Siphon Feed Airbrush - Airbrush Guru

Siphon Feed Airbrush

A siphon feed airbrush sucks paint up through a tube, then sprays it.

Defining the Siphon Feed Airbrush

The Good

Paint bottles allow large amounts of paint to be sprayed

Various bottles, and even open air cups, attach to the airbrush’s color stem.  Bottle sizes range from 1 oz up to 4 oz.

Quick color changes
  • Pull off bottle of paint.
  • Attach bottle of cleaning solution
  • Spray until clear
  • Remove bottle of cleaning solution
  • Spray until dry
  • Attach next color
Usually less expensive than gravity or side-feed airbrushes

A siphon feed airbrush usually comes with at least one bottle.  But you will probably need to purchase a few extra bottles to get the full benefits of having one bottle per color.

The Bad

Cleaning a paint bottle sucks

Do I really need to say anything more about this?

Cleaning lots of paint bottles sucks even more

Everybody hates cleaning their equipment–but cleaning 5-50 bottles does not sound like fun to me.  Just my opinion.

Of course, a paint bottle cleaning tip, might allow you to avoid most of these headaches…

Requires a minimum amount of paint to work

Have you ever tried to suck up the last bit of milk shake goodness from the bottom of a cup through a straw?  If you have, then you know what I’m talking about.

There’s that last bit you can never quite get to.  It makes it half way up the straw but you’re also sucking air at the same time. There’s always some left over.

Requires more air pressure to pull the paint out of the bottle

There’s really only two times this becomes a problem.

  • When you’re trying to do fine details.

    More Pressure  =  More Over Spray  =  Less Focused Lines

  • When you have a small or limited air source.

    Airbrush compressors tend to be a little under-powered (silence is expensive) so an airbrush that uses more pressure isn’t necessarily a good thing.

Some accessories that attach to the air stem might not fit depending on which bottle size you use

Siphon feed airbrushes might have a tight fit...

Actually, I didn’t have a combination of bottles and accessories which would truly doom everything…but the possibility is there.

The Guru’s Opinion

Siphon feed airbrushes are excellent for large, multi-gun setups and for people who spray large amounts of stock or premixed colors.

People who looooove siphon feed airbrushes.