Jewrican

Recipes 

Well this morning is a brew day and I am seeing that my mash tun is not going to cut it for another batch.

I am using an old Mountain Dew cooler (it was free ) and the heat from adding the strike water from my kettle (only have a mash tun and a kettle which i drain into the tun) is causing the mash tun to warp on the inside

I think this will be its 4th and final batch. How long to the Home Depot coolers last most of you? Do you eventually have the same problems?

I may go to another keg to mash in and just direct fire it with another burner.

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JewRican Brew Works

Primary:
Secondary: Graff Cider
Kegged 1: - Terrapin Rye Pale Ale Clone (AG) 2: - Apple Bee (Woodchuck Cider Clone) 3: -
Consumed: Jamil's Sweet Stout (extract), Caramel Vanilla Creme Ale (extract, keg), Biermuncher's Black Pearl Porter (extract), Brown Ale (extract), Longhammer IPA clone (Extract), Chocolate Espresso Russian Imperial Stout (Extract),Caramel Vanilla Creme Ale (Extract,bottles), Centennial Blonde (AG), Reindeer Fuel (AG), Banana Cream Ale (extract)

shelly_belly

Recipes 

I have a 5gal rubbermaid round that was given to me with the inside all warped up. I've put 15 additional batches on it so far. I figure it's good until it leaks or quits holding temperature. I also picked up a 10gal rubbermaid for an HLT (I only have 1 pot) and it warped up the first time I put 180F H20 in it. Still useable though.

Edit: I probably could have avoided warping the 10gal as it was winter and near freezing. I should have warmed the cooler up first with maybe some 100F water or so.

malkore

Recipes 

neither of my cooler MLT's have warped (both rubbermaid, 5gal and 10gal 'Home Depot orange' one)

I never hit it with boiling water though. I think a few people have found if you never let em hit 180F they don't get so soft to warp. I know I put my 165F strike water in the tun first, then add my grain to avoid doughballs, and that hasn't warped it).

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Malkore
Primary: English Mild
On tap: Pale Ale, Lancelot's Wheat, English Brown Ale, Steam Beer, HoovNuts IPA
Bottled: MOAM, Braggot, Raspberry Melomel, Merlot, Apfelwein, Pyment, Sweet mead, Cabernet
Gal in 2009: 27, Gal in 2010: 34, Gal in 2011: 13, Gal in 2012: 10

Captain_Bigelow

Recipes 

My 10gallon Rubbermaid warped inside after about 3 batches. 10-15 batches on it still works fine. I need to upgrade from the 5/8 brass to the 1/2 stainless steel fittings at some point though.

Jewrican

Recipes 

i think you guys have nailed the issue here.

I am putting 180 - 185 degree water in there and waiting till it gets to my strike temp to begin my dough in.

I needed to strike at 169.5 today. I should have added my water to the tun at 175 or so and been able to dough in pretty quickly.

I was really trying to nail my process this time and i hit my gravity at 70% efficiency to the T. I am pretty happy and will still concider replacing my tun as i would be so pissed if it began to leak on me.

In addition i am thinking more and more about BPA and would prefer to be all stainless.

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JewRican Brew Works

Primary:
Secondary: Graff Cider
Kegged 1: - Terrapin Rye Pale Ale Clone (AG) 2: - Apple Bee (Woodchuck Cider Clone) 3: -
Consumed: Jamil's Sweet Stout (extract), Caramel Vanilla Creme Ale (extract, keg), Biermuncher's Black Pearl Porter (extract), Brown Ale (extract), Longhammer IPA clone (Extract), Chocolate Espresso Russian Imperial Stout (Extract),Caramel Vanilla Creme Ale (Extract,bottles), Centennial Blonde (AG), Reindeer Fuel (AG), Banana Cream Ale (extract)

Carter1932

Recipes 

My rectangular Igloo cooler lauder tun is almost 15 years old and still going strong. Not had issues with warping, except a bit on the outside when I placed it too close to my burner.

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Fermenting: Cream Ale
Secondary/Lagering:Nada
Bottled: Am. Amber, ESB, Oatmeal Stout, Old 7 Mile Pike Saison, JC Dubbel, Behemoth Imperial Stout, Garden Variety Brown, Jekyll Oktoberfests, Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, Lefty Vienna Lager, Munich Dunkel, Hefeweizen, Sm. Barleywine, Sm. Porter, Dunkelweizen & Helles Bock
Kegged: MLK Occupator, Trippel, JSC ESB & RyePA

moosetav

Recipes 

that'll do it....

Displaced MassHole

Recipes 

My 10 gal round rubbermaid cooler warped the first time I used it. There is a vertical "rib" that popped out on the inside, but after 100 or so batches I never had a problem.

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Worthless Brewing Co.
The name says it all

Ohio-Ed

Recipes 

My 10 gallon HD cooler warped after about 3 - 5 brews, then the "buckle" cracked top to bottom after about 10 uses. I now use an insulated converted keg... hasn't warped yet.

samc

Recipes 

I have a rectangular Rubbermaid that I don't use anymore, why?

At some point early on I realized that they call it a "Cooler" for a reason. Much happier with the performance of a keggle, until clean up time.