Help... painted inside the kettle bowl


 

Joseph K

TVWBB Member
Hi Weber Gurus, I should have read more posts before I went ahead with touch up paints... I didn't realize that this was a no-no. Yes, I have made some touch ups (with 1000F rustoleum paint) inside the performer 2 bowl. They are not major brushed strokes but here and there small touch ups thinking the touch ups would prevent rusts from developing. The major touch ups I made was around the propane igniter hole.

Now with much of sighs, I am seriously hesitant to grill on this thing. (I have other grills to cook on but I was looking forward to utilizing this performer) What should I do? Should I scrape off the paints I made (but how and how do I know how much is good enough)? or Should I go through few no food burn cycles to burn off any toxic fumes? or there is no turning back and the bowl is no longer usable and I should toss it away?

Besides the inner side of the bowl, the most paint job I did was on the propane igniter holder which sits outside the bowl but butting to the external side of the bowl. That piece of metal was quite rusted that I scraped off rusts and painted the whole thing with 1000F rustoleum paint. The good thing is that that piece of metal is outside of the bowl, at least. No paint inside of the lid though.

I was trying to be careful to not use a lot of paint inside the bowl so I made few touch ups. But, after reading some forum articles, I realized that I crossed the river. Safety before anything so please let me know your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks a lot.
 
I'm with Timothy. Anything that would burn off during a cook will be gone after a couple of burn offs and seasoning is a good thing for even a new grill.
 
I would do a couple of burn offs followed by a few greasy cooks to season it ( toss the meat)
Cheap bacon or pork scraps would work'
You just touched up right? Not like you painted the whole bowl.
Hi Timothy, thanks for the suggestion. Yes, just touch ups, here and there. So, your suggestion is to cover the touched up parts with grease. Got it. Grease touch ups on touched up paints. Thanks.
 
If it were me, I would try to remove as much of the paint with alcohol, lacquer thinner or acetone as I could first.
 
If it were me, I would try to remove as much of the paint with alcohol, lacquer thinner or acetone as I could first.
Hi Ed, in fact, I was thinking of that, too. But, all those are toxic by themselves so I was not sure... and hesitant. How about just using a sharp scraper? At least that way, no added toxicant. I will give more thoughts on it. Thanks. And one other potential thing I thought of was, would that be safe for the porcelain enamel of the Weber bowl?
 
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Hi Ed, in fact, I was thinking of that, too. But, all those are toxic by themselves so I was not sure... and hesitant. How about just using a sharp scraper? At least that way, no added toxicant. I will give more thoughts on it. Thanks.
Those solvents don't leave a residue behind so you should be safe. I use ethanol (whisky, wine, etc) daily, along with hand sanitizer. Also rubbing alcohol and denatured alcohol (hand sanitizer grade).

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EDIT: We had a hand sanitizer fire in L.A. recently. The fire dept. just let it burn off...alcohol burns clean (no smoke or hazardous particulates emitted)

 
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Those solvents don't leave a residue behind so you should be safe. I use ethanol (whisky, wine, etc) daily, along with hand sanitizer. Also rubbing alcohol and denatured alcohol (hand sanitizer grade).
Got it, Ed. Can't deny the good use of whisky and wine for sure. :)
 
I am going to vote with Timothy. While I would not recklessly use spray paint inside a cooking area (gas grill firebox or inside a kettle) I am personally not convinced that after a couple good burn offs that there really is much in the way of dangerous fumes. If you want to be extra careful do a third cook with some cheap greasy food to coat everything.

Scraping or removing that paint I am afraid will do more harm then any fume savings. Just my opinion. I don’t claim expertise in this subject.
 
That looks like a witch's brew of toxins!

Please don't get me wrong, fresh spray paint heated up I am sure gives off stuff you don't want to breathe (that would also be true of paint on the OUTSIDE) and fumes you don't want "smoking" your meat. I am just not convinced that this is a continual issue but rather one that dissipates after a reasonable amount of burn-off. But, again, I don't know. If you can avoid it, definitely do.

I admit to having touched up a grease tray or two with high heat black. That's a few SMALL spots, not a paint job. I would not do that. I think what Joseph posted is more along the lines of my minor repair vs. where we have seen entire fireboxes painted inside.

Interested in as many perspectives as we can get on this. It is thrown out pretty much as irrefutable fact, but the nuances of the paint ultimately curing and how long that takes aren't generally discussed.
 
So, I started a fire inside the bowl to do a burn off and literally put scorching coals on where the touch ups are made. And left the grill for a good 15 minutes. What I observed is that gray ash were covering where the touch ups had happened. Perhaps the rough surface of the paint job caught the ash from sliding down to the bowl holes. I plan to do this a couple more times. I am thinking at that point, perhaps with a couple more burnoffs and then grease covering, it would be fine? The way ashes were piling up, definitely grease will.

