Malm Firedrum 3 restoration update
I made a short post back in the Fall looking for advice on paint/powder coating for a Malm Firedrum 3 restoration. There were for sure some helpful people on here, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with any of the answers I could find online about how each brand of paint held up, and how well it would lay, and if it would cure right on the malm porcelain coating. I wanted to put this out here for anyone in a similar circumstance as me.
We could not powder coat the unit for economic reasons, which would have been ideal, but I did find a stove paint that worked extremely well, held up really nicely to daily use, even the occasional over-firing, and if I have to refinish it every few years, which is often the case with stove paint I am still very satisfied with the result.
I picked this unit up in New Orleans, and it had accumulated a good amount of rust, as well as damage to the original refractory.
For the prep I spent approximately 40 working hours tediously removing rust with a wide set of wire brushes, grinder brushes, rust removal pads, steel wool, extremely cautious and sparing amounts of acid (quickly neutralized), and kept all the pieces in a dry place so that rust wouldn’t reform. I did leave the original porcelain finish intact. After I was satisfied with how clean everything was, I did two carefully applied coats of Thurmalox stove paint, sanding the first one after drying, and following the application directions on the cans. I wanted the fireplace to stay matte, so I didn’t end up using their clear coat. The paint off-gassed for about four firings. The first two being just long enough to heat the whole unit up. YOU NEED TO OPEN DOORS AND WINDOWS DURING THIS PROCESS.
On the refractory, Malm does sell replacement refractory pieces. They are outrageously expensive, but if you have it in the budget it’s for sure the way to go. I did not, but I plan to save for them. In the meantime in order to replace the missing refractory panels I used firebrick and refractory mortar. I cut the brick to the shape of the dome/semicircle with an angle grinder using existing refractory as a sort-of template. I assembled the refractory I did have, and then filled the gaps with layered firebrick and refractory mortar. Once the mortar cured, I cleaned it up with an angle grinder, and fit the metal body of the unit onto the finished refractory dome.
For the chimney I had to reduce the pipe down from the original 10”, to 8” to fit the Class A chimney I had available locally, but I have had no problems with draft. I get perfect draft from the time I light the match.
As I said before the paint has held up perfectly. We regularly kept the fire going for days on end, and I haven’t had any discoloration, or inconsistencies in the finish. I was warned that these units are largely decorative, and don’t heat efficiently. In our case that is wrong. This thing CRANKS heat out, and looks cute af while doing it. The amount of thermal mass it has is ridiculous, and it stays hot for hours after the fire has gone out.
And yes, I understand these units are not up to code by and large. If it ever becomes a concern I can swap it with a modern stove.
This group was very helpful during this process— I hope my experience can be useful to someone.
Dogspeed to you all