Hi Zobeet!
Whew...$50+ per gal.?! I read that article a couple times, and noticed the tinting-machine price right away! I'm about 95% sure it's a COROB (made in Italy)...and probably uses Tikkurila waterborne colorants (made in Finland as CPS color).

We were leery of the "over-$40/gal." C2 pricepoint initially, but P&L, & S/W were there with their top-lines already, so we went for it.

C2 colorants aren't water-based (not many are...yet), but the nozzle-wetting cover/process is necessary on tinters of this type. Our tinter for C2 was well north of the price mentioned, so I can see why some dealers will balk at that kind of investment, given how much Aura they may sell.

I apologize for kind of a boring post here...just thought some of the "gweb" fans might like some geeky "behind-the-paint-counter" info.!

I enjoyed the info. Thanks!

That price is very fair for quality paints. When you plan for painting, break it down to square foot increments. Divide that can price by 400 and then you will realize how inexpensive quality really is.

Michael

Michael & Zobeet,
Wow! Michael...that should've been so obvious...I never thought of it THAT way! $50/400sf= 12.5 cents per sf. per coat. Pretty inexpensive! Similarly, a $35 gallon is about 9 cents per sf per coat. That's definately food-for-thought for people thinking about cutting corners on a paint job.

I almost forgot! The most recent Menard's ad was advertising $4.50/gal paint (after a rebate...). I was feeling a little queasy when I saw that! Might be fair to say that 2% milk would give it a run for the money...;-)

P.S....I'm hoping we never have to switch out the colorant in our COROB (sounds kinda like a "Borg"-thing on Star Trek...) from universal Tikkurila colorants to water-based. 16 cylinders + all the pump-motors, lines, & canisters. It would take a DAY or more.
>>> This COULD BE another reason for some slow Aura implementation in some stores IF they already have a Corob tinter.

Gosh! More of my geekiness here...
Faron

California rules will have forced new, clean, formulating.
The major coatings companies will have comprehensive color selections - all of which will be available in the clean paint chemistry.
The few mega-powers will also make this chemistry available for end-users at very competitive prices based on their leading manufacturing efficiencies.
LoweÂs and Home Depot together will operate nearly 4,000 stores by 2010. Their paint departments will lead with this technology and those products will continue to curry favor with the consumer magazines.
Sherwin-Williams with its many nearly complete clean coatings technologies will have perfected that chemistry by 2010 and it, too, will feature those products in its nearly 3000 North American store locations. Its Consumer Group will also offer such products to their un-owned outlets.
How many Aura gallons will be sold and through how many stores?

check out this demo on AURA. it demonstrates t covering over marker then washing it off

Here is a link that might be useful: AURA NO PRIMER DEMONSTRATION *SUPERIOR

By the year 2010, Aura will probably be crap and we will be looking for the next miracle paint. It seems to only take about 2 years before a new paint is reformulated and all you hear from painters is things like, "Man, that paint sure was great when it first came out....what happened?" Now that I have been in the painting business for a while, I'm familiar with the cycle and understand that there is a pretty good chance that I will be switching products every few years until I retire.

The Home Depot has introduced Freshaire paints, which utilize green technology even down to the biodegradable paint cans. They are moving ahead with this program which uses no voc colorants. Look for more changes in the near future. We still don't have voc rules in place here yet.

Pratt and Lambert Red Seal Porcelain is green technology, except for the colorants. That will probably change in the future.