Enameled cast iron: Pros & cons (besides price)

[mar13]

I'd be curious to hear from folks who have had experience with both painted cast iron and enameled cast iron. Pluses and minuses for each? Or is it just purely an aesthetics choice.

I can only guess:
Enamel: easier to clean (+), can chip (-) but I'm told that's difficult to do
Paint: eventually will need to be repainted (-) although not sure if that's hard or easy to do

I'm set to get a PE Alderlea T5 (cast iron jacketed steel stove) and I believe all that's left to decide on is whether to keep it standard painted black or get the majolica (aka brown) enamel classic version. Over the long run, the price difference will be insignificant to my budget.

 

[begreen]

The castiron jacket on the Alderleas stays fresh looking for a long time because it doesn't get as hot as a true cast iron stove. Our paint job is 10 yrs old and it still looks great. That said, the T5 in brown enamel is very dressy and easier to keep looking that way.

 

[bholler]

Enamel does chip fairly easily. If you can avoid chipping it they will look great indefinitely. Many people can do that. But many people also end up with a stove with lots of chips. It all depends.

 

[Bad LP]

The brown enamel looks very good with my floors. No maintenance. We are careful with our finish.

 

[mar13]

I did find this old thread which is now closed, but relevant to this thread:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/enamel-finish-vs-metallic-classic-black.8047/

 

[begreen]

Enamel does chip fairly easily. If you can avoid chipping it they will look great indefinitely. Many people can do that. But many people also end up with a stove with lots of chips. It all depends.

It surprises me that folks get chips. I've had 2 enamel stoves, sold one chip free. The other is a 1984 F602 and it has a few small knicks, but overall still looks great. When I see a badly chipped stove I wonder how folks did that. Dropping tools on the stove? Banging it with a steamer or frypan?

 

[begreen]

I did find this old thread which is now closed, but relevant to this thread:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/enamel-finish-vs-metallic-classic-black.8047/

Whoa, that's a real oldy for sure. It was actually out before most cast iron clad stoves were on the market.

 

[Nick Mystic]

I have a Jotul F600 with a majolica porcelain enamel finish. The stove is four years old and has gotten a number of chips during that time. I'm very careful with the stove and where the chips have shown up I'm certain that I did not hit the stove with something to cause the chip. Fortunately, you can get porcelain touch up paint that hides the chips quite well. It's rather expensive, costing about $25 for a tiny bottle like you get for car touch up paint. They give instructions that are rather tedious for applying it, which I tried at first, but it didn't seem worth the effort. I now just dab it on any chips I spot when the stove is cold and I'm good to go. I would buy the stove again even with this issue.

 

[begreen]

Do you know what is causing the chipping?

 

[Kevin Weis]

I had a Waterford stove (Irish) for several years that has a forest green enamel on it. Was a beautiful stove and the enamel held up well for some years until my daughter overflow the steamer on the top with water. Water went over the top of the stop and bubbled off the enamel from the cast. The cast iron held up though and did not crack under that. If I were to buy it again probably would just go with the black paint finish though. Most stove now are almost 20% more for enamel vs. paint. Not worth it in my book unless the décor just demands it for some reason or wifey. Kevin

 

[Nick Mystic]

I don't know what is causing the chips. They are mostly on curved areas of the stove, so perhaps the stress from heating and cooling affects these curves more than flat areas. Near one of the chips I can see some additional hairline cracks in the porcelain surface kind of in a row starting about a quarter inch away from where a chip developed. I'm very cautious to not over fire the stove, so I don't think it's related to the stove getting too hot.

 

[begreen]

I wonder if the quality of enameling has dropped a bit due to a change in materials or something. Like Kevin our old 602 still looks good and that stove has definitely been overfired more than once. Our Castine was the blue-black enamel which is tougher without the clear majolica glaze. It looked like new when we sold it.

Regardless, for the OP this shouldn't be an issue if they choose enamel. The T5 cast iron does not see the large temperature swings because it is not in direct contact with the firebox. My only gripe there is that PE dropped the black option which looked great.

 

[mar13]

This thread gets me thinking about the possible advantages of cast iron jacketed steel stoves with respect to detailing. Is it easy for a not very handy person to take off the steel jacket? This would make painting (outside!) the standard black easier. Or, if still in stock, replace a enameled panel if something went terribly wrong with the enamel.

I'll think i recall a poster in another thread stating that for the Alderlea that he disassembled it for getting into a the house, so perhaps not that difficult.

 

[begreen]

Not exactly easy or necessary for painting or moving.

 

[jotul8e2]

I simply cannot seem to stop banging my tools into the side door lip on my Jotul Oslo. I also have a couple of very small chips that seem to have been caused by the weight of the stove itself where the feet meet the floor. I am probably the only one who knows about these. And there is touch up enamel which is very effective.

I have twice painted cast iron stoves with flat black rattle can stove paint. It is easy, almost idiot proof, and gives you a stove that looks pretty much like new. It also touches up well.

At the end of the day, painted or raw cast iron always looks dusty - at least in black. I much prefer the enamel finish inside the house. In my shop, who cares?

 

[begreen]

Here are some shots of our painted Alderlea T6. The paint is 10 yrs old. It's not perfect, but still looking pretty good for it's age. By this time I would have repainted this stove twice if it were a straight cast iron stove.

 

[mar13]

Thanks for the pictures. It looks great for 10 yrs old. I emailed Tom Oyen at (chimneysweeponline) and he replied that "The porcelain enamel finish on the Alderlea has proved to be exceptionally durable. We've had ZERO customer complaints!" (Hopefully no offense for unauthorized quoting.)

If I were keeping my current stove, I'd certainly be researching how to paint.

 

[begreen]

Good to know. Tom is the PE guru.

 

[Woody5506]

I got the basic black T5. Kinda wish I got the white enameled one, but at the time I didnt want to cough up the extra dough! I rationalized by figuring it was likely to get stained easily and cracks/chips worried me but since then I've heard the PE enamels hold up great.