Okay, I know it seems crazy to buy one foam brush for what you can get a bag of 20 foam brushes at that giant, super store a few blocks away. Trust me. This is a whole different animal.I paint just about every day. I have an upholstery business and gradually that business went from painting the feet on chairs now and then to painting as much furniture or more than I upholster. On top of all that, my house is a never ending project built in the 50s that hasn't been touched since the 80s barfed a few home decor touches here and there in a few rooms. I paint alot!I use latex, oil based enamels, chalk style paints (both store bought and DIY of different formulas), chalk board paint, polyurethane, polyacrylic, paste wax, liquid wax, creme wax, glues and just about anything else you can think of to apply with a brush.I used just about every common tool for paint application depending on what I'm doing. I bought 10 of these about a month ago and have been putting them through some serious testing, and hands down, this is the most versatile, convenient, cost-effective tool I've come across, and it produces consistent, smooth, gorgeous results.It separates itself from the cheap, disposable foam brushes mainly by design and materials. The cells of the foam are much smaller and are consistent in size and shape. They're much softer; therefore they leave behind a smooth layer of paint rather than one that has uneven "brush marks" and even scratches from those inconsistent, hard, crunchy cells of the cheap brushes. I attached a close up photo of this 2 inch brush next to a cheap 2 inch brush hoping you can see the difference.One simple improvement in the design over the cheapies has done wonders for both the quality of the work the brush does and it's durability. It may seem unimportant, but that little plastic piece inside the foam that gives it structure and attaches it to the handle makes all the difference in the world. The piece in the Wooster brush is more flexible, and it's longer. The added flexibility allows the brush to curve gently with pressure and lay down a nice even coat of paint. With a stiff piece of plastic in the middle, the cheap foam brushes bend sharply and transfer more pressure to your workpiece where the plastic was pushing back as opposed to the areas of the stroke that were made by the unsupported foam.With cheap foam brushes, I always find the foam starting to crack and tear at the end of that plastic thing. Because it doesn't bend as much, the foam tends to just bend over the plastic (I wish I knew what to call that plastic thing). The plastic quickly starts to male it's way through the foam, and it's so much worse with heavy paints, like chalky paints. I could rarely get through a single coat on a set of four dining chairs before needing to replace a brush.Even if the cheap brushes could stand up to the task of painting an entire project, washing and reusing wasn't even something I'd consider trying. There's no way they could take the amount of manipulation needed to really get the old paint out. Even if I tried wrapping in plastic loaded with paint to keep them moist between coats, buts of the paint would somehow dry and turn to hard little paint balls to shred the previous coats.I've forgotten about one of these wrapped in plastic for about 5 days and found it only had a little bit of dryness at the corners. It washed out with just a little extra scrubbing between my fingers in the dry areas and didn't show any damage. I have washed and reused these too many times to count. They release the old paint so easily, the water runs clear in less than a minute. At first I tries to keep the used brushes separated by darks and lights just in case there was a touch of old color lurking in the foam somewhere. But unless I got paint on the handle and didn't wash it off, it was way too hard to keep up with what used to be on them because they all look and perform like new. I've even used oil based polyurethane on one, cleaned it with mineral spirits and kept going. Surely the foam and the glue that keep the foam on the stick couldn't stand up to that repeatedly, but it worked so far!I'm still using 9 of the original 10, only because I set a dirty one down in a near empty, open paint can on a shelf, forgot about it for several weeks, and just didn't feel like cleaning it.It's nothing like the foam brushes we're used to, and it out performs other paint applicators in the areas most important to me. It lays down smooth coats without the brushstrokes of brushes, those little smack dots of a foam roller, the heavy lines from the edges of foam pads, or the texture of a fuzzy roller.Although I 100% recommend this brush for any application on a smooth surface, especially if you desire a smooth look rather than a textured finish with intentional obvious brushstrokes, I wouldn't use it for every painting project. It's not meant to replace every brush, roller, sponge, old t-shirt, grocery bag or peacock feather you might paint with. If you're painting a room, the pointed tip is perfect for the corners, and it can serve you well on the moldings, but don't try to paint the whole house with it. For textured surfaces and for detail work like free hand cutting in at the top of the wall at the ceiling, go with the fluffy roller and the short handled angle sash brush. But this brush makes smooth surfaces such an ease and a pleasure to paint, you'll be looking for doors and cabinets to paint before finishing the walls.