Cheap & Easy 10 Gallon Rubbermaid MLT Conversion

steelerguy said:

Just out of curiosity, has anyone had the inside of their Rubbermaid warp? Mind warped after the very first mash. It isn't causing a problem, but there is now a pretty large lump that starts at the bottom and goes about 2/3 of the way up the side getting smaller as it goes. Not big deal, but it did make me question the quality of the cooler I got, especially because it was a Home Depot labeled Rubbermaid and I know they make people build crap parts for them to sell cheaper.

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I have the Home Depot branded one too. I haven't brewed with it yet, but I did fill it with hot (~155F) water after I put together the plumbing, and didn't get any warping.

I wonder if maybe you got some hot water between the inner and outer walls of the cooler...? Is the warp close to the side with the spigot?

Rick500 said:

I have the Home Depot branded one too. I haven't brewed with it yet, but I did fill it with hot (~155F) water after I put together the plumbing, and didn't get any warping.

I wonder if maybe you got some hot water between the inner and outer walls of the cooler...? Is the warp close to the side with the spigot?

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It didn't warp immediately, I put some pretty hot water in there to preheat it and that didn't do it, it was the prolonged exposure to 150 or so degrees. The warp is actually almost directly opposite the spigot. Oh well, no big deal really, only cosmetic and I don't really care what the inside looks like...that is unless some grains are mashing!

I used this mash tun for my first AG today. I was very impressed with it. The temps held stead for the entire mash and I barely had any grain come through on vorlauf. I preheated mine with 3.5 gallons of batch water overheated to 185 and had no issues. Worked great!!

I read through the first half of the thread, and noticed that people were changing the specifications from the original design in order to adjust for better control, better components, etc.

Is there a final list that someone has gathered that lists all the materials needed to finish this project, and where to get them?

Thanks!

moonlightinred said:

I read through the first half of the thread, and noticed that people were changing the specifications from the original design in order to adjust for better control, better components, etc.

Is there a final list that someone has gathered that lists all the materials needed to finish this project, and where to get them?

Thanks!

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I was JUST going to post the same thing, as i picked up my propane burner yesterday, and was going to grab MLT stuff today or tomorrow.

Here are some parts! Read the first post in the thread!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/15-ball-valve-bulkhead-lowes-22595/

^ Yes, I'm aware that the first post indicates the initial parts used. I'm also aware of the fact that people have substituted some of those parts for others that performed better and were less likely to leak or break down. What I was hoping for was a list compiled by someone who has successfully modified the original design into something that is more reliable.

The link I supplied was to ANOTHER thread, those are parts that I have used for 2 YEARS and they have yet to leak. Take it for what it is worth, if that is what you are looking for.

moonlightinred said:

I read through the first half of the thread, and noticed that people were changing the specifications from the original design in order to adjust for better control, better components, etc.

Is there a final list that someone has gathered that lists all the materials needed to finish this project, and where to get them?

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The only thing that has really changed over time in the MLT design discussed in this thread is the construction of the stainless steel braid, and those changes are pretty minor. If you can find all-stainless hose clamps, I suggest you simply stick with the original parts list from page 1.

Note that there has also been considerable discussion about the availability and need for the stainless steel washer on the inside of the cooler. I highly recommend using one -- if you can't source one locally (Fastenal seems to be the emerging 'best' place to look), check to see if any members have them for sale (many bought a bulk of them and are selling them at cost). Otherwise, you can do the bulkhead without the inner washer, but it won't be as sturdy a fitting and may be at risk of leaking in the future. Reasonable substitues for a stainless washer are brass washers (but even harder to find) or a stiff nylon washer.

Hope that helps!

Well i dorked out and bought the Kewler Kit because my LHBS said they'd give me an industry discount.

Out of curiosity, what is an acceptable drip rate? I have a very slow leak...i'd say maybe a full drop that hits the floor every 10 minutes or so...i'm thinking that's accepatable. I think the problem is that neither of my adjustable wrenches go large enough to get a good bite on the nut, so i've only hand tightened it.

I'd call that acceptable. Heck, I'd call one every 10 seconds acceptable (~2 tablespoons/hr).

If anyone is looking for one of these 10 gallon coolers in the Fresno, CA area, the home depot on west shaw has about a dozen left and selling for just under $38

I did FlyGuy's MLT conversion last night, and it doesn't leak at all.

A few changes i made...

Since i was using the vinyl tube insert anyways, i just eliminated the brass plug

I took a pair of pliers and twisted the end of the braid shut

I used several o-ring on the nipple/ball valve junction just to keep the apparatus centered inside the spigot hole

Other than that, i used all the same fittings and sizes he recommended- even managed to find the stainless 5/8'' washer, although that took an extra trip from Lowe's to Home Depot and I had to buy it with a whole nuts and bolts kit, but it was still only $3 for the kit, a small price to pay to finish such an awesome project.

Now my only task is to get this AG operation off the ground this weekend...

Where the heck are ya'll finding 5/8" fender washers, especially the stainless ones?

My Home Depot apparently is the worst one in the world...

