Why do I prefer gravity vs siphon airbrushes?

I think it's time I post my typical response for everyone to see!

Basically, the reason I prefer gravity vs siphon airbrushes is because I find the gravity airbrushes to be much more versatile.

With a siphon fed airbrush you need to have a fairly large quantity of paint in a bottle that can be attached to your airbrush. By "large quantity" I mean about a half ounce minimum. This works just fine if you plan to paint with pure colors (i.e. right out of the container) which lots of people do. For example, airbrush T-shirt artists typically work this way and have 10 to 20 bottles of pure pigment and do all their color blending on the T-shirt canvas.

But what if you need a custom color? Well, you'll have to mix up a half ounce of that color and find a bottle to put it in - even though you may only need a drop or two. What do you do with all that left over paint? With a gravity airbrush you have more options. You can fill the cup with pure color or you can custom mix the perfect amount right there.... ok, well maybe not the perfect amount... but certainly less than a half ounce of wastage.

Another reason I prefer gravity vs siphon airbrushes is those darn bottles are a bit of pain! First, I find them pretty expensive and I never seem to have a clean one when I need it. I also find that unless you are going through TONS of paint (i.e. run an T-shirt booth) that the paint in the bottles gets chunky.

Chunky? Yeah. The bottles all have a little hole at the top that equalizes the pressure in the bottle as paint is sprayed (without the hole it would collapse like a juice box when you drink from the straw too fast). That little hole lets air into the bottles when they are not in use, and the paint that's on the edges of the bottles dries up and flakes into the liquid paint. These chunks clog the airbrush and are frustrating. Of course there are ways to fix this ... you can put screens in the lids or filter the paint, but who wants all that fuss.

Lastly, I find siphon fed airbrushes to be clumsy feeling. I know that this is a personal preference (well...all of this is) but the weight of the bottle and the constant fear that it is going to fall off drives me crazy.

NOW THE CAVEAT ... Siphon Airbrushes Have Their Place! They work just as well as gravity feeds ... the mechanics of the airbrush is the same, the paint just comes from a different place and in larger quantities.

Hope that helps!