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Technical guide

Welding Electrode Storage, Re-Drying and Handling

Covered welding electrodes absorb atmospheric moisture, and moisture in the coating becomes hydrogen in the weld: ESAB specifies storage below 40 % relative humidity above 25 °C, re-drying for two hours at a temperature between 80 °C and 350 °C depending on the electrode, a maximum of three re-drying cycles, and no re-drying at all for vacuum-packed electrodes while the pack is intact or for cellulosic electrodes at any time.

Compiled by POFIS from manufacturer documentation. Sources are named in full at the foot of this page.

Why this matters more in the Gulf than almost anywhere else

Warm air holds far more water than cool air. ESAB puts a number on it: air at 15 °C can hold up to 13 g of water per cubic metre, while air at 25 °C holds 23.5 g — a 78 % increase for a ten-degree rise. Every stage of handling an electrode in Abu Dhabi therefore runs against a moisture load that a northern European procedure was not written for. The handbook states the consequence plainly: it is much more critical to apply proper welding technique in hot and humid conditions than in colder ones. A storage and re-drying regime that is adequate in a temperate workshop is not automatically adequate here.

What moisture actually does

Two distinct failures. The first is porosity: moisture, rust or grease on the surface or in the coating releases gas into the solidifying pool, and it becomes trapped. A severe form called wormholes — elongated pores that give a herring-bone appearance on a radiograph — is caused specifically by gross surface contamination or by welding with damp electrodes, and it is an immediate reject. The second is slower and more dangerous: hydrogen from the coating combines with residual tensile stress and a crack-sensitive steel to produce cold cracking hours or even days after the welder has gone home. High-strength steels and heavily restrained weldments are the most vulnerable, and nothing about the weld looks wrong at the time.

Condensation: the failure that happens before you start

A cold electrode or a cold plate brought into warm humid air will condense water on itself, and the electrode is then wet regardless of how carefully it was stored. The handbook gives the threshold as a dew point table: if the relative humidity in the weld area is 70 %, the base metal and the electrode must be no more than 5 °C colder than the air to avoid condensation forming. This is a real and frequent problem on sites where plate or electrodes come from an air-conditioned store, a cold warehouse, or straight off a truck. Let cold packages reach ambient temperature before opening them.

Packaging determines whether re-drying is needed at all

ESAB uses three levels of protection, and the difference is substantive rather than cosmetic. Shrink-film paper boxes are not airtight, so moisture enters freely and the coating picks it up. Plastic capsules have a lid and tape, and moisture permeates slowly. VacPac vacuum-sealed packaging gives complete protection while the vacuum is intact — and electrodes from an intact VacPac need no re-drying, no holding oven and no quiver before use. Tin cans are hermetically sealed and also allow welding without prior re-drying, but with one caveat the handbook is explicit about: a tin can gives no warning of a leak, so dryness must be checked before welding regardless.

Which electrodes need re-drying and which must never be

Low-hydrogen basic electrodes should be re-dried before use whenever the application has requirements for weld metal hydrogen content or radiographic soundness — unless they come from an intact VacPac. Acid-rutile stainless electrodes and all basic types will produce porosity if they have been stored in insufficiently dry conditions, and re-drying restores them. Mild steel rutile and acid electrodes normally need no re-drying at all. And cellulosic electrodes — the E6010 and E7010 pipe electrodes — must never be re-dried: their coating depends on its moisture content to generate the shielding gas and the deep penetrating arc they exist for. Baking one destroys it.

What the R in H4R actually guarantees

An R in the AWS classification means the coating has passed a moisture absorption resistance test, and the handbook gives the specification: no more than 0.4 % weight gain after nine hours exposed to a standard atmosphere of 26.7 °C and 80 % relative humidity. That is a defined, measured property, not a marketing claim — and it is the property that lets an electrode be issued to a welder for a full shift in Gulf conditions. It does not make the electrode immune to moisture; it means it absorbs it slowly enough that a shift is survivable.

Damage that cannot be undone

The handbook is direct about the limit: electrodes seriously damaged by moisture cannot be restored to their original condition by baking, and should be discarded. Re-drying is recommended up to a maximum of three times. Repeated or excessive baking degrades a basic coating, so an electrode that has been through the oven three times is at the end of its life whatever it looks like. There is no maximum shelf life as such — ESAB states that electrodes stored under ideal conditions can be used many years after supply — but the reverse holds just as firmly, and severe storage shortens durability drastically.

Reference

Storage & re-drying — reference tables

Storage conditions

Covered electrodes pick up moisture slowly, but only within these limits. Keep storage conditions as stable as possible: fluctuation is what drives condensation, because the dew point is reached on the way down.

