fireplace box - can it be painted?

[mark (sixstringtheoryDOTcom)]

I have a 19 year old townhouse. In a corner of the living room is a fireplace, with a pretty ugly black "box" (not sure if the correct term for this firebox is 'insert' or not?). It is painted black by the manufacturer and through the years (before I moved in) has acquired some scratches on the front of it. Besides the scratches, I also repainted the living room including the trim and the black firebox doesn't match. Is there a special type of heat resistant paint I could use to paint the front of this fire box? Or am I stuck with the factory black?

mark

[m Ransley]

Is it a flat finish , not ceramic. I found once green stove paint. it is maybe 1100f paint. Some automotive stores have maybe 900f paint. Call a stove co or fireplace store they will know

[willshak]

On 1/31/2005 11:10 PM US(ET), mark (sixstringtheoryDOTcom) took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

Rustoleum makes a spray paint suitable for barbecue grills (gloss and matte). If not, an automotive finish suitable for exhaust manifolds may work.

[Goedjn]

Stove paint should work, although it will be less durable than a real baked enamel, and you'll probably have to sand the surface first to make a non-gloss surface. Any color but black or grey is going to show soot, if this is a wood-burner.

[George E. Cawthon]

I'll second that. Or any high temp automotive paint. And don't worry about the temp rating of the paint. Even if you have paint only rated for 500 F that should be ok, and if it starts to burn, you know you are operating the insert at too high a temp for safety. BTW, I used high temp auto paint to paint a 3" square steel tube I used for air distribution in a fireplace heating system and the tube was exposed to direct heat from the fire about 8-12 inches away. It still looks the same after years of operation.

[George E. Cawthon]

Stoves and fireplace inserts should never be operated with a surface temp of 900 F. Anything higher than 500 is getting dangerous.