Primer recomendation?

[meackerman]

For fresh drywall or any kind of drywall mud or spackle, put a PVA primer on it first.  Any other primer will either soak in and not do its job, or it will peel. After that, prime with any other primer or paint it.

that's what we do.  course just like paint, not all primers are created equal.

paint and primer in one is a lie.  primer has a job to do.  paint has its job to do.

[Woodenfish]

From Sherwin Williams; “Quality paints use premium hiding pigments such as titanium dioxide along with small amounts of other pigments to provide the color. Lesser quality paints use less pigment but extend it with fillers such as talc, clay, calcium carbonate or silica. These fillers will provide good hiding capability initially, but break down pretty quickly over time, particularly when exposed to the elements.”

If looked under a microscope titanium dioxide is so much a smaller particle size than the older latex paints that were clay based hiding pigments. You can think of how beachballs compare to golf balls as how much less gaps there would be around the smaller ball than the larger.

The titanium dioxide particles coat better with color pigments, fit tighter together giving a more dense color and a harder finish. The more expensive the paint the higher the concentration of titanium dioxide and the better the binders and other paint conditioning products in the product giving better coverage, durability, wash ability. This higher coverage rate allows color changes on most colors in two coats preventing the need of a tinted primer in most colors. Paint with primer is not to be confused with a primer sealer. It’s a performance marker as to an expectation of coloring over another color. A primer sealer needs to be applied over a raw surface for best practices.