How to fix rust on home appliances
Appliances that handle water often develop rust that falls off in chunks. Owners try to repair the metal by sanding, painting, and applying rust-removal gels, but these methods frequently fail or make the damage worse. When the rust cannot be stopped, people are forced to trash the machine completely.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Sanding, priming, and repainting the rusted areas of the cabinetDid this help you?
- 2Replacing the rusted lids with expensive replacement partsDid this help you?
- 3Trashing the machine entirely because the rust has ruined itDid this help you?
- 4Sanding the rusted area and applying rust buster gelDid this help you?
- 5Scrubbing with CLR (calcium, lime, and rust remover) and a coarse spongeDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I trashed my 2012 ish speed queen for rust - it was falling off in chunks into the machine and the dealer I bought it from was unresponsive - it had started leaking as well. I had thought I’d bought my last washer. Very disappointing:(”source ↗
“It's just amazing that a machine that handles water does this...twice i've sanded/primed & painted my 14yrs old LG.”source ↗
“I have some rust on the bottom of my fridge and want to see if this is a winner!”source ↗
Where this came up
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