Cleaning equipment between coats

[John G]

How much cleaning of equipment is required between coats?
i.e. how long can a gun sit without being cleaned? Can I leave it 2-3 hours without cleaning?

When spraying some acrylic gloss with my airless, I want to try get in 2-3 coats per day (since it dries so quick, and I stopped the mistake of spraying too thick).

Normally when I finish spraying, there is a 15 minute cleaning process of cleaning the unit and spraying water through the gun until it runs clear. Each time a little bit of paint is wasted. Do I still need to do this?

[Johnnz]

I was wondering the same thing with my air spray gun using enamel oil based paint. I have found that I can put the whole gun (paint can attached) in the fridge and it works fine the next day for another coat. I do however make sure that air only has past through the nozzle before putting it away. Not sure if this is best practise ornot, but I think it saves on paint, thinners, and time.

[munruben]

When I was spraying acrylic roofing paint and a second coat would be applied, I didn't clean out the equipment as such; only just around the nozzle of the gun. Turning the nozzle so as the jet hole was not visible The end of the suction hose was immersed in water and left like that until the second coat was applied. Sometimes this was the following day so it was left overnight.
Given that the equipment was functioning correctly, the paint in the paint line was sealed in and no air could enter the paint line or the gun to dry out the paint. The paint line was 60 meters in length so would hold quite a bit of material probably up to a gallon or so.

This was, of course commercial equipment and very high pressure was used; around 2000lbs psi Never heard of the fridge trick. :)