Morebeer! Economy Kettle

I want to buy a new 8-9 gallon kettle to transition from partial to full boil. In looking at kettle products, I'm leaning towards morebeer.com's economy 9 gallon:
Modified Brewing Kettle - Economy 9 Gallon | MoreBeer

They also sell the "heavy duty" kettles.
Heavy Duty Brew Kettle (32 Quart/8 Gallon) | MoreBeer

Basically, is it worth it to just spend up? I mean what are the tangible benefits of spending up on "heavy duty"?

Cheers

I have the 5 gallon economy kettle and it's pretty flimsy. That's ok though because it's not my main brew kettle. I mainly use it as a mash tun for doing 3 gallon batches.

If you're looking for a long term brew kettle then I would go with something studier. It'll last longer and take more punishment (I deal out a lot of that to my kettles). Good investment IMO.

If it were me I'd spend the extra $20 for the heavy duty kettle.

I make kettles and that 9gal kettle is a great deal! Almost 10gal with 2 welded coupler won't be beat by anyone (even I'm $10 higher for a similar kettle).

When people talk about material thickness it confuses me. Your boiling water in it. How strong do you want it? It's already made from stainless steel; one of the strongest materials out there. Unless you plan on abusing your equipment it'll last forever. It may get some dings along the way but in the end it'll still hold that water for ya.

Just my 2 cents

I've got the economy 9 gallon morebeer kettle (it comes up on the deal of the day every so often for $69) and it works fine. I boiled full batches on my gas kitchen stove. I'm sure the heavy duty kettle would boil full batches quicker because of better heat transfer. But I just leave my SS immersion chiller in the whole time for better heat exchange and it gets 7.5 gallons rolling just fine. In sum, I'm happy with my purchase. Try bargain fittings for the valves, etc, though, if you want to save a couple bucks and get really good service.