Botched thermothingy install

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kmudrick

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A while back I bought the zymico thermothingy for adding a thermometer through the wall of my cooler:

Thermothingy™ kits for thermometers.

Anyway, I just got around to installing it. It involves drilling a 3/8" hole. Seems easy enough. Except, I did not drill it straight - it went through at an angle.

Needless to say, no amount of tightening of this thing seems to be helping in making it leak free. This really, really sucks.

Is there some sort of food grade silicon that I can fill the hole with now to salvage my $40 cooler? Or should I just ditch it and buy a new one. Really not sure how it would even hold up to filling with silicon, since the wall itself is not solid.

Blah.
 
You don't want to tighten too much, even if the hole was straight...that will make it leak also. There is food grade silicon. I wouldn't just silicon the whole hole. I would install the thermothingy, then silicon around it so it doesn't leak. That should work. If not, start over.
 
They had food grade silicone at the hardware store...DAP makes it...Very small 1 oz tube for $5...
I think you couuld lube the o rings with it and install the thermodingy...Clean excess and you are golden...
I just fixed a rubber stopper leak in a pipe fitting with it...
 
I really don't like the way that thing works. When you tighten the fittings you will always be fighting the compression of the insulation between the walls of the cooler.
If it was me, I would open up the hole in the outside wall, and change the fittings so you are only sealing against the inside wall.
Hope it helps.
Good luck
-David
 
I really don't like the way that thing works. When you tighten the fittings you will always be fighting the compression of the insulation between the walls of the cooler.
If it was me, I would open up the hole in the outside wall, and change the fittings so you are only sealing against the inside wall.
Hope it helps.
Good luck
-David

Well the other problem is that it is very very tough to tighten - the end piece on the inside is very hard to grip with pliers. For some reason the inside of that end piece is female threaded - not sure what that is intended for.
 
That sucks... could open the hole up and do this instead. It never has leaked.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/10-thru-wall-therms-pics-too-24946/

This is what I would do in this situation as well. I just did this (planned from the start) last week. Used it this week and it works fantastic. I was worried about knocking it out when stirring with the mash paddle, but that held up to my ham fisted panicking stirring during a mini stuck sparge. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to The Pol for sharing this with all.

Cheers,
 
This is what I would do in this situation as well. I just did this (planned from the start) last week. Used it this week and it works fantastic. I was worried about knocking it out when stirring with the mash paddle, but that held up to my ham fisted panicking stirring during a mini stuck sparge. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to The Pol for sharing this with all.

Cheers,

That looks like it should work. Cool.
 
As a followup - I followed The Pol's advice and opened up the hole a little bit and jammed the smallest stopper I could find in there. Leak-free now. Next step is to drill a hole in the stopper for me to put a thermometer through.

I can't believe how easy and foolproof (and cheap!) this method is compared to the piece of junk Zymico sells.
 
As a followup - I followed The Pol's advice and opened up the hole a little bit and jammed the smallest stopper I could find in there. Leak-free now. Next step is to drill a hole in the stopper for me to put a thermometer through.

I can't believe how easy and foolproof (and cheap!) this method is compared to the piece of junk Zymico sells.

Yup... companies sell some rediculously priced and over-engineered crap.
 
I can't believe how easy and foolproof (and cheap!) this method is compared to the piece of junk Zymico sells.


LOL - You screwed up the install by drilling a bad hole and Zymico is selling junk because of it?

"Except, I did not drill it straight - it went through at an angle. "
 
LOL - You screwed up the install by drilling a bad hole and Zymico is selling junk because of it?

"Except, I did not drill it straight - it went through at an angle. "

Yeah. Theres other threads out there with people having the same problem even when drilling straight. Wish I had read them beforehand. Not to mention the problem where you can't get it very tight. It is a poor design. And drilling into a plastic thick walled vessel, in hindsight, seems stupid.
 
I did exactly the same thing when drilling my Coleman Extreme MLT for the thermothingy. Fortunately I need a separate 1/2" bulkhead for my sight glass anyway, so I found a fitting that will let me mount both to a stainless 1/2" T fitting and just enlarge the hole to fit a 1/2" nipple.
 

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