Update: You can probably see in the photos that the aluminum parts of the melter pot really don't do well around salt, and when I went to use it several days ago, it was just a mess of corrosion. So I ordered a new pot on Amazon and painted it with high temp paint before putting it to use.

With everything ready I plugged it in and a couple minutes later heard a pop and saw sparks. The heating element had failed, and took the thermostat with it. I ordered another Lee Melter pot and had it in my hands the next day and after painting it, plugged it in and.....same result.

So I called Lee and found out that they had a bad batch of heater elements and offered free replacement.

With new parts in hand several days later, I put it back in service and it worked fine.

Lee customer service was tops, with parts to fix one pot and another new pot on the way, can't beat that!

So if you're just getting into this form of annealing and using the Lee Melter Pot for the first time, plug it in and just watch it for 10 to 20 minutes without touching it. Read that again, without touching it. And if the heater fails, simply call Lee and they'll take good care of you.