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Reuben1012 · 02-29-2012, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpikeBrewing

Any reason you would chose the weldless over a welded kettle if price isn't a factor?

Not really I figure welded is better, But I do a like a excuse to use my drill and hand tools.

**SpikeBrewing** · 02-29-2012, 11:37 PM

l figured. Just was wondering if there was another angle to look at the welded vs weld less option

Speedo · 03-01-2012, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chaostar

Mine came in recently. Had a few dings and about a three inch gouge in the wall. The welding is smooth on the outside but the inside not so much. Chunks of solder coming through from the outside weld. Havent had a chance to use it yet to check for leaks but I'll try to do so and post some pics this weekend. For a cheap kettle, it should work fine.

I got my 13.5 gallon kettle earlier this week. Very happy with the size and weight. I haven't had a chance to brew with it yet, but I too was hoping for a cleaner looking weld on the inside of the kettle. Looking to see what I can do to clean it up, if I need to.

kh54s10 · 03-01-2012, 08:52 PM

That one looks unfinished to me. I don't know much about welding but I looks like it was done from the outside and did not fill the gap all the way through to the inside. I too would expect it to look a lot cleaner. It also looks like a small streak of rust along the top of the fitting in the last pic.

I would sent the pictures and ask if this is normal.

wildwest450 · 03-01-2012, 08:56 PM

That's amateurish at best, I haven't welded in 20 years and I could have done better. What's the point of grinding away above the weld?

**SpikeBrewing** · 03-01-2012, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kh54s10

That one looks unfinished to me. I don't know much about welding but I looks like it was done from the outside and did not fill the gap all the way through to the inside. I too would expect it to look a lot cleaner. It also looks like a small streak of rust along the top of the fitting in the last pic.

I would sent the pictures and ask if this is normal.

This is normal. It's called sugaring. It's a phenomenon that happens when welding stainless steel. Unlike carbon steel or aluminum you don't get that pretty back side weld UNLESS you back purge it with argon. Not to get too in depth but when you back purge with argon you can classify the weld as 'sanitary'. For a brew kettle there is no need for a sanitary weld as you'll be cleaning the weld and then boiling in it, killing anything that may have been missed by your sanitizer. We could sanitary weld the fittings on but it would cost roughly $30 more per coupler as it's a much longer process.

We have taken steps to reduce the sugaring. We have an interference fit between the couplers and kettle and then pull them through. The interference fit eliminates the gap between the hole in the kettle and coupler greatly reducing the sugaring.

Cosmetically it's not the prettiest thing but we're brewing not trying to win a beauty contest. As for the rust... The welding process melts the metal obviously and a few iron oxides can form on the surface. Just rub a little bar keepers friend on there and it'll go away for good. We've sold many many kettles and have never once had a customer come back and tell us a batch was ruined because of any welds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildwest450

That's amateurish at best, I haven't welded in 20 years and I could have done better. What's the point of grinding away above the weld?

I'll respectfully disagree. I explained why in the above post

frisbee91 · 04-24-2012, 03:19 PM

Hi all,
Just thought I'd chime in on Spikebrewing.
I ordered a 25 gallon kettle a few weeks ago. It came in, and I found that the welds were cracked and leaking.

Ben at Spikebrewing promply sent me out a new kettle. (he even covered the return shipping on the leaking one.) The welds on the new kettle look much better. I set it up and was able to brew last weekend.

I will echo others thoughts that I wish the fittings inside the pot looked better. But, the kettle is functional, and the price is right.

Most importantly, Ben is a stand-up guy who stands behind his products. Here are a few shots of the new kettle (including my BIAB insulation).

**Bobby_M** · 04-24-2012, 03:44 PM

I'm sure it all comes down to personal opinion regarding what to expect out of a welding job. I don't think the welds in the pictures are amateurish because I know an amateur would blow right through the pot. The beads look pretty good and that's not easy. However, it wouldn't be that much more money or labor to smear some solar flux on the back before welding. You'd end up with much less sugaring and you wouldn't have to constantly educate the customer how what looks bad isn't as bad as it looks. Another way to spend 5 minutes to make a huge difference is to put a buffing wheel to those heat discoloration areas. That's just my humble opinion.

**uberg33k** · 04-24-2012, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpikeBrewing

This is normal. It's called sugaring. It's a phenomenon that happens when welding stainless steel. Unlike carbon steel or aluminum you don't get that pretty back side weld UNLESS you back purge it with argon. Not to get too in depth but when you back purge with argon you can classify the weld as 'sanitary'. For a brew kettle there is no need for a sanitary weld as you'll be cleaning the weld and then boiling in it, killing anything that may have been missed by your sanitizer. We could sanitary weld the fittings on but it would cost roughly $30 more per coupler as it's a much longer process.

We have taken steps to reduce the sugaring. We have an interference fit between the couplers and kettle and then pull them through. The interference fit eliminates the gap between the hole in the kettle and coupler greatly reducing the sugaring.

Cosmetically it's not the prettiest thing but we're brewing not trying to win a beauty contest. As for the rust... The welding process melts the metal obviously and a few iron oxides can form on the surface. Just rub a little bar keepers friend on there and it'll go away for good. We've sold many many kettles and have never once had a customer come back and tell us a batch was ruined because of any welds.

I'll respectfully disagree. I explained why in the above post

I'm not sure how much trouble it would be, but couldn't you just offer sanitary welds as an upgrade cost? I'm sure some people won't care, but some people would pay the extra $.

**SpikeBrewing** · 04-24-2012, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bobby_M

I'm sure it all comes down to personal opinion regarding what to expect out of a welding job. I don't think the welds in the pictures are amateurish because I know an amateur would blow right through the pot. The beads look pretty good and that's not easy. However, it wouldn't be that much more money or labor to smear some solar flux on the back before welding. You'd end up with much less sugaring and you wouldn't have to constantly educate the customer how what looks bad isn't as bad as it looks. Another way to spend 5 minutes to make a huge difference is to put a buffing wheel to those heat discoloration areas. That's just my humble opinion.

Solar Flux can't be used with food applications (that's coming directly from the company). It was my decision to leave the discoloration. I think the orangish/yellowish/blueish hue looks cool. We're always open to suggestions so if the customers want them buffed out we can do that (we used to buff them out actually).

As for the sugaring... It's an ongoing process to reduce as much as possible. We've invested in tooling and our results are awesome. We've almost completly eliminated the sugaring on the inside

Quote:

Originally Posted by uberg33k

I'm not sure how much trouble it would be, but couldn't you just offer sanitary welds as an upgrade cost? I'm sure some people won't care, but some people would pay the extra $.

The sanitary welding consists of filling the kettle with argon and then welding. The tricky part is there are two holes in the kettle so one hole gets welded (quickly before the argon runs out) then refill and weld the other coupler on. This obviously adds a lot of time per kettle which equals more $$. We can sanitary weld the couplers on as a custom job but we haven't had one person ask for this. The question comes up now and then but after explaining that you don't need a sanitary weld during the brewing process (fermenting is a different story) they decided to stick their money into other necessary items. Plus our welding process has almost eliminated all sugaring (see pic above).

-Ben