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Posted by Sherman in Idaho [24.32.202.166] on Saturday, February 02, 2013 at 01:51:53 :
In Reply to: Rustoleum On Sale posted by gmharris [71.105.35.169] on Saturday, February 02, 2013 at 00:19:01 :
I have become very leery of Rustoleum. It used to be good reliable paint, but a few years ago, to meet California smog rules, they changed from what I think was an oil/alkyd formula to what is some kind of polyurethane formula. With the old formula, if you left half a can sitting for a year, all you had to do was carefully peel off the skin on top and the paint would be fine. With the new formula, once a can has been opened, the entire contents gradually gells. Once gelled, adding more solvent won't help and the paint has to be thrown out. I've also noticed that the new Rustoleum black has very poor hiding power compared to the old. The last I checked, the "rusty metal primer" was still the good formula, though probably not in California.
The key to identifying the "good/old" versus "bad/new" versions, which seems to apply to all paint brands incidentally, is that the old oil paint says "flammable" in its warning section while the new kind says "combustible".
If you get stuck with the "combustible" kind, plan on using the whole can all at once, or at least within a month or two. Once it's been opened, it absorbs moisture from the air and starts to gell up. Incidentally, the old trick of pouring a thin layer of paint thinner on top of the partly-used paint before putting the lid on doesn't work with the new formula either.
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