Hey guys, Ben here. Just got forwarded this so I thought I'd chime in.
The picture in question is from 3 months ago and is of our older conicals which were US made. Our new conicals will be out in a couple months. Those will be partially made in China with all the welding done in our shop. It's just not possible to make them in the US any longer.
I'd double down on the 'cheap' and 'intentionally misleading'. We started selling our pots using Concord as a supplier when we first started out. Once we had the funding to do proper testing it came to our attention that the 304SS that we had requested was not 304. Instead it was a cheap stainless that our lab could not identify. When we demanded 304 going forward the prices shot up more than 30%. This 'J4' knockoff stainless isn't used because it's almost as good or better; it's used because it's much cheaper as it has almost no nickel.
I looked into the 'J4' stainless you speak of and that is just one company's 'proprietary' cheap Chinese SS blend with lower nickel and chromium. It is not recognized by the ASTM. In reference to 304SS, Concord's pots have 85% too little nickel and 25% too little chromium. Nickel is expensive and that's why they skimp on it out. You'll also see they have 400% more manganese than the 304 spec. This is because it artificially creates an austenitic grain structure that makes the material non-magnetic. Without this manganese it would be magnetic and a dead give away that it is not 304SS. All this was taught to me by our lab tech (I do not claim to be a metals expert) and might be a good question for John Palmer as he IS a metals expert.
In Concord's defense they are not metal experts. I spoke with the owner years ago and brought this issue up. As far as I could tell he had no idea about the lesser quality stainless they were selling. However since then they are fully aware of the material they are selling. Concord is trying to get customers the cheapest possible product that can possibly be made. Again this isn't a bad thing. The market obviously is calling for super cheap brewing pots HOWEVER lying about their composition and putting them in the same class as Spike, SS and Blichmann (as some have stated) is ridiculous.
J4 isn't anything. It's just a term a Chinese company came up with for their fake stainless. See
HERE. Again notice the manganese that is 400% higher. A true 201 would be ok but it still has half the nickel of 304. The issue is with pitting and rusting weld seams. The pots have a bottom and side weld seam. I've attached some pictures I could find from old customers that had issues. These are just from normal brewing.
This is the very scary thing (in my eyes) because people see a $100 Concord kettle and a $250 Spike, SS or Blichmann and say, "well they are both 304SS". Well that isn't the case; not in the least. Our raw material costs are at least 30% more than the Concord. We are also testing the materials to make sure they meet specs and don't have lead, cadmium, etc. Lastly, we all have R&D budgets to invent, innovate and drive the hobby forward. My view is that Concord undermines this and it's why we stopped doing with them years ago.
I'm glad this was brought up as it is an issue in my eyes. I'd be happy to answer any questions or shed light on anything else.
-Ben
However they do advertise as 304. 18/8 means 18% chromium and 8% nickel which is 304; 304 and 18/8 are interchangeable. Please see attached for just 3 quick references that I found from them. Also the "Commercial Quality" doesn't mean anything. It's just a marketing thing. They could put "Space Age Quality" and it would still be crappy knock off SS.
