Leaking/sweating Teapot

[MonotoneMason]

Hello everyone!
I’m new here and had a quick question. I recently purchased a new teapot and it leaks in very small amounts from a few spots around the teapot. Can’t tell if it’s tiny cracks or if the clay is just really porous. The pot is a very rough clay and I read a couple other posts about rough clays leaking, but wanted to get some opinions. Is this normal, or something to be worried about? In the photo at the bottom left of the pot you can see an example of one of the leaks.

[Bok]

Definitely not normal. Did you check with a magnifying glass if you can see anything? If it’s super porous clay it would be more of an overall “sweating” rather than a localised one.

My guess it that there’s something wrong with the clay recipe.

[MonotoneMason]

I noticed it’s coming out of a spot on the handle too, which is interesting to me since the handle is solid so it must be absorbing into the clay and then leaching out. Looking closely all the spots water is coming out seem to be tiny cracks around the bigger granules in the clay.

[Bok]

That really doesn’t bode well for your pot… handle sweat is a first! Never heard that before. I’d try to get a refund if that is an option… this should not happen.

[MonotoneMason]

Thank y’all, I’ll contact the seller and see what they say!

[.m.]

A bit of sweating shouldn't affect functionality, unless it really leaks quite a bit, and might slow down after some use once the hole gets filled with tea residues... But i'd still consider that as a reasonable basis to ask for a refund, a replacement, or a price reduction.

In the photo below, the dark dots on the rim of the lid are places where the teapot sweats a little bit (but it doesn't actually get moist). Although the lid is fired slightly lower than the body, the firing is still very good, so the reason for the pores has more likely to do something with how the clay was pounded during the crafting.

But this is a different story, with a new pot i think i'd be a bit upset...

[MonotoneMason]

That’s really interesting.
So I put about 10 grams of tea in it with boiling water and let it steep for about 30 minutes to see what would happen. It seems the leaking has stopped almost entirely and instead of water coming out some of those darker spots have appeared, just like the picture you posted.

Maybe I’ll experiment and see if the leaking comes back.

[LeoFox]

I have a very porous pot that "spits" black: 70s hong qing shui ni (though some tell me it is a low fired 70s hong ni). It is my best pot for sheng pu erh

[Bok]

@MonotoneMason ah, that is old tea gunk then! But still not sure how that can happen on the handle? And on a modern teapot… I only see this on pots with a certain vintage, but yours is not old.