Ordered some Cerakote from Brownells a couple weeks ago and finally set aside time this weekend to get two rifles painted.

Took a while setting everything up and taping off the parts. So when I got to the cerakote and opened it up imagine how upset I was when there was a “sludge”  inside the bottle. Thought maybe I didn’t shake well enough. Nope. Shook for five minutes. Still a sludge.

Two of the three colors were bad. What makes it go bad?  Heat, time, humidity?  What ever it was Brownells has bad stock on hand.

(These bottles sat inside my A/C controlled home the two weeks I had it).

Anyone had cerakote go bad?  Thinking I need to call Brownells and start a RMA

You can call Nic and give them the code on the bottle and they can say when it was made or if others in that batch had calls. If Brownells keeps in stock and not drop ship it could have been stored hot. Mine get that way when old and hot. You can add a little acetone and shake and sometimes it works out but if it's bad it's just bad.

I only order from NIC.

Yeah, like the convenience of Brownells but maybe straight from the source is the way to go.

Thanks I’ll call them.

Interesting- I had the same experience this summer with their Alumahyde...2 different cans.
I wonder if they have a storage problem?

I've had this happen as well.  I had them all stored in my shop for a while and gets hot there in the summer months.  I noticed only some of the really bright colors went bad.  Like Zombie green, NRA Blue, and USMC Red.  The metalic colors were fine and some of those were even older.  Bottom line I keep my paints inside the house.  Some even use small refrigerators on a high setting.

"Sludge". Are you describing the pigments settling, or is it something else. High solid paints all do this to some degree.

It's more like the solvent evaporates and changes the consistency of the entire bottle.  You'll notice when new all Cerakote is REALLY thin.  Thinner than water it seems.  Once it starts to go bad no amount of shaking seems to thin it out again.  I never thought of adding acetone to it as someone mentioned but I'd be weary of that as it seems that would change the chemistry quite a bit.  Never know how that affects the bonding, curing, etc.  I'd never know how much to add either way.