We have a 4 door cooker that came with the house. It works fine, although I did have to replace the fan oven heating element a couple of months ago.

But it looks shit. Paint on the door skins is flaking off with decent sized patches of bare rust. The metal underneath seems fine, so I’m planning to strip and repaint.

I’ve been looking for paint, but “appliance” paint says not suitable for ovens/cookers, and the high temperature paint/enamel seems to be aimed at BBQs and stoves, and is 600-800-1200 degreees C, which is surely overkill. And black seems to be the primary colour choice.

The cooker door skins are insulated from the interior of the oven. I’d be surprised if they get anywhere close to 100 degrees C. I’ve used boiling water to help free seatposts/ install headsets on bikes and never once thought about whether the paint is heat resistant.

So do I need heat resistant paint, or not really? Is there such a thing as “a bit heat resistant paint”? Or is there no disadvantage to the 800 degree stuff in terms of application, as long as I can find a sensible colour for the kitchen?

Theres a reason VHT paint is matt black, it radiates heat.

One off 100 degrees is very different to 2 hours a day every day.

Contact a paint supplier, e.g. https://www.rawlinspaints.com/heat-resistant-paints

I’ve no idea if the sort of temperatures that an oven door will reach, but I’d have thought that engine enamel could be a good bet for repainting? ‘VHT’ brand paint has done a great job of standing up to the heat produced by a powerplant that’s spectacularly good at turning petrol into heat and noise. I’ve even used white and it hasn’t shown any sign of yellowing, even near the uninsulated turbo hotside.
Goes on really nicely too.

Edit: this stuff https://www.vhtpaint.com/high-heat/vht-engine-enamel
It’s been on my zebra striped block for 10+ years