What is this rust on my brand new kettle?

[arnobg]

Brand new kettle of very high quality. I'll leave the name of the company out until I've gotten answer from them from the email I've sent.

I filled it with water yesterday, threw a couple pieces of grain in and tested my new pump/whirlpool setup with it. I then cleaned it with Oxi as usual and rinsed many times then dried.

Today I filled it with 6 gallons and did a trial boil to calculate losses. After cooling and draining I notice these on the bottom of the kettle....is it rust? I sure hope not, as I said this is a high quality stainless kettle with tri-clad bottom.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1475536009.801583.jpg

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1475536019.855959.jpg

 

[TX_Brewing]

From the picture it looks like heavy pitting. Is it smooth or are those pits? Either way I wouldn't be happy. If it is smooth try bar keepers friend and give it another go.

 

[Gerry_P]

Impurities in the metal maybe...? Are they just stains or is it pitted also? I'm curious because I'm in the market for a new pot and I'd like to know which ones to avoid.
EDIT: Looks like TX beat me to the punch.

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

looks like bad pitting..... it must have been there before you added heat and water, just didn't oxidize until then. I'd be amazed if the seller didn't take it back

 

[Sconnie12]

Pitting? Didn't oxidize yet? Send it back?? What!? :face palm: The amount of misinformation that gets spread on here sometimes makes my head spin. It's a small spec of rust probably caused from a free iron particle on the surface. Hit it with bar keepers friend and be done with it. This is nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[arnobg]

I did hit it with bar keepers friend and this is what I'm seeing after. Doesn't really look like a free iron particle? Looks like some small pits to me.

I am just concerned I am going to have to do this over and over to conceal a possible issue, but I don't know so that's why I'm asking.


BEFORE BAR KEEPERS FRIEND:


View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1475540694.277692.jpg



AFTER BAR KEEPERS FRIEND:


View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1475540721.525832.jpg

 

[TX_Brewing]

Use a sharp instrument, needle, etc to determine if it is pitted. It sure looks like it might be. Hard to tell from photos. If it is pitted contact the seller.

 

[Spartan1979]

Dis you passivate it before filling it with water?

 

[arnobg]

The manufacturer instructions that came with the kettle specifically said not to passivate it that it was unnecessary. It said a simple wash with dish soap is all that is needed to passivate it, that the oxygen would react with the stainless and form a barrier... which is what I did.

The bar keepers friend did the trick for now. I also sent the "after" photo back to the manufacturer as the first thing they recommended was bar keepers friend. The manufacturer replied to my after photo and said that with 99.9% certainty I shouldn't have an issue again that it looks like a very small surface imperfection and to let them know if any issues come up later.

 

[day_trippr]

It's a stainless steel kettle. Passivation should have been done before it ever left the factory...

Cheers!

 

[arnobg]

It did specifically state in addition to the instructions above that they passivate all welds according to ASTM standard.

 

[Sconnie12]

It's a stainless steel kettle. Passivation should have been done before it ever left the factory...

Cheers!

Stainless steel passivates naturally when exposed to oxygen so unless it came in a package evacuated of oxygen you're good...

 

[Justintoxicated]

My Kettle's directions said to never use oxyclean to clean it.

 

[Gerry_P]

For the sake of comparison, here's a picture of the bottom of my 5 gallon stainless pot. It's about 18 months old and I've boiled 16 (2.5 gal.) batches in it so far. You can see where it developed a dark spot which I removed (mostly) with an SOS pad. That spot isn't pitted, but there is pitting in the upper left corner of the pic. I paid $20 for this pot. If I had paid what I suspect you paid for yours, I'd contact the seller about it. Just my $.02.

 

[Justintoxicated]

For the sake of comparison, here's a picture of the bottom of my 5 gallon stainless pot. It's about 18 months old and I've boiled 16 (2.5 gal.) batches in it so far. You can see where it developed a dark spot which I removed (mostly) with an SOS pad. That spot isn't pitted, but there is pitting in the upper left corner of the pic. I paid $20 for this pot. If I had paid what I suspect you paid for yours, I'd contact the seller about it. Just my $.02.

time to re passivate your brew pot I think.

 

[augiedoggy]

The manufacturer instructions that came with the kettle specifically said not to passivate it that it was unnecessary. It said a simple wash with dish soap is all that is needed to passivate it, that the oxygen would react with the stainless and form a barrier... which is what I did.

