ebb
01-14-2010, 12:03 PM
"Environmentally Friendly Boating Supplies"
make a big deal about products they sell: like production distribution, biodegradability, minimalising planet impact. I've gotten stuff from them. It's great this business is conscious about global problems. They sent me an email promo of a new product (actually, versions of it have been around a long time) called WonderWash. It's a 5# wash, small amount of water, biosoap, and a bunch of hand turning washing machine.
I took a look at their galley equipment: Insulated s.s cups, vac bottles, etc. They used terms like "food grade 18-8 stainless" and "marine grade 18-8."
Which raised a red flag for me.
Along with the iron/steel in the alloy, 18 refers to 18% chromium and 8 to 8% nickel. 18/8 stainless is the same as 304 stainless which has 18% chromium and 8% nickel. This alloy does not do well in a chloride environment. That's why we have 316. 316 contains 16% chromium, 10% nickel and 2% molybdenum. The moly is added to resist chlorides, and is considered 'marine grade'.
BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM HERE.
This comes from a website forum whose main discussion centered on why people's new s.s. utensil sets were rusting. There is a lot words by people who don't know nothing with people who don't know much more. At the end of discussion a guy piped up whom I now paraphrase.
Modern steels are of such poor quality. especially from china and asia, because they are made from mostly recycled cars. Catalytic converters have platanium, iridium, palladium type metals. There's cobalt in bulbs, mercury from tilt switches, gold contacts from circuit boards, germanium and arsenic in the circuits and chips, tin conductors on circuitboard lines. There's lead in the batteries if they're still in the crush, lithium batteries that store memory when the 12V is disconnected. "I guess you get the drift here." the poster writes.
The trace amounts cannot be removed so that "lovely, shiny piece of (18/8, 304, 316) stainless" as soon as it comes "in contact with an ionic compound, any salt or acid like lemon, oj, or table salt, right away the platinum and other catalytic materials will do the job they had before - they break bonds, like the iron-carbon-chromium-nickel bonds that hold the steel together."
He continues saying he has an old car from the '50s sitting outside "and it's still not rusted." Not stainless, it is virgin steel from before the days of recycling. (lifted from a post by LeslieMiller - Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba, Canada. google: What is 18/8 Stainless Steel.
Nothing surprises me. If a car gets crushed into a cube in 'asia', it sure would have been stripped of all heavy metals. If the cube is from the States, you know, the lead batteries could still be inside - along with Jimmy Hoffa.
SO I'm thinking, Am I going to make my coffee in the nice little espresso maker and drink it from that insulated s.s. cup, or keep it in the s.s. vac - that greenboatstuff is offering? They got the environment nailed down but in a way there is nothing they can do about my personal environment.:(
Now you have, if Mr Miller is even partially correct, some reasonable explanation why that 'lovely' s.s. anchor roller is discoloring along with those expensive 316 bolts.
make a big deal about products they sell: like production distribution, biodegradability, minimalising planet impact. I've gotten stuff from them. It's great this business is conscious about global problems. They sent me an email promo of a new product (actually, versions of it have been around a long time) called WonderWash. It's a 5# wash, small amount of water, biosoap, and a bunch of hand turning washing machine.
I took a look at their galley equipment: Insulated s.s cups, vac bottles, etc. They used terms like "food grade 18-8 stainless" and "marine grade 18-8."
Which raised a red flag for me.
Along with the iron/steel in the alloy, 18 refers to 18% chromium and 8 to 8% nickel. 18/8 stainless is the same as 304 stainless which has 18% chromium and 8% nickel. This alloy does not do well in a chloride environment. That's why we have 316. 316 contains 16% chromium, 10% nickel and 2% molybdenum. The moly is added to resist chlorides, and is considered 'marine grade'.
BUT THERE IS A PROBLEM HERE.
This comes from a website forum whose main discussion centered on why people's new s.s. utensil sets were rusting. There is a lot words by people who don't know nothing with people who don't know much more. At the end of discussion a guy piped up whom I now paraphrase.
Modern steels are of such poor quality. especially from china and asia, because they are made from mostly recycled cars. Catalytic converters have platanium, iridium, palladium type metals. There's cobalt in bulbs, mercury from tilt switches, gold contacts from circuit boards, germanium and arsenic in the circuits and chips, tin conductors on circuitboard lines. There's lead in the batteries if they're still in the crush, lithium batteries that store memory when the 12V is disconnected. "I guess you get the drift here." the poster writes.
The trace amounts cannot be removed so that "lovely, shiny piece of (18/8, 304, 316) stainless" as soon as it comes "in contact with an ionic compound, any salt or acid like lemon, oj, or table salt, right away the platinum and other catalytic materials will do the job they had before - they break bonds, like the iron-carbon-chromium-nickel bonds that hold the steel together."
He continues saying he has an old car from the '50s sitting outside "and it's still not rusted." Not stainless, it is virgin steel from before the days of recycling. (lifted from a post by LeslieMiller - Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba, Canada. google: What is 18/8 Stainless Steel.
Nothing surprises me. If a car gets crushed into a cube in 'asia', it sure would have been stripped of all heavy metals. If the cube is from the States, you know, the lead batteries could still be inside - along with Jimmy Hoffa.
SO I'm thinking, Am I going to make my coffee in the nice little espresso maker and drink it from that insulated s.s. cup, or keep it in the s.s. vac - that greenboatstuff is offering? They got the environment nailed down but in a way there is nothing they can do about my personal environment.:(
Now you have, if Mr Miller is even partially correct, some reasonable explanation why that 'lovely' s.s. anchor roller is discoloring along with those expensive 316 bolts.