Gets great results with the right technique – Sorry to put down other reviewers but I've been using Aquanamel for my last three house renos and I get a nice gloss with excellent coverage. It's not the same super smooth high gloss finish you get from oil-based paint, but it's pretty good for water-based in my opinion. I do all my window + door trims and skirting in Aquanamel + also some door… Read more ·  1

styles

I agree this is not an easy paint to use and probably not the best for beginners. My builder even advised me against using it. Fortunately I work in construction and had some great advice from professional painters. I am not associated with Dulux in any way.

If anyone's interested, my tips to get a great result from this product are:

1. Buy a good brush. I spend $30-$40 on a gloss brush. You need really thick, soft bristles and a slightly rounded tip to reduce brush marks. 2. Thin the paint slightly. For trims + skirting I add about 10-15% water. For larger areas (eg doors), maybe around 30%. Note that more water reduces the gloss but increases the ease of application. 3. "Load up" the brush. Apply paint thickly, almost at the point of it running. The more paint you apply, the less it "picks" at drying/tacky paint. 3. You have to be fast and accurate. I start at the bottom of the left vertical door/window frame and work my way up, then around and back to the start. Paint around the entire frame as you go. You won't be able to go back over it until it's completely dry. If you miss a bit, cover it in your next coat. DON'T go back over tacky paint. 4. Painting to an edge is tricky. Unless you have a rock steady hand, I prefer to to either: A) Paint past the edge and touch it up later, or B) paint close to the edge and do my edge painting with a smaller brush the next day after the main coat is completely dry. 5. VERY IMPORTANT: To smooth the paint and reduce brush marks, "Tip the brush" as you go (Google this technique).

Very ugly result – This paint dries in about 10 seconds so it is impossible to finish a simple kitchen cabinet door smooth, without brush marks and rugged paint marks. I tried thinning a little but no difference. It costs almost double then other paints. Show details

Waste of money and time – This Paint produces horrible results using a brush application. It does not flow what so ever and leaves heavy brush marks. Bunnings should advise this to their customers when specifying it! It will leave you frustrated and having to resanding your frames. Show details

Disappointed – Very poor finish. Brush strokes and clots visible. Disappointed. I would not use this again. Show details