Sorry I can't help but...ouch :( . I wouldn't have expected a dishwasher-hot pot to cause damage - even my crummy laminate was more sturdy than that.

I am a fabricator.

the resin in the Cambria is burnt. All of the various quartz manufacturers specifically exclude heat damage from their warranty. Depending on the size of the damaged area a skilled fabricator may be able to make it less conspicious but you will always be able to see the damaged area.

In my experience heat damage to quartz is actually a more common occurrence than staining in natural stone - and stains can often be removed.

It pains me that so many people have been misled about the durability of quartz. It's a good product but don't expect it to be bullet proof like so many have been led to believe.
Repairs on quarts is still hit and miss. It takes someone with very good skills to even have mixed results on repairs. Burns are common, staining happens more often than people realize, I have seen some fading and most of the time nothing can be done to fix any of it.
People need to accept quarts for what it is, not what has been hyped.

zarko123:

Email me and I'll give you Steve Annaker's number. He's the inventor of Steve's Polishing Pro System which is so far the most likely to remove the spot and I've tired Dani's system and the Klone-It. Maybe he's sold a kit or trained a pro in your area.

I used it on this one and yours doesn't sound nearly as bad:

Here is a link that might be useful: Quartz repair

Thanks for your replies. Quartz is definitely hyped up to be very durable, resitant to this that and the other. In reality, I am now learning that is very very sensitive. In addition to this 'burn' that I now have, I also have several chips on the edges over the dishwasher which, little did I know, is also common. How can that be?! I am very disappointed by it as it is hyped up but in reality you have to completely baby it.

Another question - if this burn keeps bugging me, how easy is it to replace the countertop alone? I wouldn't want to damage the bottom cabinets so is it possible even at this point to replace the countertop without damage to the cabinets?

Contributing to the Hype...this is what Consumer Reports says of quartz. Notice that one of the "pros" is that it survived hot pots.

It survived a gauntlet of spills, hot pots, knives, and more with top scores, and it doesn't have to be sealed for stain protection. Because it's waterproof it's a sound choice to be paired with undermounted sinks.

Resin can be scorched by something too hot, but I'm surprised that that could happen for the resin used in quartz by pot from the dishwasher. I'd expect it to be possible from something at high oven heat like a heavy roasting pan taken out of a 450 degree oven but not around boiling temp. A dishwasher shouldn't be making things hot enough to cause that.

Was it one of the major brands of quartz?

cloud_swift - it is made by Cambria. Your point is exactly what I would have thought also - that the heat damage would occur only from something out of the oven, not a pot hot from the dishwasher. However, there was nothing else that went on the countertop other than the pot and it was left there for 10 minutes. Perhaps the amount of time it was sitting there contributed to heat damage?

I am so disappointed and now I keep staring at the stain and can't forget about it!

Zarko123, So sorry that you have this damage now on your counter. I also thought Quartz Counters were bullet proof. Thanks for letting us know. I hope someone can remove the heat damage or make it not be so obvious.

I just performed an experiment using an extra piece Silestone blanco maple, which is white with flecks of gray & brown that you can see up close. I put a pot of boiling water directly on the Silestone piece and left it there for ~15min, then removed the pot and let the piece cool. I also put a towel underneath to insulate it the whole time. I live about 500' above sea level.

Result is that Silestone blanco maple is not damaged by temps Does your dishwasher have a heater? A DW heater could make things hotter than boiling water. But your nanny would need a hot pad to get them out! 212 degF is really hot.

For me, the boiling water threshold is a totally workable rule. If it has water in it, then it won't damage the counter. Otherwise, it might, especially if it's coming out of the oven. I guess the DW heater is kind of a trip wire though - glad in hindsite that mine doesn't have one.

I guess the other thing is, unless we actually witness an event we don't really for sure what happened.

My daughter and her friend turned on the oven of my new BlueStar range while I was in the kitchen but not actually watching them). They broke the knob shaft :-0 . Luckily it was repaired under warranty, but I'll never know whether appropriate force was used or ?? The whole oven thermostat had to be replaced, etc.

This post was edited by feisty68 on Fri, Mar 21, 14 at 1:34

According to wikipedia, engineered stone can handle temps up to 300 degF.

Here is a link that might be useful: Engineered Stone on wikipedia

I am a fabricator.

My guess is the offending pot was heated well above the boiling point of water by the heating element a lot of dishwashers have to dry the dishes. If the pot was one of those with a heavy and thick metal bottom it could easily have been hot enough to damage the quartz if it was too close to the heating element as was removed right after the DW completed it's cycle.

OP, I'm so sorry this has happened to you. I hope something can be done.

I think this is a good reminder that no countertop material is perfect. Granite has been given a bad name by the Quartz Industry - they had to get into the market. Many on GW are educated and know the truth, but outside of this group, Quartz is seen as the new perfect countertop and granite is on its way out. Everyone should do their own research and choose the best material for their space and needs.

By the way, I have granite & quartz in my house...