Store atMaximum relative humidity
5 – 15 °C 60 %
15 – 25 °C 50 %
Above 25 °C 40 %
  • At low temperatures, humidity is held down by keeping the store at least 10 °C above the outside temperature. At high temperatures — the Gulf case — it is held down by dehumidification.
  • Avoid storing filler materials in direct sunlight or where they are exposed to UV: prolonged exposure bleaches the label, and the label carries the re-drying instruction.
  • Handle filler materials with care and do not touch wire with bare hands — use gloves.

Dew point: how much colder than the air a cold electrode or plate may be

Read the humidity in the weld area, then find the maximum temperature difference allowed between the air and the metal before water condenses on it. At 70 % relative humidity, the electrode and the plate must be no more than 5 °C below air temperature. Below that difference, you are welding with wet consumables whatever the packaging said.

Air temperature minus metal temperatureCondensation forms above this relative humidity
0 °C 100 %
1 °C 93 %
2 °C 87 %
3 °C 81 %
4 °C 75 %
5 °C 70 %
6 °C 66 %
7 °C 61 %
8 °C 57 %
9 °C 53 %
10 °C 50 %
11 °C 48 %
12 °C 44 %
13 °C 41 %
14 °C see note
15 °C 36 %
16 °C 34 %
18 °C 30 %
20 °C 26 %
22 °C 23 %
24 °C 21 %
26 °C 18 %
28 °C 16 %
30 °C 14 %
  • 5 °C — The handbook’s own worked example
  • 14 °C — Source figure withheld — see footnote
  • The handbook prints 48 % against a 14 °C differential, between 41 % at 13 °C and 36 % at 15 °C. The series decreases monotonically everywhere else, so 48 breaks it in both directions and is evidently a typographical error. The figure is withheld rather than printed or interpolated. Use the 15 °C row (36 %) as the conservative value for a 14 °C differential.
  • Values are the relative humidity at which detrimental condensation will form for the given temperature difference. Lower humidity than the figure shown is safe at that difference.

ESAB packaging suffixes

These suffixes appear at the end of an ESAB electrode part number and describe the pack, not the electrode. They are the only ordering information the handbook publishes for filler metals; the base part number itself is not printed anywhere in it.

SuffixPack
-00 Full package, cardboard in PE film
-10 Half package, cardboard in PE film, 6 packets per box
-K0 Quarter package, ¼ VacPac, 9 packages per box
-G0 Half package, ½ VacPac, 6 packets per box
-V0 Three-quarter package, ¾ VacPac, 4 packets per box
-L0 Quarter package, Mini VacPac type L, 6 packets per box
-T0 Half package, Mini VacPac type T, 3 packets per box
  • VacPac is optional for unalloyed and fine-grain steel electrodes, standard for heat-resistant and high-strength low-alloy electrodes, and standard for high-alloy and nickel-based electrodes of 4.0 mm and above.
  • Mini VacPac type L covers 1.6–2.5 mm high-alloy, nickel-based and cast iron electrodes; type T covers 3.2 mm high-alloy; type G covers high-alloy and nickel-based from 4.0 mm.

Look it up

Find your product

Re-drying temperature by electrode

Holding time is two hours for every OK and Exaton electrode, and for B2 SC and B3 SC materials. The temperature given is the temperature in the bulk of the electrodes, not the oven setting, and the two hours are measured from the moment the bulk reaches it. Do not stack electrodes more than four layers deep in the oven. Where the label on the package differs from this table, the label governs — it is specific to the batch.

Re-dry at

350 °C

69 electrodes

Basic-coated carbon and low-alloy electrodes, and rutile stainless electrodes. The largest group by far, and it includes every E7018 and E7016 grade in the ESAB range.

