How to choose the best propeller for quadcopter

We can not neglect this plastic piece of propeller though it’s very cheap but very important. How to choose the best propeller for quadcopter is a kind of knowledge and the most basic. That suit is best that best suits you, So we have to choose the right one not the dear or cheap. please step by step .

What’s purpose of building quadcopter?

Before you choosing best propeller for quadcopter, you should make sure what’s purpose of building one quadcopter? Are you planning on racing? Casual flying? Do you want to do acrobatics or aerial videos and carry a heavy payload?

You just can’t make one quadcopter that can do everything for you and if you are completely new to this thing you should first learn hovering and some basics of quadcopter flying. We know there isn’t yet an all-in-one solution , everyone has different needs and budgets.

So I’m going to try going over what the best propeller are for specific uses. Generally speaking, If you want speed and acrobatics then you need to select a very fast turning motor with small propellers (under 8 inches). If you want to carry a payload such as a video camera and gimbal then you need to select a slower turning motor with a large propeller (8+ inches).

Most popular and best propellers

Read motor Thrust Data

Before choosing best propeller for quadcopter, you have to know weight and to choose the right motor. propeller and motor will work with each other.

Here some tips about choosing motors: For racing and acrobatics or just plain fun a good starting point in motor selection is to consider motors that are rated over 1200kV and for heavy payloads motors that are rated under 1200kV , 850kV is a nice starting point for heavy payloads.

Once you have chosen the brushless motor, you can read motor thrust data then to choose the propellers, such as below MT2312-960KV motor data table, you will knew very clearly that 9443 or 10*5 propeller are suited for your quadcopter motor.

Motor Thrust Data table
Volts Props Throttle Amps Watts RPM Thrust (g)
11.1 9443 30% 1.8 21.78 4780 187
11.1 9443 45% 3.2 38.72 5811 282
11.1 9443 65% 5.6 67.76 6906 438
11.1 9443 75% 7.6 91.96 7676 542
11.1 9443 100% 11.2 135.52 8498 706
11.1 10*5 30% 1.3 15.73 3821 108
11.1 10*5 45% 3.4 41.14 5385 285
11.1 10*5 65% 10.8 130.68 7985 661
11.1 10*5 75% 12.4 150.04 8313 737
11.1 10*5 100% 12.4 150.04 8325 734

Brushless motor prop calculator

Generally you will get suggested prop value in brushless motor specification, there are some calculation formulas between motor and prop, such as Quadcopter RPM calculator / thrust calculator / load weight calculator etc. If you want to know more, this post maybe useful for you, please click here to read moreBrushless motor prop calculator for diy quadcopter.

Update PARTS 2017-1-23

Quadcopter propeller size for reference

Type of prop is important as well but we will see effect of diameter and pitch on flight of quadcopter. Generally we see quadcopter propeller size with the specification of below table.

So we can say if we have 10×3.8 prop our quad will climb in the air at 228 inch/sec, while with 10×6 prop climb rate will be incread to 360 inch/sec.

An other post for reference isQuadcopter frame and lipo battery and motor and propeller size matching table.

Conclusion

There are some tips about choose the best propeller for quadcopter:

• A smaller prop is easier to speed up and slow down whereas a large prop takes a very long time to change speeds.
• A smaller prop requires a higher RPM motor because they must spin faster to generate equivalent lift.
• Lower kV motor can deal with bigger prop. With increasing kV value size of prop will be decreased. So you will have to keep this in mind. For quadcopter you should go with low pitch prop if you need more stability and less vibrations.

How to choose the best propeller for your quadcopter,maybe you have know and also have some experience tips to want to share to us.Please leave your comments here. That’s very welcome.