Black stainless looks sort of cool, but I think of it as something trendy that will ultimately date your kitchen, just like the avocado colored blender up in my attic. I don't want finishes in my working kitchen that I have to worry about, and having a finish on stainless steel is just one more maintenance hassle. It's simply a polymer coating waiting to be damaged.

Does anyone know if you can DELIBERATELY peel off the black coating? I just recently purchased a condo that has a two really nice Samsung appliances (fridge and stove) in BSS, but the dishwasher and over-range microwave need to be updated. I'm sold that BSS is a bit of a scam, but could I peel the coating off on purpose so that they'd match any new regular stainless appliances?

Damon-

Black stainless is regular stainless with a colored acrylic (i.e., plastic) finish. I don't know any way you could peel that off, even with heavy duty solvents. I'm not sure that even if you could remove it you would have a standard, polished stainless surface underneath. I predict if you try to "fix" this you'll end up regretting it. I'm not a big fan of this trend, either, but I recommend you leave it alone.

What about if it starts peeling/flaking on its own (which, by most accounts, is apparently inevitable)? Could I then continue doing it? (Think of your skin peeling after spending too much time in the sun.)

Sure, if it started peeling/flaking on its own you could continue doing it, but the likelihood of it coming off uniformly all at one time is vanishingly small. If you try that, the refrigerator will look like it has psoriasis. But, hey, it's your refrigerator so you should do whatever you want with it. Just don't revisit this in a year asking how to make a scabby-looking refrigerator pristine after you've picked at or scraped the finish, and possibly also damaged the underlying surface. ;-)

Black stainless is like regular stainless except for the added coating, There should be no reason why a damaged finish will cause rust to occur.

I assume whatever grade of stainless it is, the potential for rusting would be the same regardless of whether it had no coating, or the black coating.

I’d have to hunt for it, but I’m pretty sure I saw a video from a local appliance store explaining why black stainless was a short-lived fad. The exception was Bosch, which uses a different process and apparently is actually good. Samsung also got mentioned as not showing scratches as much as the other brands, though I think theirs is still a coating.

So, long story short, it's probably safest to buy the new appliance as "regular" stainless and contend with non-matching appliances until the fridge and stove fully warrant replacement. Great. :-\

Damon-

That's what I would do if I were in your situation... :-)

A class action lawsuit was filed in TX in 2021 for thie widespread 'black stainless' plastic wrap peeling issue. Search online or on classaction.org for details. The wrap on our range is peeling off near the knobs and its only 3 years old. No idea if it can be peeled off on purpose but we'll be following the lawsuit.

Do not buy black stainless. We bought a LG refrigerator a few years back and within 6 months are carefully cleaning, not scrubbing. The coating has come off in certain areas. For the amount of money I paid for this I am very disappointed.

Don't buy BSS appliances. We bought a BSS frig, oven and dishwasher from LG and they started peeling within a year. looks very bad. Avoid.