What's the scare with welding kegs?

[Tankard]

I've read several posts concerning the "sanitary" properties (or lack thereof) of welding fittings to kegs when making the conversion to keggles. My brother in law actually knows how to TIG weld stainless steel, so I was going to have him do the welding when I get around to converting my kegs. Is there anything I should know before hand or anything I should be concerned about?

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

If you get a bad weld, you will likely have rust problems and/or crevices and spots from bacteria to grow. If you do a search you will likely come up with many good threads with advice for welding in fittings. I took the easy way out with the weldless fittings. I am a huge fan, but a lot of people prefer welded fittings. As always there are two sides tot he debate.

Good luck with your weldventure!

 

[Atl300zx]

If you get a bad weld, you will likely have rust problems and/or crevices and spots from bacteria to grow. If you do a search you will likely come up with many good threads with advice for welding in fittings. I took the easy way out with the weldless fittings. I am a huge fan, but a lot of people prefer welded fittings. As always there are two sides tot he debate.

Good luck with your weldventure!

If your boiling the wort for 60-90 Min, will any bacteria survive?

 

[Liquidicem]

I would be more worried about rust than anything with a poor weld.

 

[Anthony_Lopez]

If you are using it as a boiling pot, I don't think the concern is as great with bacteria, however the concern for rust is still there. As far as I am concerned, anything being used "pre-boil" should be not as concerning in this argument. Everyone has their own POV on every subject though...

 

[D*Bo]

As long as you clean up the welds, assuming they aren't extremely porous, you should be all right. You can repasivate them to prevent rusting using BKF or some type of stainless cleaner/protector. With TIG the heated area is much smaller.
See here http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixB-1.html

Like others have mentioned, as long as it's pre-boil or the boil vessel (10-20 min. boil minimum), contamination shouldn't be an issue.