Technical Will painting an AC Condenser affect cooling?

My 49 Buick has an aluminum ac condenser that you can see through the grill. Can I paint it flat black, so it dissapears without affecting the cooling performance?

 

Some will say yes, but I've never noticed a difference. I'd just put a thin coat on it, not try to get it thick.

 

Painted mine and work great.

 

Just paint the front half... You'll have air flow, so my guess will be that it should be just fine, vs baking in the sun, soaking up heat.

 

Even if black, being in the airflow would still allow it to dissipate heat A couple of light coats should be sufficient to mask the front view behind the grill and not impede airflow. I'd ensure that only necessary coverage would be sufficient. Be careful not to overdo it and only coat the surfaces so as not to adversely affect the cooling efficiency and performance of the condensor.

 

A coat of black paint should help it shed heat more efficiently, a dark surface emits heat far better than a light or shiny surface.

 

Matte black. A real thin coat just enough to change the color, will be fine (technically better than a glossy silvered surface).

Phil

 

If mine need to be “silver” just like an aluminum radiator I wouldn’t have either without matte or flat black. It’s a personal preference but I like everything behind the grille to be black.

 

Me too

 

I'd definitely would recommend a light coat. After all, some are painted from the factory!

 

Vintage Air and Walker radiator always painted theirs black and Eastwood makes several kinds of radiator paint which I think is essentially Hi-Temp paint.

https://www.eastwood.com/ew-radiato...kedid=555900045761&wickedsource=google&wv=3.1

https://www.eastwood.com/ew-radiato...kedid=496791272784&wickedsource=google&wv=3.1

 

This one is from Vintage Air, but came un painted.

 

The ones I've used were always painted but I checked their catalog and they have 17 that are painted and 9 that are unpainted, but 6 of those are for 55-57 Chevy's with cross-flow radiators, probably to match unpainted radiators. It looks like you can get them both ways on some condensers, so painting them must not be an issue.

https://www.vintageair.com/accessories/?subcat1=Condensers&subcat2=&subcat3=&order=&pageno=1

 

I believe black has traditionally been used because of its greater thermal efficiency than color.

 

Just use actual radiator paint. It is thin, coats well, doesn't block heat transfer like "normal" paint. Put it on just enough to blacken radiator. You can get it too thick...
Marcus...

 

Recommend using a lacquer paint. It is thinner than enamel and will cover with a lighter coat. Black color has no affect on thermal efficiency as the sun does not shine there.

 

Painting the condenser will change the cooling capacity of the condenser. But a light coat of paint shouldn’t reduce it enough to cause a problem, if it worked good before the paint job.






Bones

 

I painted my old 1965 Ford pickup black with yellow,oranges and red flames, the grille, hood and the front fenders looked good but a friend that was a painted encouraged me to shoot a clear coat over the entire truck, I sprayed it and a few weeks after I finished getting the truck back together it started running hotter than a 4 balled tom car, I pulled the good radiator out and had the radiator shop hot vat it, re-installed it and it never ran hot again.

The main thing to remember to keep the paint thin and not build it up. HRP

 

What color is an air cooled motorcycle engine? Yeah, low gloss black. @Blues4U beat me to it but a satin or semi flat black finish does indeed shed more heat. Don't overthink it. Clean it the best you can and rattle it with good ol Krylon Semi-Flat black. Best "make it go away" rattle can in the game. Not like you'll feel a difference, maybe the compressor will be less worked, hard to say.

 

Anything except spray bedliner or undercoating should work fine

 

I hope not. Mine came painted from the factory!

 

I remember seeing a youtube video a while back where someone was testing temperatures of an intercooler unpainted versus painted. I believe the results of that test showed that the painted version actually lowered the temperature by a bit.

 

did mine (less than 1/2) for only the part that showed with flat black rattle can enamel. No loss at all, flat black radiates the heat, not absorb it.

 

I used flat black header paint, on the front face of rad. Worked just fine.

 

Heat coming off does not care what color the part is. Heat coming in is more absorbed the darker the color. Touch a dark colored car that has been sitting in the sun and then touch a light colored car that has been sitting in the sun. The difference is remarkable.

 

The majority are not black, but bare aluminum, or aluminum colored paint.

 

I was going to mention that! Glad you did. Like you said, you go out into the sunlight and touch a black car vs a white car, very noticeable difference! Might even burn your hand!
Do the same at midnight, you can’t tell a difference in temperature.
Or at least , that has been my experience.






Bones

 

I echo what everyone else said about effectiveness.
The ac condenser on my OT Jeep is black and came that way from the factory.

 

Paint it.

 

You guys are wrong, color absolutely effects the heat transfer properties of a surface, this is pretty basic heat transfer stuff, you should know it already. Did you cut class that day in school?
http://www.hk-phy.org/contextual/heat/hea/radia02_e.html
Also:
http://physics.bu.edu/~redner/211-sp06/class23/class23_transfer.html