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- Verified Buyer
I haven’t unboxed it because it’s a gift, but it’s very heavy and I believe it was a good buyFirst what state what should be obvious, if you're looking for a fine product of workmanship you need to find something more expensive… You are getting what you're paying for here people. Second, in regards to the chemical smell that it puts off,it seems that China has applied some sort of cheap pre-seasoned glaze to the pot. To take care of this, it's imperative that you first throw the pot into your woodstove for a few hours to burn off that glaze, and then season it in your oven. I tried seasoning it before burning off the glaze and it resulted in a stinky smoky mess. It's an extra step but I haven't had any issues with stink or smoke since then. As for the functionality, it does exactly what it needs to do, humidify the room. It lets off a nice amount of steam. There are far better pots out there but you have to be willing to pay more for them. This pot is great in my opinion as long as you take the extra time to prep it before use. Only minor rusting to the areas that I didn't season very well.The kettle I received did NOT have the chemical smell that others reported. It looked great right out of the box but I still oiled the outside the same way I would oil a cast iron skillet. Don't bother coating the inside, any oil you put in will either burn or dissipate into the water.As for some of the other complaints (water spills out the top, have to keep refilling, rust, etc.) all I can say is think about what this product is listed as. Of course it will boil over if you over fill it. The fact that you have to keep refilling it is pretty good evidence that it is working properly. It WILL get rusty, it's iron. Iron naturally rusts faster when it is hot and adding water certainly doesn't help. You can ameliorate this by oiling it (the outside) regularly, not just once, and cleaning out the inside. To clean the inside, fill it with a 4:1 water to white vinegar solution and bring it to a slow boil for an hour or so. IF your fire gets really hot, boil it on the stove because you don't want a rolling boil. Dump that out and scrub it down with some steel wool or a stainless steel wire brush and you should be ready to go.It’s perfect for what I purchased it for, to be a humidifier on my wood stove. Plus it looks amazing sitting on it. Does it’s job. What more do you need?Was looking for a "humidifier" for our wood stove in stead of just a pot on the stove. Saw this one and thought we'd give t a try. The price was right. I seasoned in inside and out before we filled it with water, but the insides still rusted up quite a bit. No Biggy. Takes heat from the stove well and starts steaming quickly. You have to watch how much water you put in it or you get spatter. Another thing is you have to refill it quite often, we use our wood stove 24/7, and have to refill the kettle roughly 3 times a day depending on how hot we run the stove to match outside temps (more if it's really cold outside like temps 20 and lower when we really let the stove hum). If it's around 28 at night and we damp down the stove and fill it right before we go to bed it'll be almost dry by the time we get up. Could be bigger capacity wise. It will discolor from moister coming out through the lid and spattering from the spout, not to mention your stove top. But if you can live with this, and the times you'll need to refill it then it'll be worth it to you.But for decorative purposes, it's okay. I've not seen anything for a wood stove yet that matches a big pot for hassle free humidity like a 10-15 quart....so....hope this helps you decide...It is solid and quite heavy when full of water. If you set it on a stove with an enamel finish you will want to set it down carefully or set it on a trivet. You will notice an odor the first time or two it gets hot but that goes away. Yes, it will rust but I conditioned the inside the same way you would to a cast iron skillet and that helped a lot. It looks attractive too, if that's important to you.I bought this to use on my wood stove. I keep it filled with water to add some humidity to the air since the stove takes so much away. I like it except for 1 thing, since it is cast iron, it rusts on the inside of the kettle every time I use it. I would have to scrub it clean and oil every time, it still would rust when the water ran out. I now just fill it without getting the rust out because it's too much trouble. The rust is only on the inside of the kettle so it can't be seen when it is sitting there. Doesn't seem to make any difference whether I clean it or not. However before putting it away at the end of the cold season I will definitely have to get the rust out so it doesn't ruin the kettle.It's a good size, I only have to fill it once per day when burning an all day fire.Rusted after a few days!!!! For the money this is very poor. It looks great for a few days then it rusts.This product is totally unsuitable. It has marked our gorgeous wood burning stove and rusts as the images highlight. Rusty humidity is not what we paid for.Solid cast iron kettle not for use as a normal kettle but used to place on top of my wood burner stove to produce steam to humidify the room. Works wellPlease don't buy this product. It rusts within days and all you're doing is vaporizing rusty water into your air. Just use a pot from the kitchen instead. Fill with water and add a couple of cinnamon sticks :)Great value only thing that lets it down is there is no lip on the inside of the lid so you get steam spitting out
