Bought a 'pro' mud pan that cost me more time than it saved

Picked up one of those fancy aluminum mud pans with the rounded corners and non-stick coating last month. It was $45, which felt like a lot, but the guy at the supply house said it would make taping faster. Used it on a basement job in Albuquerque, and the coating started flaking off into the joint compound by the second bucket. Had to stop and pick out the little black flecks, then re-mix a whole new batch. Lost about an hour and a half of work time, plus the cost of the wasted mud. Now I'm back to my basic steel pan that cost twelve bucks. Anyone have a pan they've used for years that actually holds up?

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3 Comments

emmasmith6mo ago

My buddy's non-stick pan did the same thing last year.

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lily_schmidt536mo ago

Ugh, that's the worst. My sister had a pan where the coating just bubbled up and peeled off after a few months. It's such a letdown when you spend more for something that's supposed to make things easier. Total waste of money and it makes you not trust those products anymore.

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parker8836mo ago

Forty-five bucks for a pan that flakes into your mud? That's insane. I'd be so mad, especially after the guy said it would save time. You basically paid extra to ruin your materials and waste an afternoon. My old steel pan has dents and everything, but at least it's just steel. That fancy coating stuff always seems to fail at the worst time.

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