The science behind our facade work

StoColor® Dryonic® — paint that stays radiant, year after year.

When you ask BestFinish to paint your home's exterior, this is the coating we recommend most. Inspired by the fog-basking beetle of the Namib desert and certified by the Fraunhofer Institute for the fastest drying time of any facade paint tested, Dryonic® keeps facades dry, beautiful, and free from algae and fungi — naturally.

Manufacturer: Sto SE & Co. KGaA Family: iQ TechnologyTM Tested by: Fraunhofer Institute (LBF)

A beetle that drinks fog — and the paint it inspired.

The Namib desert sees barely 12mm of rain a year. Yet the fog-basking beetle thrives there, harvesting drinking water out of thin air. Its secret: a shell covered in countless microscopic bumps. Hydrophilic tips condense fog into water; hydrophobic depressions channel it away in seconds.

Sto's research team studied that surface, then transferred the principle into a facade paint. The result is Dryonic® — a coating with the same micro-textured architecture, working the same way. Where ordinary paints stay damp for hours after rain, dew or fog, Dryonic® dries in record time.

That single difference — speed of drying — is what keeps a facade radiant for years instead of fading and greening.

A fog-basking beetle on a dune in the Namib desert — the inspiration behind Dryonic technology Stenocara, the fog-basking beetle — Namib desert

Three things every Dryonic®-painted facade does on its own.

A patented microtexture, baked into the paint's binder architecture, gives the surface its self-managing properties.

1

Sheds water in seconds

The microtexture turns the facade into a directing surface. Rain, fog and dew bead, run off and evaporate before they can soak in.

2

Starves algae and fungi

Without prolonged surface moisture, the conditions micro-organisms need to colonise simply don't exist. Protection is structural, not chemical.

3

Stays radiant for years

Less moisture means less weathering, less fading, less greening. The colour you paint today is the colour your neighbours see in five years.

The fastest-drying facade paint the Fraunhofer Institute tested.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability (LBF) tested five leading facade paints side-by-side, measuring how quickly each one shed water and dried after exposure. Dryonic® came out fastest in every measured condition.

That is not a marketing claim from Sto — it is an independent result from one of Europe's most-cited applied-research institutes, and it is repeatable across colour shade, substrate and weather.

Read Sto's official spec on sto.com
#1

fastest-drying facade paint, Fraunhofer LBF comparison study (5 paints tested)

0 chem.

algae & fungi protection comes from physical surface texture — not biocides leaching into the soil

colour

performance is independent of shade, substrate or prevailing weather conditions

Premium results require a premium product. Here's why Dryonic® is on every BestFinish exterior project.

A paint job is only as good as the coating that goes on. Cheaper facade paints might look identical the day they're applied — but the test is what your home looks like in three winters' time. We use Dryonic® because we want our work to be the work that still looks fresh five years on.

Sto-approved applicators

BestFinish is trained and approved by Sto to apply their iQ-Technology coatings to specification.

Right product, right surface

Stucco, render, brick or pebbledash — Dryonic® performs across substrates we work on every week.

Built for British weather

Heavy dew, drizzle and damp days are exactly the conditions Dryonic® is engineered to survive without algae bloom.

Honest long-term value

Higher up-front cost, lower lifetime cost. A facade you don't have to repaint, jet-wash or treat every other year.

Thinking of a Dryonic® facade for your home?

Tell us about your property — render type, square footage, and any prep work you think it needs. We'll come and look, and give you an honest quote.