Varathane Water-Based Crystal-Clear Ultimate Polyurethane Aerosol Spray

The spray is a bit floppy looking, BUT dries beautifully! Highly recommend. I tried varnish and had to sand off. Gorgeous finish.

Useful as a protective top coat on painted furniture. It dried quickly . I couldn’t find it locally.

I have used spray paint/clear coat spray paint for a long time. Specifically rustoleum. This is my first time using this specific sealer, as I wanted a better protection for the top of two end tables. Allllll the furniture flipping gurus recommend this, in spray or in liquid brush on. Both versions of this product have made me so infuriated that I cannot write my thoughts on this review. The brush on comes out cloudy no matter what I have done. No matter how much I stir, no matter if I put a smooth layer on, move to the next part, and not touch it at all. This spray is worse. It comes out in tiny spots, not a fine mist that covers. It does not even out. It does not make a solid coat. I have shaken it for 7 minutes, watching my timer religiously. I desperately wanted this to work, but I will never buy this product ever again. Brand new, not cold, it’s august/september using this, 80 degrees. Held straight up and down. Nozzle can’t be clogged, it’s new. No I’m not bending the nozzle in a weird way to hit the rim of the can. I have done everything to try and make this work. Third time trying to use it, and I am beyond frustrated. WASTE OF MONEY and waste of my project, now I have to sand it down and start over completely. I WOULD recommend rustoleum enamel clear coat in satin. I have used probably a dozen cans of that while sealing hand painted wooden signs. Never had a problem. EVEN spraying it in the uninsulated garage when it was below freezing. THAT product is a champ. Guess I shouldn’t try new things and just stick to what I know!

I love the mat finish and how it evens out my artwork. The best thing about it is there are no spray paint odors.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this stuff. Except for the fact that its listed as "crystal clear". I did not find that to be true, especially on the spots that accidentally got more coverage than was necessary. Those places got a yellowish, brownish kind of coating that didn't really want to sand down. Also, the can warns not to apply in direct sunlight. Apparently that also means not in a place and time that would be in direct sunlight even with heavy cloud cover. The good news is that even if it is applied in direct sunlight, it just applies cloudy and white, but it dries fine and the color clears. I did *not* have a problem with chunky, uneven spray. That worked very well for me.

Seemed to work! I sprayed an item which will be hanging outside.

I work with wood and have purchase this product several times.

It's a good, hard, clear finish. The worst thing is that, out of the spray can, it is not self-leveling; it retains the slightly uneven pattern from the spray. When you sand the coat til it's flat (220 grit), you lose most of the thickness of the paint you just sprayed. Combine that with the fact that a coat of water-based poly is only about a third the thickness of oil-based poly, and you have to put on a LOT of coats. Now, this is only on a project where you need a level finish. If you don't...like if you're doing a protective coat on an art project, then no problem, this is a great product. I was doing a fine crafted wood project that really needed a level finish, and for that the brush on version of this polyurethane is much better - it goes on with much thicker coats, and self-levels much better than the spray (though not perfectly). After two hours it's dry enough to taking sanding very well with no stickyness.

Good

Sprays on quite thin which is to be expected hence the need for more coats. I'm getting conflicting information. The can says you can recoat after an hour but the online product sheet says 2-4 hours. I may have to start over 🤔

As advertised!

I spent hours sanding my project so it was perfectly smooth, stained it and just needed a seal so I figured this would be easy peasy. The finish felt like sandpaper. I shook it soooooooo much and ended up using a paint brush to try to smooth it out for each coat. It was mainly unsuccessful - I sanded it lightly afterwards and it still feels icky so I will eventually sand it off and try the paint version instead.

great product, very easy to use, leaves a beautiful semi shine protective coat over nearly anything, wanted to re-buy it along with a satin finish one but unfortunately out of stock, strongly recommended