How to Choose the Best Paint Brush Cleaner

Every creative space should have a paint brush cleaner. This simple tool can keep your space clean and prevent spills and mess in your studio. A paint brush cleaner may seem like a simple thing, but they aren’t all equal.

Today we’ll talk about what to look for in a paint brush cleaner. What design elements to consider, and the paint brush cleaner I recommend. Plus, we’ll discuss ways to use this paint brush cleaner both in and out of the studio.

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My Favorite Paint Brush Cleaner

My favorite paint brush cleaner is the GAMENOTE Paint Brush Cleaner. Not only does it have essential features that every paint brush cleaner should have, but it also includes many handy extras that makes it a fantastic painting tool.   

What Should I Look for in a Paint Brush Cleaner?

Size and Capacity

When choosing a paint brush cleaner, choose one with a large enough capacity to be useful for your painting style. If you’re using 4-inch brushes, you’ll need a much larger paint brush cleaner than if you are using ¼” brushes.  The capacity of the container needs to work with how much brush cleaning you’ll be doing during your painting session.

The GAMENOTE paint brush washer is 9 ¾” long by 5 ¾” wide by 4 ¼” deep. It is designed with 3 compartments, one for holding brushes and other materials, and 2 for holding water.

The largest section of the paint brush washer holds 4 cups of water and the smaller section 2 cups of water. When empty the brush cleaner weighs 0.3kg and when full of 6 cups of water weighs 1.6kg. Even when full, this paint brush cleaner isn’t too heavy.  

Good Construction

Good construction for a brush cleaner is extremely important. The last thing you want is for your paint brush cleaner to tip and spill dirty paint water all over your creative space. Make sure your brush cleaner has a large base and sturdy sides.  

How do you know if a paint brush cleaner is sturdy enough? Add your paint brushes to the container when empty. If it tips, the brush cleaner isn’t sturdy enough for painting. Having a container that will not tip when empty means that it will only be more stable when full of water.

The GAMENOTE brush cleaner is made with sturdy plastic which I prefer over glass. This way if I accidentally drop it, I don’t have to worry about shattering my paint brush cleaner.   

Portability

Portability is an important feature for me as I use my paint brush cleaner not only in my art studio but also outside. Even if you are only using it in your creative space, you want a brush cleaner that can easily be carried to and from the sink.

I like having a brush cleaner with a sturdy handle. This way if I need to carry it to and from the sink, I don’t have to worry about dropping it. This also makes it easier when I’m at events away from home where I need to change paint water. The sink is rarely near to where I am sitting.

The GAMENOTE brush cleaner comes with a sturdy handle that stays in place when full of water but collapses to the side when you’re painting. This is very convenient as it isn’t in the way when you are working on a project.  

Tight Fitting Lid

Does the paint brush cleaner come with a lid? This is another great feature if you don’t want to make a mess moving it from a sink to your art space. I like a tight-fitting lid and not all brush cleaners come with a good quality lid.

The GAMENOTE brush cleaner comes with a lid that is also a palette. The palette has a tight sealing lid that helps keep your paints wet for several days. This palette fits tightly onto the brush cleaner and acts as a lid. This prevents sloshing or spilling when carrying the brush cleaner full of water.

What I love most about this design is the tight fit. To have water leak out you need to tip it at more than a 45-degree angle. This means that a little bit of water moving from side to side will not spill out of the brush cleaner.

Useful Additional Features

You can get a very basic brush cleaner, but I like to have a brush cleaner that has some extra features. These extra features can turn a brush cleaner into a portable painting workstation.

Separate Areas for Clean and Dirty Water

If you’ve been following me a while, you know that I set up my painting space with 2 water buckets. One for dirty water and one for clean water. The GAMENOTE brush cleaner has space for both, which makes it perfect for my small art space.

Cleaning and Scrubbing Textures

When choosing a brush cleaner, especially for acrylic painting, make sure that the bottom of the paint cleaner has textures for cleaning and scrubbing paint out of your brushes. When working with acrylic paints, one of the difficulties is getting all the paint out of the brush bristles. By using the textured areas along the bottom of the brush cleaner, this help gets stubborn paint out of your brushes. This not only makes them easier to clean, but you’ll have less issues with your acrylic brushes hardening up.

Brush Rest

The GAMENOTE brush cleaner also has a brush rest inside of the container. Often I use separate brush rest in my creative practice, so having one built into the container is very handy, especially on the go.

Not only does this brush cleaner have a brush rest, but you can fill the area with the brush rest with water. When using acrylic paints or gel mediums, I tend to leave my brushes in the water, even though it isn’t great for the bristles to be resting on the bottom of the container. This prevents them from getting rock hard because of paint and mediums that stay stuck in the bristles.

By having a brush rest inside the container, this is the perfect solution. The brushes can soak after being cleaned to make sure all the acrylic residue is out of the brush. But at the same time, you’re protecting the brush bristles. I also like that this brush rest has several sizes for different styles of brushes.

Brush Storage

Some paint brush cleaners come with brush storage, which is very handy. This works especially well if you are working in a small space. You have a place to store your paintbrushes. Especially when working with watercolor, you don’t want to leave the paint brushes in the water as this will damage your brushes.

In the GAMENOTE brush cleaner, not only does the brush storage area fit a variety of different brushes, but the brush storage area is removable. This gives you more options for what you can store in that area of the brush cleaner.

Paint Palette

Another great feature is having a paint palette built into the brush cleaner. Instead of just having a brush cleaner, now you have an entire painting station to work with.

The GAMENOTE brush cleaner has a sealed paint palette. Inside you can store your favorite acrylic or watercolor paints. If you are purely a watercolorist, this feature is fantastic. You could store your watercolor brushes, watercolor paints and have a full kit for watercolor in one organized space!

For acrylic painters, the sealable palette has an air tight lid, which means that the colors will stay wet for a much longer time. To test this, I added paint to the palette and only after 8 days did the paint start drying out inside the palette. This is amazing! This means that you don’t need to throw our your partially used paint if you need to take a break or come back to your painting. Instead, your paint will stay wet for several days within the sealed palette.

The grey lid of the sealable palette is a great area for color mixing, thinning and applying paint. Because it is a neutral grey, this also makes it ideal for color mixing.

Uses for Brush Cleaners Outside the Studio

I’ve been looking for a new paint brush cleaner for a while as I’ve realized that I needed a more versatile brush cleaner. Between creative events and plein air painting over the summer, I will be taking this brush cleaner out of the studio a lot. Having a brush cleaner that has a lid and handle so that I can carry it to a public sink without spilling water was a necessity.

Also, having a brush cleaner that has areas for both clean and dirty water when plein air painting is important to me. This way I can transport it to and from my painting session without the paint brush cleaner tipping in my car or spilling.  

Any Questions?

I hope that you’ve found this product review helpful and that this gives you a better understanding on how to choose the best paint brush cleaner for your creative practice. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.

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