Drilling enamel pot?

[Virgil Mathes]

I have pot envy. I love my old brew pot, a smallish 36 qt. with enamel coating, but lately I find myself drooling over the Polarware pots with their valves. I got the bright idea of using a weldless fitting (as I've seen in NB, Williams, et al) and modify my existing pot to get out of siphoning, but I'm afraid that the enamel coating will cause problems if I try to drill a hole in it. Will this work, or not?

[MrNate]

My guess is that it will work for a while, but the exposed steel will soon begin to rust. There's a good chance you'll chip the enamel when you drill. Touch-up hardware enamel might help, but I'm not really sure.

There's always one way to find out, though.

[HogieWan]

I've heard that you can't drill the enamel pots. The holes will likely crack the enamel

[hooky]

Sounds like you have an excuse to get a polarware pot.

"but Honey, I couldn't drill my old pot. I even asked several people about it. This was the only logical way to upgrade my equipment."

[Virgil Mathes]

Yeah, that's what I figured, that drilling would crack/chip the enamel & I wouldn't be able to get a good seal with the weldless fitting. I hadn't thought about rust issues.
In the grand scheme of things, siphoning ain't so bad. I guess I'll stick with "old reliable" for now; upgrading my wort chiller is probably a more pressing equipment issue anyway.
But when I do upgrade the kettle, is the Polarware really all that & a bag of chips? I was looking at them in my Williams catalog the other day, and they have another brand of SS pot with a double bottom that's much cheaper. I could get that one & install my own weldless valve, & still be like $100 under the Polarware.

[HogieWan]

Polarware is just a brand - if you find a cheaper way to go, then get that.

[Virgil Mathes]

The Polarware is thicker, I think, but the one I was looking at is still double thickness, and heck, the enamel pot I've been using successfully for years now is only a single thickness, so I imagine that most any pot upgrade would be an improvement.
The Polarware looks like a cool full-featured pot, but strikes me as overkill for most brewers' needs. Kind of like those Fermenator SS conicals; they look super cool to me, but I couldn't justify the cost of one for my own brewing.

[dparsons]

My experience is that the MegaPot brand is better quality than the polarware.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/kettles.html