I do agree with Jon on finding out on when would it be ok if burn offs and grease coverings are undertaken. I will take some photos tomorrow.
 
I owe an update to my painted-inside performer bowl status.
So, after a couple of burn offs, the painted (or touched up) surfaces were covered with ash but unfortunately it did not give me any assurance that it would be safe cook. I mean, I could still see the paint marks and how do I know if it is ok after a couple of burn offs?
So, I tried Ed's suggestion on using acetone to remove touched up paints. (So, I used acetone after I did the burn offs. Another desperate blunder.) Miraculously, however, acetone removed the paints. But, only for the area where light touch up paint were applied.

Where I made major touch up brush strokes and put scorching coals on (while burn off), the acetone did not work. Perhaps, I should not have put scorching coals on the painted area before I used acetone. I do not know. Or perhaps the scorching coals burned off the paint fumes and made characteristic changes to the paint. Acetone had no effects on the area in the picture (around the burner hole. This is the hole I made and I touch up painted heavily). Other areas (where touch painted but very lightly compared to around the burner hole), I was able to totally remove paints. I am really curious to know what would cause the paint to become invincible to acetone. I think the scorching hot coals did it, but, of course, I am not sure. I put hot coals around the hole for good 20-30 minutes though. Perhaps this change is the sign that we are good to cook? I don't know.

At this point, I am leaning toward believing it would be safe to cook. The only concerned area is around the burner hole but I plan to to a couple more burn offs and grease covering.

But, after some experiments I think I have some ideas on what to do when I make another blunder of painting inside of lid/bowl.
1. Do not paint inside. Period. Avoid.
2. If you make mistake (of painting inside) like I have, use acetone (or whatever has the same effect) to remove as much as possible.
After that, doing burn offs is always a good idea.

Thank you all for your input on this.
 

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The heat from the coals cured the paint to the point that acetone wouldn't do anything, and that's probably a good thing as far as safety goes. You can always put a wire wheel in a drill and grind that paint off if you still don't feel good about it being there.
 
Another suggestion is to use a torch to soften the paint and a wire (tooth)brush and/or a wooden scraper to scrape it off. Some people clean their bowls and cook boxes this way when it comes time, but the paint may be baked on too hard for this to work. Dawn Power Dissolver, Sam's Club Oven & Grill Cleaner, or Carbon-Off are also commonly used for cleaning and may also work. Please do your own price comparisons using the Amazon Shopping link above as these links may not be the lowest price available.

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Another suggestion is to use a torch to soften the paint and a wire (tooth)brush and/or a wooden scraper to scrape it off. Some people clean their bowls and cook boxes this way when it comes time, but the paint may be baked on too hard for this to work. Dawn Power Dissolver, Sam's Club Oven & Grill Cleaner, or Carbon-Off may also work.
I thought about the torch as well Ed. My thinking is that if the torch didn't soften the paint either that it was more than likely safe enough to cook on. I'm certainly not telling anyone to throw caution to the wind, but if the paint has cured to that point I would feel ok about it.
 
I thought about the torch as well Ed. My thinking is that if the torch didn't soften the paint either that it was more than likely safe enough to cook on. I'm certainly not telling anyone to throw caution to the wind, but if the paint has cured to that point I would feel ok about it.
Yep, I agree 100%, but it's hard to tell others what's safe and what's not when we really don't know. I personally would not mess with it, but these tools and cleaners are handy to have on hand and I have used them for cleaning baking pans and grates.
 
Yep, I agree 100%, but it's hard to tell others what's safe and what's not when we really don't know. I personally would not mess with it, but these tools and cleaners are handy to have on hand and I have used them for cleaning baking pans and grates.
I agree with that too, and from my own warped viewpoint I would just buy a new one. To me there is a big difference between refurbishing an old gas grill that you can't replace and messing around with a kettle that can be. I get that the older ones have thicker metal and were probably better made and had a better finish, but when they are all dented up and have big chunks of porcelain missing it's just time for a new one in my opinion.
 
I agree with that too, and from my own warped viewpoint I would just buy a new one. To me there is a big difference between refurbishing an old gas grill that you can't replace and messing around with a kettle that can be. I get that the older ones have thicker metal and were probably better made and had a better finish, but when they are all dented up and have big chunks of porcelain missing it's just time for a new one in my opinion.
You are right again, Steve!

Weber has sold untold hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of these kettles over the past 70 years, and no doubt some of the problems they are facing today are caused by making a product too well for too long. Weber is only sustainable if people buy new grills instead of rehabbing old ones.
 
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