cheap mashing

Originally I just put the braid on a hose barb with a hose clamp, but it didn't pick up all of the liquid off of the bottom of the cooler. After I made the diptube it worked much better. Now it only leaves a small amount of liquid in the drain valley (maybe 1/3 cup at most)... The set-up worked really good. I did use rice hulls in my mash as a precaution. My run-off was great! It slowed up a bit on the last gallon of sparge, but I think that's because the wort was dropping very slowly thru the grain bed. I'm ok with a slow draining sparge, because I feel like it helps efficiency. I could be wrong, but I won't argue with the 79% eff that I got with this last weekend!

If you batch sparge the shape of the cooler does not matter. Fly sparging you would want a round one.

Batch sparge in an igloo 49 qt cube no problems. Cost me like 23 bucks at Academy Sports. Plus random fittings and hoses.