The bar keepers friend did the trick for now. I also sent the "after" photo back to the manufacturer as the first thing they recommended was bar keepers friend. The manufacturer replied to my after photo and said that with 99.9% certainty I shouldn't have an issue again that it looks like a very small surface imperfection and to let them know if any issues come up later.

You spoke to the manufacturer in China? 😉.. more likely a distributor who brands and sells them.. They likely aren't going to know what caused that for sure but it looks like some ferrous metal got impregnated in the stainless during the manufacturing process. It happens from time to time sometimes from the tooling.

 

[Gerry_P]

time to re passivate your brew pot I think.

It's repassivating itself in the garage as we speak, I'm certain of it. I'm about to demote it to HLT status, and I'm thinking of buying a nice aluminum pot this time around. I doubt it'll give me the Alzheimer's, but if it does I'll let y'all know. Then again, if that happens I probably won't remember posting this. Kind of a Catch 22-type situation.

 

[Sconnie12]

You spoke to the manufacturer in China? 😉.. more likely a distributor who brands and sells them.. They likely aren't going to know what caused that for sure but it looks like some ferrous metal got impregnated in the stainless during the manufacturing process. It happens from time to time sometimes from the tooling.

You've made this comment many times recently and it's so asinine. Do you know what an OEM is?? Ford, Apple, GE, Boeing, Microsoft, etc, etc, etc use OEMs. Do you think Ford manufactures every single piece in house?? I've seen you make this comment or a "just buy it on Alibaba" comment literally 20 times in the past week. You come off as an idiot that is just spewing stupid information. Companies design and engineer products. Then they go out and find a manufacturer to build said product to their specifications. "Just go buy it on Alibaba" is just so stupid it hurts my brain.

/rant

 

[augiedoggy]

You've made this comment many times recently and it's so asinine. Do you know what an OEM is?? Ford, Apple, GE, Boeing, Microsoft, etc, etc, etc use OEMs. Do you think Ford manufactures every single piece in house?? I've seen you make this comment or a "just buy it on Alibaba" comment literally 20 times in the past week. You come off as an idiot that is just spewing stupid information. Companies design and engineer products. Then they go out and find a manufacturer to build said product to their specifications. "Just go buy it on Alibaba" is just so stupid it hurts my brain.

/rant

You Sir have anger management issues... I'm having difficulty understanding your rant as well. obliviously my comments strike a nerve with you since your always spewing these negative comments based at me for comments unrelated to you. Or are they? what do you do for a living? are you one of those guys at the fleamarket who buys chinese trinkets in bulk and trys to resell it for profit of something? why does me telling people how it is bother you so much?

It funny because I had two notifications... one from a person liking my comment above and one from you throwing a tantrum because you dont, even though you werent even in the conversation you felt you needed to jump in and go all third grade school yard crazy on me.

The op is looking for answers about manufacturing quality issues for a kettle he supposedly paid a lot of money for...He incorreclt thinks he bought it from the manufacturer and its a high quality kettle because of the higher price. so yeah I thought it pertinent to point out this isnt so unless its a new blichmann kettle since ALL the rest come from overseas through a middleman company which likely isnt going to have much of an explanation for his question and the fact that they didnt replace it immediately just goes to show you dont always get what you pay extra for.. The one exception here might be spike who does a lot of fabrication and finishing work themselves to the kettles they buy from overseas.
I got a serious question for you Sconnie, Why is it so taboo here to talk about where something came from when its being resold through an american distributor yet people (like yourself ) love to bash and hate on the people who bought it directly from china? Its like im not allowed to mention that the expensive brewing dohicky IS just a product someone might be ordering in bulk from alibaba and resells? Why? How exactly is that to OUR benefit?

 

[augiedoggy]

My Kettle's directions said to never use oxyclean to clean it.

That makes no sense unless its made of some sort of low grade of stainless other than 201 or 304 which are the 2 most common types for kitchen and brewery use.. Where did you buy it? this is a good example of a reseller not knowing enough about what they sell and why it might be good to know they may not always the real authority on what you bought,
If you cant use oxyclean you cant use PBW (powdered brewery wash) they have the same active ingredient. these 2 are the most common home brewing cleaners. ( star san is not a cleaner)

 

[augiedoggy]

It's repassivating itself in the garage as we speak, I'm certain of it. I'm about to demote it to HLT status, and I'm thinking of buying a nice aluminum pot this time around. I doubt it'll give me the Alzheimer's, but if it does I'll let y'all know. Then again, if that happens I probably won't remember posting this. Kind of a Catch 22-type situation.