I'm so sorry you are going through this!! Very interesting that quartz can be this vulnerable to damage. I'm glad I went with granite even though everyone has been pushing quartz. Are you going to try to get it replaced? You can have the counter removed without damage to your cabinets. We had a new countertop put in last year without ANY damage to the existing cabinets. GL!!! Can you post a pic for us?

I was thinking the same as Tre. Someone needs to 'fess up!

I had the same thought as Tre. It sounds more like someone placed something right off the stove (or oven) on the counter and they knew it was wrong. Time to blame the dishwasher. My Bosch does that hot rinse condensation thing (I hate it) and come on, it's not *that* hot. Who fishes really hot items out of a DW anyway? Somebody's got some 'splaining to do.

NO WAY a DW heated anything hot enough to damage even Corian. Someone is not telling you the truth about what happened.

thanks everyone.
I will try to post a picture later when I am home.

In terms of the story, this is what she told me happened but there is no way to know. The pot was one of those metal ones with a thick bottom and the 'burn'/stain is round and yellowish , with a more pronounced yellow around the rim. It fits the size of the metal pot she said she took out of the dishwasher and placed on the counter.

I asked her if she placed the pot after cooking but she said she only placed it there after the dishwasher. I have opened the dishwasher in the past when it just finishes and it is pretty hot (it has that heated dry) to the point that I can't really touch the stuff so I leave it but apparently she took stuff out right away. Maybe because the handle of the pot isn't that hot she could touch it but the bottom of it was still hot...I don't know what the full story is as I was not there, but regardless I now have this stain.

I am afraid that I have now also made it worse by trying different things to get it out - not worse in terms of the yellow color but I have kind of dulled that area from my attempts at cleaning it and so now when I step away you can see the round dulled area. Argh.

Don't feel bad about your attempt to clean it. If you have someone come out to try to repair it, they'll do the same thing--spread the buffed area out wider than the actual damage. It's the only way they can blend it in. I don't think they can make it disappear, but Tre will beg to differ.

Zarko, I hope there is a solution for you. My pots with thick bottoms do get extremely hot in the dishwasher - the bottoms are too hot to touch. But, my laminate could handle that. The only time I had heat damage was when my son put a heated iron hot side down on the counter for a minute (duh!).

I must say, as someone who is about to install 4K light coloured granite, I am a bit sickened by how expensive counters are these days! Unless you DIY, even decent laminate has gotten very costly - the stone countertop trend has created price creep in man-made materials. I hate the thought of teens worried about being "murdered" because of unintentional damage. If my husband had been willing, I would have installed stainless with the understanding that dents and scratches are expected. That's what restaurants do.

"... I also have several chips on the edges over the dishwasher which, little did I know, is also common. How can that be?!"

zarko123:

You haven't told us your edge profile, but whatever it is, I'll bet it's not rounded enough. It's not a coincidence that the chips are happening at the dishwasher.

Your edge can probably be reprofiled without removing the tops and this will eliminate the existing chips if they aren't too bad. If they are really bad, I'd fix them then reprofile the edge and they will be inconspicuous.

You can probably get both problems fixed for less than a thousand dollars.

I too have a white quartz counter top. My daughter took a pot off the stove, drained her pasta and put the empty pot on the counter. She then moved it. So now i have 2 pot stains on my counter. I was hoping to get some advise that i could try as i used all my funds on buying this counter top. I had it installed only 5 to 6 months ago. I would never have got quartz if i knew it would stain and chip so easily. I also have a small chip in mine.

lojodragon,

What brand of quartz countertop do you have?

Thanks

lojodragon:

Your countertop salesperson has let you down. All natural stone and solid surface, which includes engineered stone, requires trivet use. It may be possible to remove your marks, depending on their severity.

Zarko123, yes to dishwashers making white marks on the countertops! We've had our quartz countertops in for all of 4 weeks but the rest of the kitchen is still unfinished due to the contractor from hell. Friday the dishwasher went in and I did a load of dusty dishes (from the remodel dust). I had a bath towel doubled on one of the sections of quartz countertop. I took coffee mugs out of the DW, obviously not hot enough to make it hard for me to handle them, warm, but not 'hot', and set them rim down on the doubled bath towel. I didn't get to put them away as we went out of state the next morning and only returned last night. I put them up into the cupboard this morning and removed the towel...and I have white rings on my grey counters! I am just sick!

I haven't even used my kitchen yet, only a handful of items are in the new cabinets, never cooked on the new stove, new hood in today, and only a handful of items in the refrigerator. No, I don't know the brand. We got these from GS Building in Seattle. Decent materials for cabinets and counters but horrible customer service. No information was given to us on the care and maintenance. Of course, we had a contractor who ran off with our $30,000 pre-pay for materials and we've had to cough up $10,000 to buy all these things, new contractor having to actually rip out the new vinyl and start over because the C from H put in the flooring so badly it can't be salvaged... and others have beat us to at least part of his bond. This whole remodel sucks and these white rings (not unlike what one would find on a wood table) are just the toxic icing on the cake. IF anyone does have a remedy that has worked, I too would love to hear it. Thanks. BTW the 2 rectangular dark marks are simply reflections of the as yet unfinished electrical outlets where the back splash tile will be cut around.

grandmabubble:

You may find a solution to your countertop problems in this thread.

