The best paint rollers

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• With a good paint roller, you can coat a good-sized wall in a matter of minutes. Or, you can paint a whole room, ceiling, and all in just a couple of hours — setup and cleanup included.
• The Wooster Brush Company R017 Sherlock GT Roller is our top pick because it has an extra-wide, smoothly-rolling 14-inch head that lays down extra wide swaths of paint while affording you reliable control.

Paint rollers may seem universal, but different types are actually ideally suited to specific projects. One might be perfect for the detail work that comes with painting furniture or cabinetry, while another was purpose-built for painting ceilings. Some are cheap but effective, while others are professional-grade power tools designed with the serious painter in mind.

Many of these specific benefits relate to the paint roller frames, not the covers. The frames are the reusable hardware with the rolling wire frame, the handle, often with an extension pole, and so on.

However, roller covers are also important. You have to choose the right roller cover for the type of paint and surface you'll be painting or there's nothing even the finest roller frame can do for you.

The smoother the surface, the thinner the "nap" you want on your roller. Think of roller "nap" as shagginess, for a reference point. A shag carpet would have a thick nap, while a sheet of silk would have the thinnest. If you're painting a stucco wall with all sorts of texture and depth, you need a roller with a thick, deep nap to work its way into all those nooks and crannies.

But on a smooth surface, thick nap rollers will leave a finish that looks uneven and shoddy. Wood panel or drywall, for example, need a much thinner nap, measuring a quarter-inch of depth or even less. For projects such as painting on glass or smooth metals, consider using foam or rubber roller covers that are effectively flat.

• Best overall: Wooster Brush Company R017 Sherlock GT Roller
• Best for ceilings: HomeRight PaintStick EZ-Twist Paint Roller Applicator
• Best narrow roller: Wooster Brush Company 3-inch Roller

Updated on 8/10/2020 to edit titles, prices, formatting, links, and remove third-party ratings and reviews because we've found them to be unreliable in the past.