Manifold: 10gal Rubbermaid HD special (round) w/pics

Note: this is from an older post of mine but updated with dimensions… so I thought I’d share it as a new thread

I brewed the other day and got a stuck sparge; after blowing into the silicon hose the end of the screen floated up to the top… this has been a headache from day one when trying to mix over 22lbs+ of crushed grain with a paddle and constantly hitting the screen. Anyway, after cleaning up, the screen looked like this:



Piece of *&$@!!!! But in darkness, as always, I turned to HBT for light and with the help from others I made this:







I used a dremel tool to cut the slits (used two 1/32 cutting wheels sandwiched together) and was going to solder but after testing it, the pieces are air tight.

It fits snug in my 10g round cooler and my dead space went from 0.4 gallons to 0.078 gallons (or 1 ¼ cup)!

I had some requests for the dimensions for my manifold… here they are. It’s a pretty tight fit in the cooler (10gal round Rubbermaid); you need to apply some pressure to get it to seat on the bottom. I like it like that, it hasn’t moved at all while stirring. It’s not tight enough to damage the cooler though… but +1/8” on one of the pieces might make it impossible to seat.



1. 1 7/8”
2. 3”
3. 1 7/8”
4. 8 ¼”
5. 3 13/16”
6. 3 13/16”
7. 8 ¼”
8. 3 13/16”
9. 1 1/8”
10. 1 1/8”
11. 3 1/8”
12. 3 13/16”
13. 1 7/8”
14. 3”
15. 1 7/8”


(NIBCO 1/2 in. Copper Adapter)

Copper pipe: ½” X 5’ (I believe I got away with using just one 5’ piece… i.e., I didn’t make any mistakes).
Copper elbows: 4
Copper T’s: 7
Project fun: 10+

Note that this manifold uses over 4’ of copper therefore it might make sense to get two ½” x 5’ lengths of copper in case you make a mistake (save a trip back to HD). The high-temp silicon tubing is cut to fit. Attached to the inside bulkhead is a copper female hose fitting (NIBCO ½ in. Copper Adapter… see pic) along with a short piece of pipe so that the silicon tubing slips over it.

Also, a rat-tail file worked great to remove all the burs (I picked up the “Husky 10-piece File Set“ from HD for $10.97… a steal!)

Good job!

I put a coiled length of SS welding wire inside mine to keep it expanded. It works really well.

looks good. I should probably upgrade mine one of these days.

Just wanted to say thanks for posting the measurements for this and the build in general. It made putting together my manifold a breeze. It was a perfect fit, the first time. Agreed, it's tight, but absolutely perfect.

I modified the design slightly for my purposes. I shortened pieces 5 & 6 by one inch and added one inch to pieces 8 & 12. I did this to support my coupler/hose barb on the inside of my cooler and I also intend to put a 45 degree bend in the riser tubing to straighten the connection to my hose barb to nearly level.

Here's my work, pre-sweating. (I did not get an air tight fit! ) Looking forward to giving it a spin in a couple weeks.



Thanks again!

P.S. Sorry for the cell phone pic. It's convenient right now.

looks good!

revco said:

Just wanted to say thanks for posting the measurements for this and the build in general. It made putting together my manifold a breeze. It was a perfect fit, the first time. Agreed, it's tight, but absolutely perfect.

I modified the design slightly for my purposes. I shortened pieces 5 & 6 by one inch and added one inch to pieces 8 & 12. I did this to support my coupler/hose barb on the inside of my cooler and I also intend to put a 45 degree bend in the riser tubing to straighten the connection to my hose barb to nearly level.

Click to expand...

Nice, glad it fit together… you’ll have to post a pic of it inside (to see the riser tubing…?) Thanks for the feedback

This looks great. My s/s braid is starting to look like yours did. Might need to do this soon.

I finally got to brew on my new rig yesterday and this manifold performed exceptionally well for me, very pleased. No problems with the stirring of the mash and drainage was great, albeit a bit slow for the final gallon. For performance reference of this manifold, I had 6oz of liquid left in my MLT in my dead space test.

Thanks again!

Edit: P.S. I ended up not using the 45 degree fitting. After a test fit and test run, I found it was unnecessary. Simpler was better in this case. So mine is just like yours, just with the slightly modified dimensions.

I did have a stuck sparge on a hefeweizen towards the last two or three gallons but I think that was because I didn’t mix the rice hulls in well enough. I did see someone place a manifold like this in a large mash/mesh bag (paint strainer bag) and think I might try that as well. Also, 6 ounces is awesome, maybe I’ll solder my connections after all…

discooby said:

I did have a stuck sparge on a hefeweizen towards the last two or three gallons but I think that was because I didn’t mix the rice hulls in well enough. I did see someone place a manifold like this in a large mash/mesh bag (paint strainer bag) and think I might try that as well. Also, 6 ounces is awesome, maybe I’ll solder my connections after all…

Click to expand...

I would avoid sweating if at all possible. Having done a soldered manifold I replaced it with another one unsoldered as flushing all the grain husks out of the soldered version was a PITA.

IMHO, disassembly for cleaning purposes is a must.

I soldered the ends with all the T's/elbows together and the "H" in the middle together. Essentially, all the vertical pieces are easily separated for cleaning. Cleanup was super simple and I had no concerns about spent grain after use. I'll try to post a final (soldered) pic tonight or this weekend and explain further, just in case my description is not clear.

I'm not surprised a hefe might give this manifold challenges. I used a .031 crush on my maiden voyage and like I mentioned in my previous post, it started to really go slow at the 5 gallon point (total was 6.5 gallon draw). I was thinking about doing a hefe here soon and was debating .5 or 1 pound of hulls, probably inclined to go with more due to my initial experience. Good to know, thanks.

This design looks great. I have a similar manifold and the thing almost never sticks! It works great, and after vorlaufing I peg it wide open. The exception would be wheat-heavy grain bills but for instance I just did a dunkelweizen that was about 50% wheat. All I did was throw in maybe .5 lb rice hulls, and it worked like a charm.

I have also wrapped the manifold in a grain bag, that works as well. It was a bit of a mess and it partially came off with the stirring, but then again mine is not as tight a fit as this design here. If you are looking for a bullet-proof solution I might go that direction, but use a zip tie or stainless wire to seal it onto the manifold.

[Edit] Revco I do not crush as fine as .031 BTW, that could be part of the issue. I do get 75-80% efficiencies. How did you do with that fine of a crush?

I did this too! Easy. Thanks! I did not sweat the fittings, so I could clean if necessary and had like 1 cup of liquid left when draining. Cheers!

Looks very good!

You don't need to sweat them because any small gaps work just like your cut gaps...

Not soldering makes taking it apart for cleaning easy. But, putting it back together after a few beers… not so easy

Sorry for the delay. Here's how I soldered my unit. Makes for a pretty easy assemble and disassemble, pretty well drunk proof. All you gotta do is make sure all the slits are facing the right direction. I found I was mixing up a couple of the pieces pre-solder, so I'd have to take it apart and reassemble it correctly. The unit cleans out very well, no complaints.

I used it again yesterday. Fantastic performance...easily got me into the high 80's efficiency-wise with a good crush. Still gotta do a hefe with it to see how she does...possibly next month.

P.S. Don't judge me because of my sweat job. I suck at it, I know...and it was my first go with sweating pipe, ever. I might rebuild it someday, since I now have a better propane tip and 5' of spare copper pipe.