The hot cracking susceptibility of 22% chromium duplex stainless steel 1.4462 (UNS S 31803) that occasionally is observed when heavy wall components are welded by the submerged arc welding (SAW) process was investigated. Besides of the welding parameters the wire/flux combination seems to play a predominant role. The ferrite content in the weld should be not too low (FN according to WRC greater than 40). Also there appears to be a large influence of elements with a high affinity to oxygen. These elements may catch oxygen in the weld metal thereby leading to the formation of low melting , glass-like silicates. These phases are supposed to be responsible for the hot crack formation. They could be detected in SEM/EDX investigations in form of thin films covering the crack surfaces and also in pin-hole like structures which were always found adjacent to the cracks.