PSA: Paid $28 for a 'weatherproof' mailbox and it rusted through in 4 months flat

Figured I was being smart with my money buying something that claimed to last years, but instead I'm standing here peeling flaking metal off my mailbox while my neighbor's basic $12 plastic one from the 90s still looks brand new, so has anyone else gotten burned by those slick looking metal ones that can't handle a little rain?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivanlewis9d ago

Your neighbor's plastic box probably doesn't look as good as yours did when it was new though, right? Those metal ones have a certain curb appeal that a beat-up plastic tub just can't match. Plenty of people around here have had the same metal style for 5+ years without issues, maybe you just got a bad batch or the coating got scratched during installation. Aluminum ones hold up way better than steel in wet climates but nobody wants to pay the premium. If a little surface rust is the price of having a mailbox that actually looks like it belongs in 2024 instead of 1985, I'll take that tradeoff any day.

miabennett8d ago

Did you catch that recent Consumer Reports thing where they tested mailboxes and found steel ones with powder coating actually lasted longer in rain tests than aluminum ones, but only if the coating wasn't chipped?