Dispersing agents containing acrylate polymers are widely employed in ceramic processing routes comprising fluid consolidation Nevertheless, there is little knowledge about the commercial products usually employed in industrial processes to prepare highly concentrated ceramic suspensions. This work aimed at clarifying the main aspects of powder dispersion testing polyacrylates produced by various manufactures to disperse alumina, which is a widely used raw-material in high performance ceramics. Effects of polymer molecular weight (M-w), polymer concentration and pH on the rheological behaviour of slips were studied. The commercial polyacrylates were evaluated with relation to their average molecular weight by Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC). It was revealed that the substances vary little in their dispersing efficacy owing to the similarity in average molecular weight. Polyacrylates having different molecular weight ranges were also tested. The results show that lower molecular weight polymers exhibit superior performance in producing low viscosity alumina slips, whereas polymer bridging effects led to high viscosity slips when high molecular weight polymers were used. Further views on the stabilising mechanism of ceramic powders by polyelectrolytes are given.