Is this a decent pot for 5 gallon batches?

I decided to stop drooling over the $300+ Boilermaker and found this 8 gallon pot. It looks like a pretty decent price. Would this work well?

Should work fine for 5 gallon batches. If you brewed recipes from Jamil's CYBI or Brewing Classic Styles which are 7 gallons pre-boil, you may want to scale them down a bit or plan on topping off at the end. If you put more than 6 gallons in it, keep a spray bottle handy during those hop additions. Good price considering it comes with the valve and thermometer.

It should work fine, I do full boils in my 8 gallon pot...usually start the boil just shy of 7 gallons. Like mentioned above, you will just need to hover over your pot for the beginning of the boil to watch for boil overs. I usually have to kill the flame for a minute once or twice when it first starts to foam up. I probably have about 2.5" of head space when starting the boil.

Looks very similar to this one that I recently purchased a 1 weld version of:
9 Gallon Stainless Steel Pot with Two Welds - 9 Gallon Brew Pot
Granted the one you're looking at comes with the valve and thermometer, but they are weldless. I would personally want my fittings welded or at least soldered in place in my brew kettle. My only complaints about the one I bought are that I had to grind the inside of the hole a little to thread a screen in and the combination of coupling, nipple, valve, hose barb ends up sticking out really far. Moving up from a cheap aluminum turkey fryer pot has been heaven though.

Not a bad price for a weldless kettle. I have 10gal kettles with 2 couplers for $90 right now.

10 Gallon Home Brew Kettle (2 Vertical Couplers), spikebrewing

Thanks for all the replies. One thing I didn't mention is that I intend to use it on a stove top with a home-made heat stick.

Pixalated said:

Thanks for all the replies. One thing I didn't mention is that I intend to use it on a stove top with a home-made heat stick.

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That really make much of a difference either way. If anything it allows you to go with a thinner kettle as you won't be heating it directly.

-Ben

I didn't think it would make a difference, but I figured I should mention it anyway.