Rubbermaid vs. Igloo
 

Is there any difference? All I see on the forum re: making LMT's is Rubbermaid. I've found a $15 10-gallon Igloo and I just want to make sure it'll be just as good and easy to convert.
Thanks!

I used an Igloo MaxCold cooler (though 5 gal) and it works just fine.

Rubbermaid seems to just be a reference - I have heard of people using Gott and Coleman also.

Soon as I get my keggle, I will be looking for a good cooler myself.:rockin:

I think Rubbermaid/Gott and Igloo are the most commonly used, with great success. The Coleman Extreme coolers are also excellent, although I have heard many complaints about their less expensive line of coolers. I would avoid the no-name coolers, because they might not hold heat well and/or may be made with lower quality materials.

Just about any old cooler will do
 

There is no real difference as far as I know.

I converted igloo Ice Cube (square) coolers rather than using the round beverage coolers which are fairly useless if you want to use them for other things between batches. The 2 versions of the Ice Cube I have found at Wal Mart are 48qt and 60qt (with wheels). Both were around or just under $20, and the smaller (48qt) cooler should be more than enough for most if not all 5 gallon batches.

If you build a CPVC drain manifold on the bottom of your mash tun you can really save some coin. I think my total investment including one 48qt Ice Cube cooler, 10 foot 1/2" CPVC and fittings, a cheap Home Depot 1/2" full gate ball valve and brass fittings came to just under $35 or $40.

Alternately; rather than CPVC, you can use a stainless steel mesh (toilet supply hose cover) and remove the inner rubber hose and the ends then crimp the end. That method doesn't provide as large of an area for draining and as a result you can have channeling through yoru grains when sparging. Many people use this method however.

I hope this helps and forgive me if I went on about stuff you already knew. Let me know if you need some photos of my setup or links to the resources I used to build my coolers.

$15 for a 10gal cooler!!! Where at? Is it a box cooler or a beverage cooler?
I got my 10gal beverage cooler from rubbermade.com for about $55 and got copper parts for the conversion from Home depot for another $15 or so. Both Igloo and Rubbermade are good brands, I don't see why there should be any difference.

I just did a Google Shopping search and found it. It's a bev cooler, so with shipping, maybe $20-25? Certainly still cheaper than anything I found at stores.
RokGoblin - I can never have too much information. Very much a noob here and always appreciate the info!

Examples of mash tun construction plans
 

Dude, is there no Wal Mart close by??? Well the one by me was a Super Wal Mart actually. You will pay a high price to ship an empty cooler because it will be shipped using "dimensional" weight rather than actual weight.

I would recommend purchasing any sufficiently sized cooler (of any shape) locally and converting that one. The things to remember are narrower and taller coolers provide a deeper grain bed, and look for easy to remove and replace spout and fittings (save the original spout if you plan to use the cooler for other things), otherwise you can just drill the old spout hole (if necessary) to accomodate your valve and bulkhead.

Here is the link I mentioned regarding building a CPVC (or copper) drain manifold(Palmer design), you can also build the same kind of setup to use as a "sparge manifold" if you want to fly sparge. I chose not to glue anything together for ease of disassembly and cleaning.

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue5.4/palmer_sb.html#manifold

Here is the entire article about converting a cooler by John Plamer.

http://www.brewingtechniques.com/library/backissues/issue5.4/palmer.html

Here is a decent photo diary of how to create a low budget mash tun.

http://yellowdogbrewery.com/BAMT.aspx

Here is another fine example of the second (cheaper) mash tun example and in video format too.

Super Wal Mart in Houston had 48 qt Igloo Ice Cube cooler for about $18. I also found this deal online at Walmart.com, but right now they are out of stock...this is a sweet deal on a cylindrical beverage cooler and its 7 gal so definately large enough to mash any 5 gal batch. WalMart will ship to your local store for pickup too and I don't think there is an extra charge for that.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7999982

Another good alternative and very cheap

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5623411

Here you go dude
 

I recorded this a couple of weeks ago.


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