I'm so upset with my rusty coffee maker

One thing you can do to prevent rusting of the hot plate is to keep it really clean and dry when not using the coffee maker. At our house, my husband is the only one who drinks coffee, but I do most of the clean up. Those cone shaped baskets for the coffee makers, work better if you use a cone shaped coffee filter in them. Sometimes the coffee is ground too fine and it gets into the pot during the brewing. I never use the coffee pot to pour the water into the maker. I use a large glass to fill the water well. This keeps the bottom of the coffee pot dry and keeps the hot plate drier. When the brewing is done, I wait to make sure that there is no more water dripping and immediately remove the wet grounds. They will keep dripping for a while and every time you move your coffee pot, the plate gets wet. When I am done using my coffee maker, I always wipe it down and wipe the hot plate with a damp rag to clean up any spilled coffee and then I dry it with a clean cloth. We have had the same $12 coffee maker for 8 years and there is no rust on our hot plate. As for the heat resistant paint, you could always spray the paint into a paper plate or bowl and then brush it on to the hot plate. It is just a thought. I think they make a brush on kind, but you have to go to the hardware store to make sure about that. To clean the rust off you can use a coca-cola. Pour it onto the hot plate and let it sit. It works to the rust off of car battery posts. You can also sprinkle it with baking soda and then pour white vinegar over it. It will foam up so you may want to have it sitting in the sink if you do the baking soda method.