Customer Reviews
Not good for popcorn ceilings - Rent one and try out first 
2007-01-29
Normally I just buy a product based on reviews and so far I have been seldom disappointed. I am guessing that a lot of reviewers here are male, so maybe I thought I'd add my 2cents worth for the diyer gal like me.
I have done a lot of major projects around the home. Ripping out old wood/carpet, laying new wood/tile floors, installed a new kitchen, custom closets, re-did 3 bathrooms with a bit of help from my husband and from pros once in a while - so while I'm not a pro, I'm not talking through a hat either.
Just before I clicked the buy button, I decided I was going to check the Porter-Cable out first. HomeDepot does not sell it, but they carry the exact model in their rent shop. So I rented one and am glad that I did.
Our home was built in the 70s - and most rooms: den, four-bedrooms, upstairs landing: have acoustic/popcorn ceilings. We have been so jinxed with contractors (and the quotes were so high) that we decided to do it ourselves. Also a lot of professional feedback was - it is incredibly hard and messy. What we found out was that it sure is messy, but it is not that hard.
The very first con in this product, esp. for women, is that it is quite heavy. Because of the weight, and the power, it is easy to jack-knife and damage your ceiling. Also, someone here wrote that there is absolutely no/close-to-no dust if you use porter-cable, but my experience was that is was terribly and awfully dusty.
The suction power of the vaccum - we tried both our own shopvac and the one that came with porter-cable - did not help the performance either. It was so dusty that for a while we felt that nothing was being vacuumed - we thought all the mud was just coming down. Not true. We checked and found the vacuum bags were sucking up dust, just not enough. By the time we did a 3x5 area we gave up. But the deed was done, it was not that we could give up at this point.
So we decided we'd try the old-fashioned way. We went to the store and bought a couple of ceiling scrapers (available on Amazon: look for Homax) - these have a little handle that holds garbage bags. They attach to a standard household extension rod. We spread painters plastic, contractor's paper and another layer of contractors plastic on the floors. We taped the edges to the wall with a duct tape and overlapped the edges generously. We then connected a garden hose to a garden sprayer and soaked up the ceilings. We waited about 3-4 minutes before we began the scrape job. My husband worked on the main area from the floor and I scraped off the edges using a putty-knife.
After a while we just got tired of emptying bags into an old bucket, so we decided to remove them altogether. This resolved the little loss of accuracy, owing to the heavy dangling bags. After the weight of the bags was removed, we were stunned how fast the job went. We finished our 25x35' bedroom in under two hours - including clean-up. Because of the two layers of plastic, we did not have any water seeping through. We got jumbo garbage bags and rolled all the mess up in about three large bags.
The only mess were the windows - there were mounds sitting on the paneling that we had to shopvac - next time we'll cover them up too! And get this - not a single, small damage to our ceiling during the entire process - can't beat that!
The Porter-Cable might be great but it does not work for everyone. Please, do rent one before buying. Even though the renting was a mistake, it cost us approx. $50 - better than the hassle of buying and returning, in my opinion.
Hints:
1. Wear gloves - even though none of the products say you should - your hands can get extremely dry. Avoid painful cuticles!
2. Wear masks. Get the more expensive ones with filters if you are doing a large project.
3. Keep two pairs of shoes - one that you will wear in the project area - they will pick up a lot of mud - so if you need to get out of the room, you can slip out of these and into the other.
4. If you can't use a garden hose, use a gallon spray (use for pesticides) - comes with a pump and is available at garden/home-improv stores.
5. Beware of too much water on the ceiling - that can warp the sheetrock. So if you feel you overdid the spray, use a dry paint-roll and soak up the moisture. Good luck!
Six Words: Worth It, Worth It, Worth It 
2006-05-01
As opposed to the gentleman with 15 years of experience drywalling, I'm pretty much a novice, but when you have a big project ahead of you with 20 or 40 sheets of 4-by-ten, you move up in experience pretty quickly.
Here's what I've learned; Sanding sheet rock is one of the worst jobs in construction. It's WAY beyond messy, it's tiring, it's monotonous, it's tedious.
Now, in our kitchen, we've got about 13 sheets of 4-by-8, and we've got a vaulted ceiling that peaks at about 15 feet. The first application of mud was hand sanded, and we had about a half-inch of fine, chaulky dust EVERYWHERE, regardless of the plastic that we put up between rooms. It was like dust hell.
The second application of mud was sanded with the Porter-Cable 7800, and the difference was astounding. We hooked it up to your basic shop-vac, and we were able to sand the room in about 1/3rd the time (it would have been quicker, but we were getting used to the new sander) and at least 98% of the dust was eliminated from the job. This is with a 150 grit sandpaper disk. In my eyes, there was no need for a respirator; there was that little dust.
We did bring the shop vac outside to empty the tank and shake out the filter. That was no sacrifice at all.
It didn't take too long to get used to this piece of equipment. We figured out what speed was good for us, and we were off. The unit wieghs eight pounds, and it was a little taxing when we had to hold it for the higher spots on the wall. Compared to the continuous elbow grease of hand-sanding, the effort spent was minimal.
We were able to get it pretty darned close to the corners, too. I agree with the experienced sheet-rocker; about 3/8ths of an inch was about how close we could get to the corner. I wasn't expecting the machine to do everything; doing what was left of the corners by hand was a snap. That this machine could do all of the flat surfaces -- and do it really well, without dust -- made it far more valuable to me than the price I paid to own it.
Now, my brothers-in-law can use it on their projects, and because they helped me so much on mine, I'm thrilled that they're happy with it, too!
