UDS paint staying tacky!???

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travisty

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
SMF Premier Member
Mar 10, 2014
559
169
Salt Lake City, UT
Hey everyone. I recently built a UDS smoker and for the paint I used a 2000 degree Rustoleum. Anyway even after now my 6th cook (and 4 weeks, also note I waited 4 days before doing my first cook after painting), the paint STILL gets tacky on every use, and also even if I wait till after it has cooled completely down to put my cover back on, when the sun comes out it heats the paint up enough to get it tacky so that I have to "tear" the cover off every time I use the smoker, thus peeling some paint off onto the cover, and even some of the rubber in the cover onto the paint... Super annoying!

The entire thing from the lid to the bottom gets tacky, so anything that touches the smoker while in use will leave a mark/imprint, or when I close the lid back on my cloves leave their pattern in the lip, and some "wet" paint on the gloves.

Anyone else have this problem with paint on their UDS? Any recommendations, or does this just happen with UDS?

-Also note that I got a high quality cover that is a canvas outside, but has a sort of rubbery lining inside.
 
Hey Travisty, Sounds like you have a mess on your hands. It sounds as if you have gotten some bad paint. I wouldn't think its anything you have done. I am not sure why you used 2000 degree paint since your smoker should never get over 300 degrees. I own an automotive collision repair shop and when I built my UDS which you can find on my post I used an automotive single stage urethane paint that has no high heat capabilities and have never had a problem with paint getting sticky or peeling off and have used this UDS multiple times. My point being unless your using your smoker for a grill also, I don't think it is necessary to use anything other than a good quality spray paint. Most all will withstand the low temperatures 200-300 that you will produce smoking. I used an infrared thermometer on my UDS to see what my wall temperatures was getting and with the grate temperature at 250 my wall temperature was 205. A black vehicle in the hot summer sun will get hotter than that.  If I were you I would get some good quality lacquer thinner and wipe all of your paint off, scuff it, and respray with another paint.
 
 
Hey Travisty, Sounds like you have a mess on your hands. It sounds as if you have gotten some bad paint. I wouldn't think its anything you have done. I am not sure why you used 2000 degree paint since your smoker should never get over 300 degrees. I own an automotive collision repair shop and when I built my UDS which you can find on my post I used an automotive single stage urethane paint that has no high heat capabilities and have never had a problem with paint getting sticky or peeling off and have used this UDS multiple times. My point being unless your using your smoker for a grill also, I don't think it is necessary to use anything other than a good quality spray paint. Most all will withstand the low temperatures 200-300 that you will produce smoking. I used an infrared thermometer on my UDS to see what my wall temperatures was getting and with the grate temperature at 250 my wall temperature was 205. A black vehicle in the hot summer sun will get hotter than that.  If I were you I would get some good quality lacquer thinner and wipe all of your paint off, scuff it, and respray with another paint.
Well I do sometimes use the UDS as a grill. I got the Big Poppa kit with the raise-able basket. I almost got a 500 degree option, but there was too much variation of opinion from the questions I asked during my build, so I just went with the higher option. Also, during a couple of the cooks, just to see what she could do, I was able to bring the barrel up to over 500 degrees just out of curiosity.
In the future, I am also thinking of adding a pizza oven mod (which you can read on my post here: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/260520/big-poppa-uds-build-with-pics/40#post_1696550). And this would need to be able to get up to 500-600.
Im gonna see how it does through the next few cooks, and perhaps after this comp I have coming up ill try to do a clean off and re-coat.
 

Thanks for the advise! Would have probably done it that way from the begining if I could go back.
 
How to cure Rustoleum 2000 deg. High Heat paint..


Dave, unfortunately the paint I got is not the ceramic cure type. The instructions just say its good to go after 2 days of drying.
 
Travesty, if your using your UDS for other things I guess you would need high temp paint. Good luck to you in your future.
 
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