ENAMELS AINT ENAMELS # 1
Q I'm on the hunt for a new barbeque and have been looking at two
brands which both have an enamel covering. One has vitreous enamel
and the other has triple baked enamel. Which is best? Obviously, both
bag eachother’s products when you try to ask questions about the material.
Scott
Brisbane
A Scott, it is my understanding that for a surface to be termed 'vitreous
enamel' it must involve a process where a glass coating is bonded to steel at
frighteningly high temeratures. I'm not exactly sure what 'triple baked' means but
I suspect it might involve the application of extra cover coats.
Just make sure that you are getting a vitreous enamel surface and not a
powder-coated one. This process also involves baking on a coating
(polyester in the case of powder coating) but it is quite different and is closer
to paint than vitreous enamel.
Extra coats of enamel are more about colour and depth than additional
durability (for example, black Weber kettles have one coat and other colours
require two - but I've never heard of the coloured ones lasting longer or
out performing the basic black ones).
Just a single cover coat of vitreous enamel will probably provide more years
of durability than you will ever need if it's looked after. Go to
www.glassmetal.com.au for a rundown on the benefits of vitreous enamel and
the process used to produce these remarkably durable coatings.
So durable in fact that the site points out : "Having withstood the ravages
of time, the death mask of the boy King Tutankhamen remains a silent
sentinel to the permanency of vitreous enamel".
Well there you go Scott - make sure you're barby doesn't get chipped or
heavily scratched and you can probably look forward to getting a few
millennia out of it!
Cheers
BBQ Blue