  • OK 48.00
  • OK 48.04
  • OK 48.05
  • OK 48.08
  • OK 48.15
  • OK 48.50
  • OK 48.60
  • OK 53.05
  • OK 53.16 Spezial
  • OK 53.68
  • OK 53.70
  • OK 55.00
  • OK Femax 38.65
  • OK Femax 38.95
  • Filarc 56 S
  • Filarc 75S
  • Filarc 76S
  • Filarc 88S
  • Filarc 98S
  • Filarc 118
  • OK 61.20
  • OK 61.30
  • OK 61.80
  • OK 61.81
  • OK 61.86
  • OK 63.20
  • OK 63.30
  • OK 63.34
  • OK 63.41
  • OK 63.80
  • OK 64.30
  • OK 67.43
  • OK 67.50
  • OK 67.60
  • OK 67.70
  • OK 68.17
  • OK 68.81
  • OK 73.08
  • OK 73.15
  • OK 73.68
  • OK 73.79
  • OK 74.46
  • OK 74.70
  • OK 74.78
  • OK 74.86 Tensitrode
  • OK 75.75
  • OK 75.78
  • OK 76.18
  • OK 76.28
  • OK 76.35
  • OK 76.96
  • OK 76.98
  • OK 78.16
  • OK B2 SC
  • OK B3 SC
  • OK 14MnNi
  • OK NiCrMo-5
  • OK Weartrode 30 HD
  • OK Weartrode 35
  • Pipeweld 80 DH
  • Pipeweld 90 DH
  • Pipeweld 100 DH
  • Exaton 19.9.LR
  • Exaton 19.9.NbR
  • Exaton 19.12.3.LR
  • Exaton 22.9.3.LR
  • Exaton 23.12.2.LR
  • Exaton 24.13.LR
  • Exaton 27.31.4.LCuR

Re-dry at

300 °C

12 electrodes

Duplex and super duplex basic electrodes, and most of the Weartrode hardfacing range.

  • Exaton 22.12.HTR
  • Exaton 25.10.4.LB
  • Exaton 25.10.4.LR
  • OK 62.53
  • OK 68.82
  • OK 94.25
  • OK Weartrode 40
  • OK Weartrode 45
  • OK Weartrode 50
  • OK Weartrode 50 T
  • OK Weartrode 60 T
  • OK Weartrode 65 T

Re-dry at

250 °C

12 electrodes

High-efficiency iron-powder electrodes, super duplex, and selected nickel and hardfacing grades.

  • OK Femax 33.60
  • OK Femax 33.80
  • Exaton 20.25.5.LCuR
  • OK 67.13
  • OK 68.53
  • OK 68.55
  • OK 69.33
  • OK 92.55
  • OK 94.35
  • OK Ni-1
  • OK NiCrFe-2
  • OK Weartrode 62

Re-dry at

200 °C

30 electrodes

Basic-coated stainless electrodes, nickel-based electrodes and cast iron electrodes.

  • OK Femax 39.50
  • Exaton Ni59
  • Exaton Ni60
  • OK 13Mn
  • OK 61.25
  • OK 61.35
  • OK 61.35 Cryo
  • OK 61.50
  • OK 61.85
  • OK 63.35
  • OK 63.85
  • OK 67.15
  • OK 67.45
  • OK 67.55
  • OK 67.75
  • OK 68.15
  • OK 69.25
  • OK 310Mo-L
  • OK Ni-CI
  • OK NiCrFe-3
  • OK NiCrMo-3
  • OK NiCrMo-13
  • OK NiCu-7
  • OK NiFe-CI
  • OK NiFe-CI-A
  • OK Weartrode 30
  • OK Weartrode 55 HD
  • OK Weartrode 60
  • OK Tooltrode 50
  • OK Tooltrode 60

Re-dry at

120 °C

3 electrodes

Aluminium electrodes.

  • OK AlMn1
  • OK AlSi5
  • OK AlSi12

Re-dry at

80 °C

1 electrode

Nickel-copper.

  • OK NiCu 1
  • Exaton 22.9.3.LB appears in BOTH the 200 °C and the 300 °C column of the source table. It is therefore listed in neither group above. One electrode cannot have two re-drying temperatures, and guessing between them risks either leaving the coating wet or over-baking it. Read the figure off the package label, or ask POFIS to confirm it with ESAB, before re-drying this grade.
  • Cellulosic electrodes must never be re-dried and do not appear in this table. Their coating relies on its moisture content to generate the shielding gas and the penetrating arc, and baking one destroys it.
  • Electrodes from an intact VacPac need no re-drying before use.
  • Re-drying is recommended up to a maximum of three times. Electrodes seriously damaged by moisture cannot be restored by baking and should be discarded.

In practice

Applying this on site

What a workable regime looks like here

Buy low-hydrogen electrodes in VacPac wherever the grade offers it, because an intact vacuum pack removes the re-drying step and its three-cycle limit entirely. Keep the main store dehumidified below 40 % relative humidity. Issue electrodes to the field in quantities a welder will actually consume in a shift, into a heated quiver, rather than issuing a carton that will sit open. Return unused electrodes to a holding oven at the end of the shift rather than to the bench. And check the package label for the re-drying figure rather than working from memory — the label is batch-specific and this table is not.

