During our years of cleaning and staining decks and fences our research and experience has taught us what products to trust and what products to avoid. For stains we recommend Cabot® or Olympic® (PPG Industries®) oil-based stains. Behr® stains did not hold their color for very long, but they had great longevity for water repellency. For that reason they are recommended for a water repellent as is Thompson's® WaterSeal® Advanced Clear Multi-Surface Waterproofer.
Do NOT use a water based stain (acrylic) as it will only cause you grief in the long run. Manufacturers have come out with this product in response to lower VOC (volatile organic compounds) requirements in many states. It requires a base coat followed by the stain coat. It should then be cleaned and re-coated about every year until it begins to fail. When it begins to fail, you will have to strip it off entirely as it can't be simply cleaned and re-coated at this point because it is no longer adhering to the wood. This is a messy, non-environmentally friendly process requiring expensive, toxic chemicals to remove the coatings and then leaving long strips of the coating in piles around the fence.
