I’ve been using the medium-sized Edgepro for about 15 months and my opinion is mostly positive.
PROS:
1. The removable gray glass palette is my favorite feature. Easy to clean, easy to judge values, and easy to remove if desired. Love, love, love!
2. The panel holders work well, are strong easy to use, and won’t get lost since they attach to the panel holder with magnets. There is also a magnetized center support shelf to help support the panels. Excellent.
3. The side shelves also attach easily with magnets. They are slim and nest well inside each other.
4. The easel has a slim, sleek profile and is lightweight.
It’s easy to slip in and out of a backpack. My medium-sized easel is three pounds by itself, and weighs four pounds if I add the shelves. That’s a great weight for an easel with a glass palette.
5. The hinges holding the panel holder are solid, with very little wobble. The lid remains closed until it’s deliberately opened.
CONS:
1. The paint storage area is very shallow, and you have to be careful about placement if you want to close the lid on a palette that still has paint on it. If you like to keep big piles on paint on your palette this will make you nuts.
2. The side shelves on the medium-sized Edgepro are too short to hold long-handled brushes. The first time I took my easel out in the field my brushes were continually rolling off the edge, even though the trays have lips on the edges. I even tried drilling holes for my brushes along the side of one of the trays to counteract the problem. (The metal edge tended to tear the finish on my brushes up so this wasn’t an effective fix for me.) I finally ordered Rosemary short-handled brushes, which brought my frustration level down quite a bit. This problem might be better with the longer tray length on the largest side Edgepro.
3. I’ve found communication to be spotty with the company. On the plus side, my initial order arrived several weeks before expected. I don’t think customers will ever have a problem receiving placed orders. On the other hand–I’ve had several questions that have gone unanswered and unacknowledged when I’ve attempted to contact the company through their website contact address. However, I usually have received a response when I’ve tried to contact them through Facebook Messenger.
In summary: Overall, this is a good easel with some innovative design features. When I’m painting in my studio I use this easel the most since I don’t use the brush trays there and I have other paint storage options. If I could tweak the design my wish would be for a slightly deeper palette area (1/4″ to 3/8″ more would be perfect) so I could close my palette without having to worry about paint placement. I also wish the company would fix the tray size problem. And finally, I hope they step up their communication. Good communication is a vital part of customer service, and is doubly important with an internet-based business. Right now it’s the weakest link in their chain.
I have the large Edgepro Paintbook. Ditto to everything Karen said. It’s lightweight for travel and stores like a laptop, but the paint storage is not great – it’s too shallow. Also, be careful of the thin glass top. I closed my paintbook with the glass not exactly in the cradle the first time and cracked the glass. I had to buy a new glass palette and they are NOT cheap. Otherwise, it’s a great paintbook.