1/2 bbl sankey kegs aluminum or stainless?

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Chuck_leis

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I'm looking for some 1/2 bbl kegs to turn into keggles, all the threads im reading on here are suggesting they are stainless. but a friend of mine told me today that the older kegs are stainless, but the newer ones are aluminum. can you guys shed some light on this for me? I'd hate to get a keg assuming its stainles and find out its not when im trying to weld a stainless fitting into it. if that is the truth, are there markings on them that i will be able to tell the difference? will a magnet stick to the stainless kegs? thanks guys!
 
Both of mine had "T304 stainless" stamped on the top I believe.
Otherwise, aluminum will weigh less and can be scratched very easily compared to stainless.
 
Thank you. I'll look for that. Do you happen to remember where they were marked? I realize that different manufacturers might mark them in different places or not at all but any little bit helps lol. Does anyone know if magnets stick to stainless kegs? I think that would be the easiest test. Has anybody run into an aluminum keg? Thanks!
 
Well it depends.
Stainless steel is an alloy of two crystal structures, ferrite which is magnetic and austenite which is paramagnetic, hence it`s magnetism depend on the concentration of each material. The magnetism does not work on the individual elements of the alloy.
 
Thanks for checking guys. I had seen stainless alloys that magnets didn't stick to before and wondered if they were made out of one of them. So there goes that... Lol.
 
i believe your friend had it backwards the aluminum are older most of the newer ones are stainless and they will be stamped on the top as coolharry said in his reply
 
He indeed is not... Though I'm sure he would disagree. ;)

Thanks for the good info guys! I had thought that was the case but I didn't want to go into this uninformed. He just seemed so sure of himself lol. Thanks again!
 
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