Contact GS. That should not have happened. GS Building shows quartz without a name on their website. Might be that Chinese quartz Joseph seems to think is A-OK to put in your home. : P

Just looked at Joseph's link. Ajax and toothpaste is recommended. Do not use any product with even a slight abrasive! Let GS handle it.

wow this is not good news for me. We haven't started remodeling but I decided on Quartz thinking its safe and doesn't need maintaining. But if a hot /warm pot will damage it I have to re-evaluate my decision. I have laminate now and I've kept warm pots, hot dishes from oven with only a thin towel separating the pan from the counter and haven't had any problems. And now that we are used to this I can pretty much grantee someone will keep a hot pot on the counter. My parents live with us and my mom does majority of the cooking. She's not going to remember!!

I don't know what quartz the poster has, but my Ceasarstone doesn't have a spot on it and my husband doesn't even use trivets (that includes putting things down that come right out of the oven, let alone the dishwasher).

Thank you, Joseph and Mayflower. GS has a rep for bad customer service, though they did fix a cabinet they installed at a wrong size. They are very defensive, too. They are Chinese, the counters are prefab for L,W,and edge, with cutting to size in the front yard between many cigarette breaks with smoke blowing through the client's open front door. This is the place the original project mgr said they used all the time. He quit after the contractor hadn't paid him in 6 weeks. Had we only known earlier... This project went from uh oh to horrible.

I'm sorry but who is GS? So I know who to avoide.

I had a feeling it was Chinese. The Chinese use a different manufacturing method than the Breton Technology used by Cambria, Caesarstone, Silestone, and the other big manufacturers. When I bought my Pentalquartz, which is Breton-made in Vietnam, the warehouse manager told me that the owner of Pental, which is a big west coast granite company, went to China to see their manufacturing facility, and he wouldn't buy it. He said the resins are cured at lower temperatures for shorter time periods. So there's the cost-savings, but it's not as durable. I've read here of surface pitting with Chinese quartz. That's unheard of with Breton quartz. So now we see your water marks, which is ridiculous. I would have them take that junk out and buy a reliable brand of quartz myself.

I'm saving your photo to show others what can happen when they buy Chinese. They never believe me that Chinese quartz can have problems. They just look at how pretty it is and how much money they save.

"I'm saving your photo to show others what can happen when they buy Chinese. They never believe me that Chinese quartz can have problems. They just look at how pretty it is and how much money they save."

Correlation is not causation. Rising ice cream sales and an increase in drownings in summertime are positively correlated, but eating ice cream does not cause one to drown. Same thing here. Because these marks appear on apparent Chinese quartz does not mean it is the fault of the quartz.

The suction cup marks mentioned in my link, created by fabricators, seem unable to discern the geographical origin of quartz, as they apparently appear on all brands.

I just burned mine by accidentally leaving a curling iron on (all night). it was so hot that the quartz remained too hot to touch in a 6"x8" area for about 5 minues! It only caused a slight discoloration in a 1/2"x1" area. still bummed...it's brand new!

That is why I went for wood. It will get burned, dented, and stained, but it will look as if it's been used and loved. Stone/granite/etc. counters just look damaged if the are not pristine. My opinion is stone counters are best for those who never actually use the kitchen.

Hi, by any chance did you solved the problem? How is the stain

Cambria comes with a lifetime guarantee. Contact Cambria at 1-866-CAMBRIA to submit a claim.

Jeannie:

Cambria does not cover customer abuse just like Ford doesn't fix your car door from shopping cart dents.

They make clear that engineered stone, just like natural stone and solid surface, must have the protection of trivets from heat.

Hi, I also have a white quartz counter. I’m not sure if it was a yellow stain or a burn mark. My microwave is right under it so someone probably place something hot and didn’t say anything. I read this post. I had tried a little bleach and water but I was afraid to leave it on. Today I read baking soda and water. No comet or bleach. So I had this Bon ami that I bought from Grove. I left it on like a paste and I also sprayed and wipe off Sprayway marble cleaner right before. I think the Bon ami is what took it off. I tried it a couple of times because I was afraid to leave it on. I wish I had a before but I didn’t take a pic. The Bon ami does not have bleach or abrasives. I just made a paste with water. Here is a pic and the products. It came out! Good luck!

Unfortunately, most of the damage mentioned in his post will not be repairable. Any damage from heat is a result of burning the resin.

The issue with the mugs from the dishwasher is surprising and could possibly be the result of a low quality quartz. There are budget lines from overseas that are much cheaper, likely due to inferior materials.

For stains:

We recommend bar keepers friend, soft cleanser (DO NOT USE POWDER VERSION)
This will get up almost any stain (Wine, fruit, dirt, etc) be sure to use it lightly, if used too aggressively it could possibly dull the shine.