Wasted $80 on a cheap mud pan that rusted in 2 weeks

Tbh I thought I was being smart grabbing a no-name mud pan from a hardware store downtown for $20 less than the stainless ones. After one job with compound left on it overnight the corners started rusting. Day 10 the rust was flaking into my mud and messing up my finish. Had to toss it and buy the good one anyway. Anyone else learn this the hard way or am I the only one who tried to save a few bucks?

3 comments

3 Comments

jackson.sarah27d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah @nathanbennett is out here acting like I planned to leave it full of mud as some kind of science experiment.

rose_hart312d ago

@nathanbennett is really coming at you like you committed a crime against cookware. Let's flip this around though. A little bit of mud or whatever left in a cheap pan overnight is not gonna kill you or ruin the pan forever. Those things are practically disposable anyway, you could probably buy three of them for the price of one good stainless pan. And honestly the factory coating on those cheap ones is usually garbage from day one, a little mud isn't making it worse. Some people just like to gatekeep how everyone else uses their kitchen stuff when it really doesn't matter that much.

nathanbennett28d ago

You missed the real issue here, it's not just about saving a few bucks. Leaving compound on any steel pan overnight is a bad habit that'll rust a stainless one too if the coating gets scratched. The cheap pans are usually just plain steel with a thin paint finish, not actual stainless. Next time try washing your pan clean right after you're done, even the cheap ones last way longer that way.