I have been a home brewer for about 8 years now and wanted to step up my game with fermenting containers by going stainless. As several reviews state, the spigot is a plastic ball valve that really sucks, liquids barely trickle out. The lid/gasket seal sucks, I had to use food grade silicon to get it to finally hold a good seal for fermentation. Also, someone else mentioned clean, clean, clean, this this is filthy when you pull it from the packaging and looked to have some sort of greasy film all over it. I washed this thing with a heavy de greaser, followed by several PBW cleaner washings, finishing up with a good Star San rinse prior to first use. After the first use I pulled a 1/2 stainless steel ball valve I had from a sparg tank conversion to fix the above problem with a 1/2 drain for speedier transfers. With all that said, it is heavy duty pot, not sure If I would heat my wort in it, but with the new ball valve and a good bead of silicon it works fine. I did purchase another stainless fermenting container from a different vendor that is much better for only 20 buck more (it was on sale by the way, usually about 200 bucks) If you don't have a lot of cash and cant find a similar sized one on sale as I did shortly after receiving this one Clean the hell out of it use a bit of silicon to ensure a good seal and if you want get that crappy plastic ball valve replaced and you will be fine.