Behr paint isn't as bad as everyone says

[Mike Circo]

So, I'll go against the grain and disagree.
Behr is some of the worst paint I've every purchased. I even got so frustrated that I returned a couple of gallons.

The ceiling paint was useless. It was thin and ran down my arm, dripped off the roller onto the floor and walls, and didn't cover worth crud. And, Yes, I had it mixed/stirred at the store.
Some Behr latex interior paint was similar. Poor coverage, hard to use, and generally not a quality I would have expected for the price. Some bathroom paint I got from Behr was almost porous after it was dry, not a good quality for a high moisture environment.

In both cases I eventually went with Valspar paint. Much better application, coverage and dried quality. (and made a few miles from me!).
Sherwin Williams is my second favorite.

Maybe I just got unlucky, but overall I was massively dissatisfied with Behr.

[Phil Thien]

I have never had problems getting any name-brand paint to cover.

Most of the people I've seen struggle with this are having problems getting the paint on the wall. Either their roller needs longer nap or they need to load more paint onto the roller or they need better light and to maybe get their eyes checked.

Most of the paint issues I run into are long term durability on outdoor products.

[John Coloccia]

There's no such thing as "Behr Paint", anymore than there's such a thing as "Chevy Car". A Cavalier is not the same as a Corvette. Behr Ultra has become my goto paint. I use it the way you should use paint. It gets a primer, and two coats. I don't paint for a living. I'm just doing tasks around the house. I can use any paint I want. An few bucks here or there for a different brand won't mean diddly squat to me. I started using it over Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams for the simple fact that it came highly recommended by several pros I know, and once I tried it myself I decided that it was at least as nice as BM or SW, and it was hyper convenient to simply go to Home Depot and get exactly what I need...because they're always in stock. And if my local one isn't, the one a few miles away is.

Behr Ultra is one of the few things that Home Depot's gotten right.

Just my opinion.

[Ole Anderson]

I don't get all of the trashing of Behr paint. I have used several paints over the years and Behr is now my go-to paint for walls and has been for at least 10 years. I haven't tried the new Marquee yet, but the standard Behr Premium goes on like soft butter and covers all but a drastic color change in one coat, no primer, if you know how to load and use a good roller cover. As stated in a recent thread, I just painted off white over a fairly dark blue in two coats. But like GM trashing, don't bring up a bad experience 20 years ago and keep rehashing it, assuming things don't change.

[David Weaver]

I don't get all of the trashing of Behr paint. I have used several paints over the years and Behr is now my go-to paint for walls and has been for at least 10 years. I

You don't get the trashing, and I don't get why people like it I never had it cover well in one coat when covering an already painted surface.

Different strokes for different folks. I like S-W's offerings better, but I don't much like their prices and don't just go buy.

I found something else out at S-W, and that is that my windows came with an S-W number. When I got trim paint to match, it matched *exactly*. When I got exterior behr paint color matched that paint at HD, it didn't. It's not too far off, but if I point it out, people can tell pretty easily.

After reading all of this, I googled paint contractor boards and the contractor talk seems to gravitate toward BM and SW. The contractors thought the behr and kilz ratings on CR were pretty funny (so did I), and noted at least one instance where branding changed on a product but nothing else, and the next test it went from near the top to the very bottom. There are a couple of things that I've seen lately on CR that caused me to cancel my subscription, and that's one. Their scrub tests and such on the paint are fine, but they are somewhat irrelevant to me having used both types of paint. I've also noticed other things (like vacuums) where I don't agree with their ratings at all, because they don't seem to do much to help a consumer who wants to do more than take a vacuum out and test it for 15 minutes.

The same contractors said they charge more if a homeowner demands behr paint, and put a stipulation in the contract that if it doesn't cover, the H.O. has to pay for additional coats.

The one thing I like about CR is their car reliability ratings data (as in actual data from a large pool), but it's not worth the trouble to maintain an entire subscription for it, and they keep trying to create additional content that requires additional dollars to read - and pointing me toward the articles only to find that I'm supposed to pay more than my already paid subscription, and I don't appreciate that, either.

[Myk Rian]

Have you primed first? What color is the new color? What was the old color before? Drywall or texture?
You can get away with bedrooms, but I would never do only 1 coat in bathrooms.

It was Pearl, beige/pink. It's now a Sage green. Drywall, and no primer.
I never said we did the bath with it.

Two coats will outperform

1 coat in terms of durability, protection, wash ability.

Well, yeah. But we didn't need 2 coats.

[Rich Enders]

I went to Home Depot to pick up some Behr, and the sales guy suggested Glidden Premium Paint + Primer. $22/gal...! I haven't done any painting in years, and what a pleasure this was to use. Earlier someone mentioned that paints have improved in general, so maybe this is just typical of the whole field. Either way it went on well, and you cannot tell where the rolling and the edging overlap. It covered easily in one coat (sage green over contractor's favorite bone).

So after such a good result we decided to do another bedroom. I went back to Home Depot and the Glidden was $10 off. One other detail: I since had to punch holes in the drywall to run cables, and then patch and repaint. You cannot see where it was repainted so at least for the moment there has been no fading.