Chinese Stainless Steel

hi,
just want to share my latest experience with chinese made SS pipe fittings. bought this little gem recently, advertised as 304 stainless. when cleaning it for the first time with "bar keepers friend" it started to show its true colours, literally.

Nothing is impossible, but it could be that the stainless steel itself is fine, yet the manufacturing process wasn't; e.g using steel tools and/or not passivating it afterwards. Even good stainless can rust (and stain) in the wrong conditions.

If you can get rid of the rust and then passivate it, you could possibly rescue the piece. For chemical removal, there is stuff called pickling paste which will eat away the iron and rust at the surface, but its harsh and expensive to get hold of in small quantities. 10% phosphoric acid, or the oxalic acid in bar-keepers friend may be enough. You could use something like scotchbrite to rub away the worst of the rust first (don't use iron/steel based things, like wire wool).

Ss Brewing Technologies information sheet says never use Barkeepers Friend on their stainless equipment. They also say that it is necessary to passivate anually. Could it be that they are using Chinese stainless?
Strangely enough Speidel do not give this advice with their products and I have been using them for six years with no problems. You pay your money and get what you paid for.

i use BKF on all new items. it helps me identify dodgy products. if a supposedly stainless steel equipment can’t handle BKF which is an acid based cleaner specifically designed for stainless steel then i will not use that peace of equipment in my brewery.

Isn't BKF also supposed to be good for getting rid of rust?

The second photo looks like it's made of copper. Have you talked to the seller about this?

received two more 'stainless steel' fittings. after cleaning it appears yet another one is dodgy, the other is grand. heres the full set:
notice only one of them has 304 stamped.

its a double wammy since the chinese orders take weeks to fill
name n shame the seller, may help others avoid the same trap.

fwiw bes.co.uk have always supplied good bits to me:)

I got all my SS fittings from a LHBS in Darlington - all top notch stuff that hasn't budged in over a year of regular service.

From a five minute google search, it appears that citric acid is very good for passivating stainless steel. I have some here that I bought by accident. Might be worth a try.

It's commonly know as Crapolium in the brewery trade lol!

and another one

One more to the collection.

I've had the same, usually found it's when buying non food items as I'd assume it takes a lot longer to find out on a motorbike than a boiler..