Not really... Those little specks wont hurt anything... even if they continue to develope tiny rust spots they will still only contribute an untracable amount of iron to the beer... If you want to be concerned about a crazy amount of iron think about this...Total cereal used to be so fortified with iron it would be attracted to a magnet if you dunked it in a bowl full of cereal and milk..

and since its a boil kettle theres no santitary concerns with the pitted area.

 

[Gerry_P]

Yeah, those specks/pits gave been there a while and I don't give a rat's ass. My 4 gallon pot is an even bigger POS. The catch 22 was saying I would warn y'all about getting Alzheimer's from aluminum but not remembering I said that due to the Alzheimer's.

 

[MidAtlanticBrew]

Easy to dismissed when you were not the one who paid $250 for the pot. I say hold the supplier accountable to replace. They will, the power of internet bad press on forums like this demands that they do. They may just restock it, and take a chance that the next buyer is Sconnie12 ... because for him it's not a problem.

Pitting? Didn't oxidize yet? Send it back?? What!? :face palm: The amount of misinformation that gets spread on here sometimes makes my head spin. It's a small spec of rust probably caused from a free iron particle on the surface. Hit it with bar keepers friend and be done with it. This is nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[Redlantern]

Looks to me like you had something stuck to the bottom before start of boil and you have a powerful (like 100K BTU) burner. Looks like heat staining around the particle. scrub it with barkeepers friend to make it look nice and use again. Bet it will be fine.

 

[Sconnie12]

Not getting into a pissing match with anyone but if the group consensus of this forum is that the below picture warrants a return then I might need to find a new forum..... :facepalm:

 

[Justintoxicated]

That makes no sense unless its made of some sort of low grade of stainless other than 201 or 304 which are the 2 most common types for kitchen and brewery use.. Where did you buy it? this is a good example of a reseller not knowing enough about what they sell and why it might be good to know they may not always the real authority on what you bought,
If you cant use oxyclean you cant use PBW (powdered brewery wash) they have the same active ingredient. these 2 are the most common home brewing cleaners. ( star san is not a cleaner)

It is an SS Brewtech.

 

[Justintoxicated]

It's repassivating itself in the garage as we speak, I'm certain of it. I'm about to demote it to HLT status, and I'm thinking of buying a nice aluminum pot this time around. I doubt it'll give me the Alzheimer's, but if it does I'll let y'all know. Then again, if that happens I probably won't remember posting this. Kind of a Catch 22-type situation.

Maybe but that will take forever! Re-Passivate it using BKF.

http://www.eckraus.com/blog/cleaning-a-new-brew-kettle

 

[TX_Brewing]

Not getting into a pissing match with anyone but if the group consensus of this forum is that the below picture warrants a return then I might need to find a new forum..... :facepalm:

Not to add fuel to the fire (but I am). I am of the opinion that when you pay good $$ for a piece of gear it should be as near flawless as possible. Pitting in a brand new kettle is unacceptable to me. If he had bought a cheap eBay kettle then that is one thing, but the OP put out some decent cash for the kettle and deserves it to be near perfect.

Different strokes for different folks I guess, OP will have to make a decision on which way he wants to go with the given information.

If those are in fact deep pits I would ask for an exchange, honestly without seeing it in person it is very hard to evaluate exactly what is happening.

 

[GJOCONNELL]

honestly I would shoot a note to SS Brewtech after hitting the spot again with BKF. If I am not happy post BKF treatment again I would see what SS Brewtech says. My guess, based on experience, would be they will exchange it with a pristine unit no questions asked.

I have a lot of SS Brewtech (Mash Tun, BK, chronicals, brew buckets, FTS, MTS, et al.) gear and you are paying for high quality so I would expect a high quality finished product.

In the end you need to be happy so it is up to you.

My $0.02.

 

[oujens]

The OPs kettle is a Spike bargain cave purchase.

To clarify on the SS Brewtech kettle, they recommend not using oxy with hard water.