304 stainless and 5% H2S04.

According to this website from a stainless steel cable manufacturer,

304 has severe incompatibility with dilute H2SO4 (whereas 316 is ok):

To verify this, consult a true reference in a library such as an engineering handbook or contact any manufacturer of 304 - they should have all of this information. If in doubt, go with the 316, there's good reason it's more expensive.

The previous cursory reply is correct. 304SS will not work at 80C.

Excellent technical information on the compatibility of stainless steels with sulfuric acid may be found on the web. However, you will NOT find it by using a search engine like Google or Yahoo. A detailed answer to your question can be found in INCO Publication 1318 (catalogue 1318), titled "The Corrosion Resistance of Nickel Containing Alloys in Sulfuric Acid and Related Compounds" (1983) on the Nickel Institute web site. It is an 88 page publication that you can download as a 1.16Mb acrobat file. Refer to Figures 6 through 8 on pages 8 through 10 from Kiefer and Renshaw's work originally published in Corrosion magazine back in 1950.. At 80C Type 304 will corrode very much faster than Type 316, over 25.4mm/yr. 304 is unsiuitable.

Go to

Then point to the button marked "Technical support", and click on "Technical Literature" on the pull down menu, and under "First Use" select "Stainless steels"

This is the "Invisible Web" or "Deep Web" problem discussed at

Pittsburgh Pete

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Thanks a lot for that very useful reply. The INCO1318 document is excellent!