Will painting of a fan's blades decrease 'Performance'?

[EnergyEclipse]

Hello there all!

 

Bill Owen undoubtedly is certainly amongst the most 'Professional' of chassis modifiers. Although, when he came to painting some of his Corsair SP120, as such below, I questioned whether a potential decrease static air pressure delivery was discovered or decreased airflow CFM was found, possibly because less resistance by paint textures creates a struggle to grasp the air by the blades for correct air movement (I haven't a clue how to explain it, although I understand air TripWire technology is amongst this matter somewhere)

 

 

 

I would imagine I am not correct in wondering such, but all input on the matter is massively appreciated!

 

Have a awesome day!
-EnergyEclipse

[2FA]

Depending on how well the painting was done, airflow might be impacted somewhat. I doubt it will have a significant effect though.

[vorticalbox]

1 minute ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

Depending on how well the painting was done, airflow might be impacted somewhat. I doubt it will have a significant effect though.

I would be more concerned about unbalancing the blades and damaging them. 

[EnergyEclipse]

Just now, DeadEyePsycho said:

Depending on how well the painting was done, airflow might be impacted somewhat. I doubt it will have a significant effect though.

Ohh, well I highly doubt I would see optimal performance from the kind of paint job I could do. However, what causes this performance decrease, is that the smoothness of the surface area or is it just the 'poor' painting which could?

 

Thank you very much for your help on this matter!

-EnergyEclipse

[2FA]

Just now, vorticalbox said:

I would be more concerned about unbalancing the blades and damaging them. 

Blades would be fine, might cause additional bearing wear but it shouldn't be anything serious.

[samcool55]

My guess that the difference would be so small you won't notice it.

The only thing that you might notice is that the fans spin slower because they are heavier so possibly the max rpm is reduced and the voltage to get the fans started might be a bit higher. But that's about it

[LordWaffleGoblin]

Besides have a chance of unbalancing the fan I do not think there is an issue. That fan does look pretty sweet though.

[EnergyEclipse]

Just now, vorticalbox said:

I would be more concerned about unbalancing the blades and damaging them. 

I do doubt that you could dislodge a component within the motor, or a blade section credit to paint appliance. You likely could remove of it after if the paint did not set in optimal favour. Many fans released as of the past few years have recently began to implement removable blades for dust removable in there fans.

 

Thank you for your input on this topic!

-EnergyEclipse

[Jurrunio]

Depends on how well the paint is done. XFX has released GPUs with RGB fans. I don't think some new paint job will make the fan any less efficient than fitting LED lights inside the blades.

[EnergyEclipse]

1 minute ago, samcool55 said:

My guess that the difference would be so small you won't notice it.

The only thing that you might notice is that the fans spin slower because they are heavier so possibly the max rpm is reduced and the voltage to get the fans started might be a bit higher. But that's about it

Okays! Thank you hugely for your help!

 

I can see the potential issues with weight, although noise likely won't be of an issue as I would likely only do such on lower specification fans with a lower RPM, thus I can reuse the higher specification ones later down the line with a different colour schemed build if I so desire. Thank you once again!

 

 

-EnergyEclipse

[CatXice]

not unless you managed to make the fans a different shape/size only thing you could do is weaken the plastic there main off but this basicly wont happen. it will unbalance them but i wouldnt think enough to make it brake 

[Zayl657]

2 hours ago, LordWaffleGoblin said:

Besides have a chance of unbalancing the fan I do not think there is an issue. That fan does look pretty sweet though.

pretty sure that would be your biggest issue. Unless applied perfectly, there will be blobs of paint on certain blades, which will make it wobble.

[Rekiso102]

I know that at his point everyone has answered this question but here's what I have to say.

 

1: What kind of paint? Some paints don't bond well with some of the glossy plastics on fans so depending on the paint, this can decrease airflow.

 

2:How well was the application? If the paint was very lazily put on there, then it can also decrease airflow. The paint could've dripped for example and gotten stuck somewhere.

 

Finally,

If all was done where then I shouldn't expect much decrease in air flow with the fan. Be warned, some fans don't work well with paint.