Record it, because an auditor will ask

On ADNOC and EPC work, consumable control is an audit point in its own right: where electrodes were stored, at what humidity, when a batch was baked, at what temperature, and how many times. A holding oven with no log is a finding. Keep the oven chart or data log with the WPS and the material certificates, and record re-drying cycles against the batch so the three-cycle limit can be demonstrated rather than asserted.

Equipment POFIS supplies for this

Holding ovens, portable quivers and re-drying ovens are not an accessory to a low-hydrogen procedure, they are part of it — an H4R electrode left on a bench in Abu Dhabi humidity is no longer an H4R electrode. We supply the Arc-Master electrode oven range alongside the consumables, and can specify oven capacity against the electrode consumption of a given job.

Frequently asked

Storage & re-drying — common questions

What temperature do you bake 7018 welding rods at?

ESAB specifies 350 °C for two hours for its E7018 grades — OK 48.00, OK 48.04, OK 48.50, OK 48.60 and OK 55.00 all fall in the 350 °C group. The temperature is the temperature in the bulk of the electrodes, not the oven setting, and the two hours start from the moment the bulk reaches it. Do not stack electrodes more than four layers deep. Always check the package label, which is batch-specific and governs over any general table.

How many times can welding electrodes be re-dried?

ESAB recommends a maximum of three re-drying cycles. Beyond that the coating degrades. Electrodes that have been seriously damaged by moisture cannot be restored to their original condition by baking at all, and should be discarded rather than re-dried again.

Do VacPac electrodes need to be baked before use?

No. Electrodes from an intact VacPac can be used straight from the package — no re-baking, no holding oven, no quiver — because the vacuum maintains them at the moisture level they were manufactured at. If the pack has deflated, treat them as suspect and re-dry before use on any critical application.

Can cellulosic electrodes be re-dried?

No, and this is one of the few absolutes in the handbook. Cellulosic electrodes such as E6010 and E7010 rely on the moisture in their coating to generate the shielding gas and the deep penetrating arc they are used for. Baking one destroys the property it was bought for. They are stored dry but never re-dried.

What humidity should welding electrodes be stored at?

ESAB gives three bands: below 60 % relative humidity when stored at 5–15 °C, below 50 % at 15–25 °C, and below 40 % above 25 °C. In a Gulf store that means active dehumidification, not just air conditioning. Keep conditions stable as well as dry — fluctuation is what drives condensation, because the dew point is crossed on the way down.

Why do my welds have porosity even though the electrodes were in an oven?

The most common cause is condensation rather than storage. A cold electrode or a cold plate brought into warm humid air condenses water on itself immediately. ESAB's rule: at 70 % relative humidity, the metal must be no more than 5 °C below air temperature. Electrodes or plate coming from an air-conditioned store, a cold warehouse or off a truck routinely breach that. Let cold packages reach ambient before opening them.

Does hydrogen cracking happen straight away?

No, which is what makes it dangerous. Hydrogen from a damp coating combines with residual tensile stress in a crack-sensitive steel and produces cold cracking several hours or even days after welding. Nothing looks wrong at the time of inspection. High-strength steels and heavily restrained weldments are the most vulnerable, which is why low-hydrogen consumables, adequate preheat and controlled storage are specified together rather than individually.

Where can I buy electrode ovens and quivers in Abu Dhabi?

POFIS supplies Arc-Master electrode ovens, holding ovens and portable quivers alongside the ESAB consumable range, from Abu Dhabi across the UAE and the wider GCC. We can specify oven capacity against the electrode consumption of a given job. Email weldiv@pofis.ae.

Traceability

Sources

  • ESAB Welding Filler Metal Handbook, 2025 edition (XA00003720), chapter 12 Storage & Handling, handbook pages 12-1 to 12-5
  • ESAB Welding Filler Metal Handbook, 2025 edition (XA00003720), chapter 11 Packaging & Spool Types, handbook pages 11-1 and 11-2

Figures are transcribed from the documents named above and are reproduced for reference. POFIS is a distributor, not the manufacturer. Where a figure affects a welding procedure, confirm it against the manufacturer's current documentation and the governing code — the qualified WPS and the client specification always take precedence over a general reference.

Where to next

Consumables and further reading

Filler metal classifications

  • E7018

    The low-hydrogen electrodes this regime exists to protect — all re-dried at 350 °C

  • E308L

    Stainless grades split between 200 °C and 350 °C depending on coating

  • E2209

    Duplex electrodes, where hydrogen matters more than on austenitic grades

  • E316L

    Basic 316L re-dries at 200 °C, rutile 316L at 350 °C — the coating decides

Other guides

Ask us instead

If your procedure turns on one of the figures above, send it to us rather than working from a general reference. We will check it against the manufacturer documentation and confirm the consumable before you order.

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