Hi, I decided that painting the inside of my stove wasn't worth the effort. It’s a trade off; how is the humidity where you live? Any number of threads on this forum will tell you that rust forms in stoves when humidity is high; control that and there really isn't a problem. I didn't do anything to my stove for 3 years because I didn't know any better and when I finally did an end of the year cleaning the interior rust was almost none existent. I spot treated what I did find with a rust converter and left it. My thought is that the rust converter will work to minimize any existing rust formation over the summer and burn off in the fall. I figured that anything I put in the fire box would burn off anyway so why spend my time sanding and painting. The rust converter dries black so it looks pretty, too.Matthaus wrote:IMO it's worth the effort, but then again unless you use proper paint you might as well not bother, the two I use are VHT 2000* silver and Duplicolor 1200* silver. The aluminium flakes in the paint seem to help keep the rust from coming back, although a re-coat after a couple of years is sometimes needed.
Instead of painting I concentrated on reducing the humidity my stove is exposed to. I changed my gaskets, disconnected it from the chimney for the summer, sealed it with a chimney end cap and put a box of Damp Rid in the fire box. My stove is in an Air Conditioned room so I thought that would eliminate any lingering humidity. I shut down the first of April and I'm surprised to find the Damp Rid is almost half gone. Humidity is getting in somehow; still I am confident that I have done everything I can to mitigate rust formation. Doing something always beats doing nothing. Have great day!