Although the traditional uses for spray paint have always been popular, more and more people have started to take advantage of the low prices and ease of use of spray paint for do it yourself projects and upcycling. This has resulted in more and more people reaching out with various question in ensuring that they get the best performance of their spray paint.
One of the more frequently asked questions that we are seeing asked more and more is based around drying spray paint with a hairdryer. Due to so many people reaching out an a hair dryer actually being a surprisingly effective way to dry spray paint quicker in multiple situations, we decided to publish this article to help our readers.
These seven tips and tricks to help you dry your spray paint quicker with a hair dryer can all be implemented in various way to help you dry your paint much quicker than it would otherwise dry. We have added a table of contents below to allow you to easily navigate to specific sections of the article but compounding as many of these tricks at the same time can result in much quicker drying times so reading the whole article is usually the best option.
Can You Dry Spray Paint With A Hair Dryer?
You can dry the majority of types of spray paint with a hair dryer in a number of different ways often helping your paint to dry much quicker than it otherwise would. Although there are a number of other methods that you are able to use to dry your spray paint as fast as possible, none are as cheap or easy as the trusty hair dryer.
This is why we always recommend that our readers who are looking to dry their paint quicker at least try a hair dryer on their spray paint. We know that it is not for everyone but a large number of our readers should be able to get solid results with ease as well as be able to use their hair dryer on any further spray paint-based arts and crafts too.
As with most things in life, there are multiple ways that you are able to intergrate a hair dryer to help you dry your spray paint. Including as many of the tips and tricks below will be able to compound the effects of each other to help make your spray paint dry drastically quicker.
Is Your Spray Paint Oil-Based Or Water-Based?
The first thing that you have to workout is if your spray paint is oil-based or water-based as both types of paint dry in different ways. An oil-based spray paint dried via oxidisation where as a water-based spray paint dried by evaporating the water within it. Due to this, different methods in our article below will have different levels of effectiveness for each paint type.
The majority of people still presume that the majority of spray paints on the market are oil-based but the water-based formulas have improved considerably over the last decade with it usually being around a fifty-fifty split. Thankfully, the majority of spray paints will clearly say if they are oil-based or water-bases (sometimes listed as acrylic) right on the label.
We have dedicated articles on how to get oil paint to dry quicker as well as how to get water based paint to dry quicker. Depending on what you are doing and the type of spray paint that you are using they may be worth reading or at least skimming over too.
A Cheap Hair Dryer Is Perfectly Fine!
Our first tip for drying your spray paint with a hair dryer is to use a cheap hair dryer and although this may sound basic, so many people go out and over spend on an expensive hair dryer when it is essentially a waste of money. The additional functionality of the more expensive hair driers are essentially useless when it comes to drying your spray paint so it is essentially a waste of money.
There are plenty of cheap hair driers on the market these days that offer variable speed control of the air output and that’s really all you need. Even then, a large number of our readers will probably be fine with a base level $10 hair dryer that only has one speed.
There is also no requirement for you to get a hair dryer that can blow cold either and although many of the entry-level models on the market will offer a blow cold setting, it is not needed to dry spray paint so going with a model without it is fine. Depending on where your spray paint artwork is location, you may need a cordless hair dryer that are usually a little cheaper than the power cord variants but the price difference is still usually only around $5-$10 more expensive.
Use The Length Of Your Arm!
A very common mistake that we see beginners make when trying to dry any type of paint is that they will hold their hair dryer way too close to the paint. Not only can this result in degradation of the painting, the hair dryer tends to perform better when held around an arms length away from the surface with your spray paint on it.
This is due to the air blown out of the hair dryer usually needing to spread out over around the distance of your arm to cover a wider area with an even spread of air. Due to the resistance at this distance between the hair dryer and the surface with your spray paint on it slowing the air down, this tends to reduce the chance of any degradation.
It doesn’t matter if you are using your hair dryer to increase the temperature of your water-based spray paint to speed up the water evaporation process to to increase air flow to speed up oxidisation for oil-based spray paint. Holding the hair dryer at around the length of your arm tends to be optimal for reducing the drying time required for your spray paint.
Increase The Temperature!
If you are using a water-based spray paint then your primary goal to speed up the drying time for your spray paint should be to increase the temperature to try and get the water in the paint to dry as fast as possible. A cheap hair dryer is perfect for this and ideally, you should be aiming for a surface temperature of 60-80 degrees Fahrenheit.
We often see people heat their surface with their spray paint up as much as possible due to thinking that the hotter their spray paint is, the quicker it will dry but there are downsides to this. If you go over the 80 degree Fahrenheit mark then the risk to your spray paints increase and it can cause issues.
Depending on your location and your situation, a cheap heater may be a good option as it doesn’t require you to stand there like a hair dryer does. This is an ideal alternative to get your spray paint to dry quickly if you have used it for any indoor work as you can just turn the heater on and leave it.
Increase The Air Flow!
If you are using an oil-based spray paint then you will be wanting to use your cheap hair dryer to increase the airflow around your paint rather than the heat. This is due to your goal being to increase the speed of the oxidisation process to reduce the drying time of your spray paint with heat having a minimal effect for oil-based spray paint.
Although some of the cheap hair dryers on the market can struggle to work well for a prolonged period of time at certian temperatures, they tend to be fine blowing at their lowest temperature setting for long periods of time. This works to your advantage as you are able to use your hair dryer for long periods of time if needed to dry your oil-based spray paint fast.
Some people do try to use a mini desk fan as a cheaper, easier way to increase their air flow but an actual cheap fan is a better alternative to a hair dryer. They are a very similar price but a cheap fan can be left to blow without you having to stand there and baby sit.
Hows Your Humidity?
Although the humidity in your area can cause small issues with oil-based spray paint drying, it can be a major issue for water-based spray paints and cause them to take considerably longer to dry. Although we have seen some people suggest you try to use a hair dryer to suck the moisture out of the air, this is largely a total waste of your time and effort.
If you do think that you could be having issues with your spray paint taking longer to dry due to humidity then investing in a No products found. is almost always going to be the best course of action. You can turn it on in the room you work in and leave it to deal with the humidity and help to reduce the drying time required.
If your spray paint is outdoors then dealing with the humidity becomes a paint as there is little or nothing that you are able to do about it. Although some people will plan their outdoor spray painting sessions around the weather and humidity for professional artwork, this is usually not needed for most of our readers and simply waiting for their spray paint to dry is the best option.
Are You Using Thin Coats?
This is a very common mistake amongst beginners when it comes to using spray paints and they simply apply way too much paint in each coat. As you can probably guess, this then results in a much longer drying time and has a knock on effect of how much the methods covered above can reduce the total drying time.
You will often be surprised at how thin of a coat you are able to apply when using spray paints and get great results. It is usually much easier to apply a thin coat and check to see if the color meets your needs or not and then thicken that coat up as required then it is to just apply a thick coat from the very start.
Simply reducing how thick your spray paint layers are can naturally reduce the drying time drastically without you even needing to use a hair dryer. You are then able to take advantage of using a hair dryer to further reduce the drying time for your spray paints too.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over how you are able to dry spray paint with a hairdryer to a close. We hope that you have found our article helpful and that you have been able to reduce the drying time for your spray paint. As we mentioned back at the start of the article, working out if your paint is oil-based or water-based is very important as you can then specialise how you will use the hair dryer to dry the paint from there on.
