Painted firebox with non high temp paint for new insert

[check212]

Hi,
I recently purchased a Drolet 1800i. It's my first epa stove and in looking forward to using it, I've been trying to make my fireplace look better. I don't want a surround so I can get more radiant heat, so I decided to paint firebox black with high temp paint, fix some chipped bricks by flipping them over and remortaring, and painting the rest white. My cousin did her's this way and it looks great. She has open fireplace and the black paint looks great even during/after fire.

So, I went to home depot and asked for black high temp paint. The guy said, oh yeah we got that. He mixes something in it for a while and then sells it to me, along with some primer. So, I primer the firebox, after taping it off, wait 4 hours, and apply a coat of the black paint, wait 3 hours, apply 2nd coat.

I go back to home depot again yesterday to buy more paint. Was hoping they had hi temp paint in white. Found out it only comes in black. But when I was describing my situation to the clerk (at another home depot) she told me she didn't know if this paint was hi temp, and they only carry rustoleum high temp paint that has to be ordered from website.

This is the paint: Behr Stucco and Masonry Paint:
http://www.behr.com/consumer/products/specialty-paint/behr-masonry-stucco-and-brick-paint-satin

First, is it high temp paint? Could he have added something to it to make it that way? He seemed very confident in what he was telling me. Seemed like an honest guy, younger, just out of military I think.

Second, if it's not high temp paint, and I buy rustoleum can I just paint over the behr paint, or would I need to scrap it off (if that's possible), do I need new primer?

Does the bottom of the insert get anywhere near the temp of an open fire? Maybe I could keep paint as is. I need to find out temp range for the Behr paint but can't find it anywhere.

Thanks for any help.

 

[bholler]

I think that regular paint might bubble and i am sure it will discolor. Call behr and ask them what temp their paint holds up to. I dont know of anything that could be added to make regular paint high temp but it might be possible

 

[RickBlaine]

Home Depot's paint department mixes color, not chemicals to "add" high temperature abilities.

Rustoleum (their HQ is about 10 miles from me) makes BBQ paint which is high-temp. Two colors: Black or white.

I would be more concerned about that primer. If it was not high-temp primer, it will eventually peel IF YOUR WOOD STOVE RESTS WITHIN THE FIREPLACE- regardless of which top coat you use.

I placed my Englander 13 in the brick fireplace, which I painted black using Rustoleum's BBQ paint. Stunk pretty bad during the break in fires. After the third fire, no smell.

 

[jeff_t]

http://forrestpaint.com/stove-bright/

Used by most of the stove manufacturers.