Painting Noctua Fans

[JimSmith1962]

So I've been thinking,,,,, about how ugly these brown Noctua fans are. Has anyone thought about and successfully accomplished it? If so would your share the process you used?

Thanks

[aisle9]

You can take the fan apart and paint the housing, but painting the fan blades and hub will throw off the balance and ultimately shorten the fan's lifespan. Oh, and painting a fan voids the warranty.

 

Buy Redux series fans if the poop fans bother you.

[PCGuy_5960]

5 minutes ago, JimSmith1962 said:

So I've been thinking,,,,, about how ugly these brown Noctua fans are. Has anyone thought about and successfully accomplished it? If so would your share the process you used?

Thanks

Get Industrial PPC Fans instead

[JimSmith1962]

Thanks.

Do they just pull apart?

[Enderman]

Painting fans is bad because it unbalances the rotor and adds mass to the blades, which causes flattening when they spin.

If you don't like the colour then buy redux or PPC fans, or buy from another brand.

There's no point in paying for noctua if you're going to ruin all their advantages with paint.

[CommanderAlex]

They have the black fans, they seem the same. Just a better quality to me. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_9?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=noctua+industrial&sprefix=noctua+in%2Caps%2C153&crid=2AM6V0T3JIXT3

[Majestic]

Redux and PPC fans have different colors.

[JimSmith1962]

Thanks everyone. The thing is that I have purchased these already about 2-3 years ago and was just wanting to make things look better.

[SCHISCHKA]

i cut the case off an old black fan and stuck on the front of my noctua. hides it pretty well

[Techicolors]

1 hour ago, SCHISCHKA said:

i cut the case off an old black fan and stuck on the front of my noctua. hides it pretty well

what do you mean by this? 

[airdeano]

ive painted noctua fans and they turned out pretty well.

they do not disassemble without permanent damage.

you have to mask off what you don't want painted, using light fanned coats on the blade assembly (to prevent build up which makes the blade assembly unbalanced) and allow to dry for 2 solid days (prevents finger smudges and painting damages when unmasking).

 

[SCHISCHKA]

30 minutes ago, airdeano said:

ive painted noctua fans and they turned out pretty well.

 

i see people say painting causes unbalancing and extra wear on the motor; I think this is BS assumptions, because I can paint pretty well and when paint is applied properly the liquid levels itself. Can you confirm there is no rpm drop or unbalancing after painting? If you suspend a stock Noctua fan on rubber bands it will bounce around from imperfect balancing anyway, nothing is perfect

The shiny white looks good btw, what is the name of the colour?

43 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

what do you mean by this? 

stick a better looking fan & grill in front but cut out the motor. i did this to make it act like a duct to my cpu cooler

 

 

[airdeano]

9 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

i see people say painting causes unbalancing and extra wear on the motor; I think this is BS assumptions, because I can paint pretty well and when paint is applied properly the liquid levels itself. Can you confirm there is no rpm drop or unbalancing after painting? If you suspend a stock Noctua fan on rubber bands it will bounce around from imperfect balancing anyway, nothing is perfect

The shiny white looks good btw, what is the name of the colour?

i can confirm that too much or improperly controlled paint on the blades can 'wreck' the performance. they can be easily made unbalanced, make terrible noises, but the 'speed' will not be affected. but like rotating axles, the more unbalanced, the prolonged effects will be bearing failure. yes, it'll dance uncontrollably and pretty much destroy itself.

i destroyed a P14 exactly by too much paint too soon and it puddled to the tips and was an unbalanced POS nightmare.

 

the white is rattle can krylon gloss white

[Techicolors]

16 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

stick a better looking fan & grill in front but cut out the motor. i did this to make it act like a duct to my cpu cooler

still not following you. sorry if i'm not understanding 

 

56 minutes ago, airdeano said:

ive painted noctua fans and they turned out pretty well.

they do not disassemble without permanent damage.

you have to mask off what you don't want painted, using light fanned coats on the blade assembly (to prevent build up which makes the blade assembly unbalanced) and allow to dry for 2 solid days (prevents finger smudges and painting damages when unmasking).

 

 

that looks fantastic. i would love to do that with my noctua cpu fan but like you said, if you mess up it can cause unbalance or noises. 

 

do you have any shots of the fans just still? 

[airdeano]

lemme see (just this stop action):

 

 

[JimSmith1962]

Perfect! Great job BTW! How did you prep/clean them prior to painting?