Buyer warning: fake chinese stainless steel items

[foxbat]

I bought a tri-clamp sampling valve from one of the many sellers on ebay. They all have sales images that look like this and claim to be 316 stainless steel:

Under close examination I discovered that at the very least the barb section is not stainless. It's a non-ferrous base metal coated, probably with chromium, to look stainless on the outside. Click the thumbnail to see a high-res image of the nasty looking interior.



I've opened an official ebay complaint against the seller so we'll see how that goes. Don't trust anything from China that looks cheaper than it ought to be. They'll fake anything and everything.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I'm not suggesting that you are wrong, it's difficult to closely examine a photo, but stainless steel isn't always shiny. Here is a ss elbow for comparison,

 

[MyQul]

I have nothing to add here *





*apart from:- Grain mills....Chippy tea:smile6:

 

[MyQul]

Hi!
I'm not suggesting that you are wrong, it's difficult to closely examine a photo, but stainless steel isn't always shiny. Here is a ss elbow for comparison,

What heresy is this? Stainless steel is isn't alway shiny? Well I want nothing to do with it then

 

[foxbat]

Hi!
I'm not suggesting that you are wrong, it's difficult to closely examine a photo, but stainless steel isn't always shiny. Here is a ss elbow for comparison,

I have that elbow :) The coating on the barb is very obvious - it overhangs the end of the barb forming a sharp lip. The inside is a rough brown base metal.

 

[Clint]

Yeah the edge on that looks rough...

 

[Sadfield]

Hi!
I'm not suggesting that you are wrong, it's difficult to closely examine a photo, but stainless steel isn't always shiny. Here is a ss elbow for comparison,

Agreed, the internal looks like unmachined stainless casting, of which 304 Austenitic Stainless can have a yellow tinge. The outside looks machined, rather than plated. Hard to judge from a 2d image though. It could be very cheap stainless, but doubt the Chinese would add another process to cut corners given that their stainless is so cheap.

https://www.bssa.org.uk/topics.php?article=140

https://www.bssa.org.uk/topics.php?article=175

 

[terrym]

If its plated won't the plating peel off with a bit of encouragement, especially after a belt with a sharp hard object? If it peels its plated, if it dents it probably isn't.
Also if it's magnetic to any extent it ain't 316SS.

 

[foxbat]

If its plated won't the plating peel off with a bit of encouragement, especially after a belt with a sharp hard object? If it peels its plated, if it dents it probably isn't.
Also if it's magnetic to any extent it ain't 316SS.

The different pieces all have different magnetic properties. The barb is not magnetic at all. The tube and flange part that the barb connects to is slightly magnetic. The elliptical handle on the end of the plunger is strongly magnetic. The plunger part itself (with the silicone rings) is not magnetic at all. Seems like a hotch-potch of different materials.

 

[BeerCat]

Does it mean its toxic and unusable or just prone to rust? I bought some cheap 1/2" npt washers recently and thought they looked dull and very badly made. I should of known better.

 

[Clint]

It won't rust if it's non ferrous...magnet and a hammer...saying that we have stainless fittings,pipes etc in work and not all are shiny.

 

[foxbat]

Here's a closeup of the inner surface.

 

[terrym]

The different pieces all have different magnetic properties. The barb is not magnetic at all. The tube and flange part that the barb connects to is slightly magnetic. The elliptical handle on the end of the plunger is strongly magnetic. The plunger part itself (with the silicone rings) is not magnetic at all. Seems like a hotch-potch of different materials.

Hotch potch seems about right. Apparently 316SS in its 'natural' state is virtually nonmagnetic, but if machined, welded or cold worked might become very slightly magnetic.
And of course if you immerse it in water for a few hours any carbon steel parts will show signs of rusting, especially when exposed to air as well.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I have nothing to add here

**apart rom:- Grain mills....Chippy tea:smile6:

I was hoping everyone had forgotten about that. :unsure:

 

[-Bezza-]

Apparently 316SS in its 'natural' state is virtually nonmagnetic, but if machined, welded or cold worked might become very slightly magnetic

I was worried about how magnetic my stainless steel stock pot was until I watched this video which explains a bit more about the magnetism of SS.

 

[foxbat]

The seller came back and offered a 20% partial refund with no need to return. I decided to accept it because I can still use this as a sampling valve since nothing that goes down the barb tube is going back in the fermenter or into bottles. The refund money paid for a dedicated triclamp hose barb that I'll use for bottling.

On the positive side my triclamp butterfly valve arrived a couple of days ago and it's one serious fondleworthy kilogram of shiny stainless steel.