"Dave Liquorice" wrote in message
ll.co.uk...
On Wed, 9 Sep 2009 08:31:47 +0100, "nightjar".me.uk wrote:

As they are rusting they patently aren't stainless steel, ...

Stainless steel is not rust-proof. It is merely rust resistant.

The test here is what a "reasonable person" would expect from
something labled as "stainless steel", not the techinical details of
particular metal alloys and their properties.

To a "reasonable person" something called "stainles steel" does not
corrode or take permenant marks, like cutlery or or cooking pans. Now
if the grade of "stainless steel" is mentioned that would have a
bearing on the matter but it could be argued that a normal person
wouldn't know what the grade meant in terms of corrosion resistance.

All stainless steel, irrespective of grade, is capable of rusting. Some are
less likely than others to corrode in normal use, but even marine grade
stainless steel is capable of rusting, as a number of yacht owners
discovered about 30 years ago, when their ballast keels fell off.

In this case, unless the OP did something like fill the can with soil and
use it to grow plants, which would be a misuse almost guaranteed to cause
corrosion, I would look at the country of origin. European, Japanese and
American steels can generally be trusted to be what they claim to be, but
the same is not true of all steel manufacturing countries.

Colin Bignell