'Find' in our Hearthstone ash drawer

After the first few fires, upon emptying the ash drawer, we found what appears to have been a small bottle of touch-up paint in the ash drawer. The plastic top was melted, and the contents had leaked out into the ash drawer and solidified. There's no prying/scraping it off the bottom of the pan.

When the installers left, they said -- 3 times -- "it's all ready to go". I never thought to go looking in the ash drawer as none of the documentation on the website or in the Owner's Manual mentioned a bottle of touch-up paint. It's our first woodstove and we had no clue as to the level of 'odd smells' to expect over the first few burns. Clearly, this explains the headaches and sinus irritation I was getting!

So, have other Hearthstone owners received similar bottles? Should the installers have known it was there? The 'head' of the 3-man crew did say he had installed several Hearthstones in the past. Has this damaged our stove/chimney in any way? At the very least, I'm going to be going after the MSDS sheet for the enamel, to try to figure out what health effects, if any, we may have experienced. I'm ticked. This has put a very sour note to what was up to this point an excellent Mfr/Installer experience. I'm not sure if I should contact the installer or Mfr first, or both at the same time.

Sounds like an isolated thing to me. My stove came with no touch up paint. I cannot imagine it having any effect as health is concerned. If it was in the ash pan it should have be sealed off air tight to the stove so the only thing you were smelling was the paint curing on the outside of the stove.

It has been said here on this site multiple time the first couple of times you start a stove do it on a day you can open the windows.

Yes, it is a disappointing installer story. I have a few too. However to your issue, take the pan outside and loosen the dried paint with a propane torch and paint scraper. Then scrape it away, allow it to cool and harden and discard in the trash.

So much for "professional" installers. They could have done much worse.

Moderator:

Not sure how I ended up posting in 'Perfect Picture' -- likely because I'm still getting used to my trackpad. I intended to post in Hearth Room. Please move this post. Thanks.

ETA: re-posted in Hearth Room