Stainless Tanks from Chemicals

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Ok, let me start by saying that this may be a no-brainer, but I ask anyhow for opinions.

Of course cleanliness is the most important thing in brewing, as is the safety of people drinking your beers. I don't know enough about stainless steel to know if I should bother asking this....so, here goes. Assuming stainless absorbs ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from what was in it, wouldn't it be ok to use a tank from another industry (ok paint, auto paints, I know potentially bad chemicals) for brewing....wouldn't a wash and sanitization be enough???

You could soak a cleaned tank in water for a few weeks (even matching the acidity of wort) and have it analyzed for chemicals by a lab.

The reason I say this is because my uncle can get 50 gallon SS cylindericonical tanks with ball valves in them for cheap (likely almost free), just because they have more than they use, and they tak up too much space....very tempting, but if anything can get into the SS its absolutely not worth it.

Thoughts???
 
I would want to know what the tank was originally used for and then would give it a serious caustic cleaning, but SS cleans up pretty nicely. You would almost certainly want to pull everything apart, clean up everything, and replace any gaskets or other non SS parts.
 
Assuming these are the standard 50's they use for hazardous liquids, I have a lot of experience with these at work.

Few questions to get you started:

Are they seamed and pressed or welded?
Are they qualified for resale? (Some companies that manufacture these tanks clearly state if they can be resold after use. Since these SS drums can be quite valuable, many companies only buy ones that can be re-used. Also, there can be partial-resale agreements depending on what was stored in them)

If you can find out what was stored in them, contact the company that makes the chemical that was stored and get the MSDS sheet for it. it will give you all information on health hazards as well as how to clean it up...

For the aggravation, I would just get myself a keg and convert it...
 
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