Bottom line; if you have a pretty big drywall job lined up, this is an excellent investment. If you have more jobs like that in the future, it's a must-have.
time saver 2006-02-24
Had this tool for sometime now, best sander I have ever used. You have to get use to this sander. I suggest you start off at around speed number 3 then once you have went over your dry walled area, re-sand on speed number one. This will take any swirl marks out and give you a nice finished wall with no effort at all.
Like any tool... you have to get use to it, once you do, very good sander.
Mark.
Works great 2006-02-16
This thing works as advertized. Sanded a new ceiling in 1/4 the time it takes me to do by hand. The unit sucks up an amazing amount of dust as long as you keep the sanding disk flush against the drywall. Cleanup was quick and easy. I used 100 and 150 grit sandpaper on a ceiling. As other reviewers stated, this thing can get a little heavy when holding it over your head for any amount of time. Even with the frequent breaks I had to take, I still finished sanding in record time. The 100 grit sandpaper did leave some light sanding marks in the plaster, however this wasn't an issue for me since the ceiling will be texturized. I rented this unit at HomeDepot for 25 bucks for 4 hours and it was the best $25 I have spent in quite a while.
The next best thing to someone else doing it for you 2005-07-27
I read a lot of reviews before buying the PC drywall sander. Needless to say, this is the best drywall tool purchase I've ever made, and the bursitis in my arms and shoulders think so, too. Being a remodeler and also doing repairs for several property managers, this makes for quick,easy, and clean work. I just attach it to my 8-gal. shop-vac equipped with a drywall dust bag, and a cleanstream filter as a secondary backup, there's almost no dust at all. It took some getting used to, but once I got the hang of it, it leaves very little swirl marks. Like some of the other reviewers said, don't push it and let the machine do the work. Since I haven't hung more than 40 4x12's in any one job, I've been using No-Coat to tape the inside corners and while it costs a bit more, it saves time because I can stay away from the corners, for the most part. What little hand sanding I do after the final coat, I use a hand or pole sander that attaches to a vac; found them at the local Grabber dealer. All in all, this is one tool that is worth every penny.
Rent one and decide for yourself 2008-01-07
As a remodeling contractor, I usually sub out drywall finishing, but sometimes a small job or timing make subbing impractical and I'm stuck with the task. Recently I raised a 25'x 30' ceiling from flat to half-cathedral and I did the drywall finish--smooth/no texture. I've always been curious about this sander, but the reviews left me reluctant to buy one for as little as I'd use it. Then I saw that my local rental center had one and this was my chance to try it. I found it to be a life-saver.
Yes, it gets heavy and tiring while sanding a ceiling, but anyone who's ever used a pole sander or hand sander on a ceiling can tell you that it's extremely tiring and messy no matter the tool. At least this power sander eliminates most of the messy part with its effective dust collection, and I was able to sand the entire ceiling in under 30 minutes. Furthermore, I found that it could do aggressive sanding with little more work than light sanding depending on the sandpaper grit and speed I moved the machine, as well as RPM setting. Frankly, I'm mediocre at mudding/taping, but with this sander I found that I could really cake the mud on and still end up with a nice finish.
If I finished drywall full-time, I'd probably get so good at it that this machine might not be worth the hassle, but for a guy like me, it's well worth it. Rent one and try it...you'll either love it or hate it by the end of the day. It's on my wish list.
boat anchor in the making 2008-01-05
while this product looks like the cats meow it is more like the cats litter box. After 30 minutes of use the motor stopped working completely. Controlling the product even with the 150 grit porter cable sanding disks is not at all easy. The dust collection control ring brush is way too long. you have to press fairly hard to get the sanding disk to even engage the wall. then with this much preasure it is hard to contol. You have to be very carefull at this point not to exert even the sligthtest amount of excess preassure or else you can hear the motor start to load down. Trying to send mine back now after the 30 minute motor waranty ran out.
Great execution on a bad idea 
2007-08-16
This product does exactly what it says it will, and does it extremely well. This is a powerful sander which produces very little dust.
However, after two days of experimentation, I could not control the device to the point that I wasn't dinging, gouging, and scraping too much mud (or the paper) off the drywall. This thing cost me way more time than it saved me. If I were a professional I might consider investing in this, as then I might be able to figure out how to use it effectively. As a do-it-yourselfer I have been having far better results and just as little dust with hand tools. The Hyde Dust Dog Pole Sander Kit for Dustless Drywall Sanding and the Marshalltown DuraSoft® Dustless Drywall Vacuum Sander cost far, far less and give more predictable results. Yes, it takes a little more elbow grease, but it gives far better results and ends up taking a heck of a lot less time than going back and fixing the scrapes again and again.
It doesn't do windows, but: 2007-07-08
It does do a great job on floors. I know it isn't a floor sander, but I was helping my brother in law work on an addition at their house, and needed to level out some tongue and groove pine flooring. I had the drywall sander with me; it was Sunday, and the rental places were closed, so I decided to give it a try. The drywall sander with it's gimballed floating head let me do it in short order. Actually it took a few hours to work my way through the grits from 80 to 220, but when I was done, we just vacuumed and sealed the floor.
Basically if you have a wide flat surface you need to smooth up the PC 7800 will do a good job. (I have also used it to sand several layers of paint off old doors.) Be sure to get drywall filter bags for your shop vacuume, they catch almost all of the dust.
Better than advertised 2007-06-27
This is an outstanding product that exceeds the manufacturers claims. Dust is limited to almost nothing. I used it for sanding after scraping popcorn off the ceiling. If you are living in the house while remodeling, this is a must-have tool. Of course everything depends on the two stage filtering of the attached vaccum cleaner. I have rented the tool with the Porter Cable vaccum in the past and it worked great. I used my own vaccum with high efficiency filter and a bag and also worked great. The sander controlled Porter Cable vaccum is a plus.
