on cleaning irons:I use black shoe polish. The paste kind. I use rust converter first, the kind that turns the rust black. I have heard of using stove polish as well, but have never found any to try. I like the machine to not look too new, so i have never repainted irons. If I came across some that had been painted white or another color, I might just paint over them black rather than strip the pint, but so far i haven't had to face that. Laura