As a result of a recent post I made regarding making your gas fire look like new, I’ve had lots of enquiries from people asking what we use as they live outside our service area and their service engineers don’t make any attempt to restore their fire.
Metal Polish
We use Hot Spot Multi Metal Polish. It’s brilliant. It cleans brass, chrome and anything else. You can use it to clean stubborn marks of marble and glass. Think of it as a cutting compound. It really does what it says on the tin, sometimes it just takes a few goes. On occasions, I have been called to service brass fires which have never been cleaned since they were fitted, so I cover it in a thick coat of metal polish, clean it off and, in a few goes, it cleans through the years of tarnish. Just like magic.
Coal Paint
Gas coals are usually made from ceramic fibre. It’s a fairly soft material, fragile and mucky. This material has to be dyed black to look like coals.
We use two coal paints, Black Magic and Back to Black. Back Magic Comes in big cans and is very easy to use. However, it’s quite expensive and is lots more than you need. In fact, it will do 15 – 20 fires.
Back to Black is a small tin probably doing 3 – 5 fires, costing a lot less, but it’s much messier to use. Both are water-based so wipe off marble and brass easily, but not off the carpet, so be careful.
Do not use this paint on any metal. If you have Ceramic Panels in your Fire (you will know what I mean they look and feel like cardboard). You use this paint for those. The purpose of this paint is to soak into it and stain back to black these ceramic components and coals. They end up looking like new and they’re stronger and will last longer.
Metal Paint
For painting metal components we use Hot Spot and Vitcas High-Temperature paint. They’re both very good. The only thing you have to watch is not to paint enamel surfaces. This paint is not for that. An example would be the hood on a gas convector fire. This is usually enamelled (even if it has a matt finish) and would look worse for painting.
Do not overdo it. Keep stopping and walk away for half an hour before applying another coat. Remember always read the instructions and use in a well-ventilated area. Incorrect use could result in babies with two heads (only joking!).
Most good fireplace shops will stock these products, as do we. So pop in if you need any.