Guess I will check Lowes tomorrow...

humann_brewing said:

If anyone is looking for one of these 10 gallon coolers in the Fresno, CA area, the home depot on west shaw has about a dozen left and selling for just under $38

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I just purchased 2 of the 10 gallon coolers at my local Home Depot -- this seems to be a standard stock item for them (They are branded as Home Depot coolers, not Rubbermaid -- seem to be the same dimensions). I had to ask for them because they were stored on a top shelf. The stock number is 7169123633 and they are priced just under $38 during the winter months, but will go back up over $50 at the end of the season.

Great post -- saved me some money and had fun in the process. Thanks!!!

Like a lot of people I had a hard time finding the Stainless 5/8" (or 16mm) washers for inside of the MLT. I ended up buying a few rubber washers for use on the inside of garden hoses. I used 2 rubber washers on the inside of the MLT (prob could have gotten away with 1) -- question is, will the rubber cause me any issues?

merc01 said:

Like a lot of people I had a hard time finding the Stainless 5/8" (or 16mm) washers for inside of the MLT. I ended up buying a few rubber washers for use on the inside of garden hoses. I used 2 rubber washers on the inside of the MLT (prob could have gotten away with 1) -- question is, will the rubber cause me any issues?

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every few pages we mention fastenal for the SS washers....
This post has everything including the sku for the product, and the website

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/704668-post394.html

I bought oversized washers for converting my Coleman 70 at Autozone.

Saccharomyces said:

I bought oversized washers for converting my Coleman 70 at Autozone.

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You were lucky...my autoparts store had very few ss washers of any size.

Duckfoot said:

Where the heck are ya'll finding 5/8" fender washers, especially the stainless ones?

My Home Depot apparently is the worst one in the world...

Guess I will check Lowes tomorrow...

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If you have an Ace Hardware or a "Mom and Pop" shop near you check there. Both the Ace, and the "Mom and Pop" in my area had a large assortment of stainless hardware.

cgruelle said:

If you have an Ace Hardware or a "Mom and Pop" shop near you check there. Both the Ace, and the "Mom and Pop" in my area had a large assortment of stainless hardware.

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Agreed... There is a True Value Hardware down the street from me that has 2 rows of misc nuts/bolts/washers for pennies a piece.

drunkatuw said:

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TwoHeadsBrewing said:

I fixed this by getting 1 foot of 1/2" copper tubing, and a couple 45 degree elbows. Now I have the copper tubing equivalent of the SS braid...and works great so far! I think the copper parts ran me all of 5 bucks...1/16" drill bit was $2.39 for two bits.

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I might like this idea better since I'm having a hard time finding stainless braid (they're all that nylon composite stuff now) and I'm reading posts about that clogging/compressing anyway...

Am I correctly gathering that to do this copper manifold thing, just drill 1/16" holes in the bottom of the tubing? Any guide/idea as to how many?? 1" apart? 5" apart?

Also, with this copper manifold thing, it doesn't look terribly convenient to remove... do you just blast it with water to dislodge the grains, mostly leaving it in place?

What an awesome thread!! Thanks to all for posting your projects & ideas!!!

EDIT: After finding a post about using PVC instead of copper, I'm even more intrigued! Any success with this method? Anyone... ?

WheeledGoat said:

I might like this idea better since I'm having a hard time finding stainless braid (they're all that nylon composite stuff now) and I'm reading posts about that clogging/compressing anyway...

Am I correctly gathering that to do this copper manifold thing, just drill 1/16" holes in the bottom of the tubing? Any guide/idea as to how many?? 1" apart? 5" apart?

Also, with this copper manifold thing, it doesn't look terribly convenient to remove... do you just blast it with water to dislodge the grains, mostly leaving it in place?

What an awesome thread!! Thanks to all for posting your projects & ideas!!!

EDIT: After finding a post about using PVC instead of copper, I'm even more intrigued! Any success with this method? Anyone... ?

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I've had pretty good success with my copper manifold. It's really easy to remove since I didn't solder any of the joints except for the U-shaped piece that attaches to the bulkhead.

My efficiency has gone down a little bit after switching to the manifold, but I think it's because it drains so much faster (it used to take me 20 min to batch sparge, now it takes 2-3 min), and I don't have to worry about stuck sparges like I did with the braid. So far I'm a happy camper and I wouldn't switch back.

I didn't drill holes in my manifold, instead I used a hacksaw to drill slots every 1/2" along the bottom of the manifold.

i assume you've got that ball valve, right? do ya think backing off on the drain rate so it didn't pour out so fast might help your efficiency? (how much eff did you lose, btw? 5%? 15%?)

again, thanks for posting!! i was at Ace last night eyeing up the copper parts. i'm down with the price!! now i wish i had looked at this before dropping 60 bones on an immersion chiller. i coulda made one, theoretically, for like $10 (assuming i could do it without kinking it). hmmmm.

WheeledGoat said:

i assume you've got that ball valve, right? do ya think backing off on the drain rate so it didn't pour out so fast might help your efficiency? (how much eff did you lose, btw? 5%? 15%?)

again, thanks for posting!! i was at Ace last night eyeing up the copper parts. i'm down with the price!! now i wish i had looked at this before dropping 60 bones on an immersion chiller. i coulda made one, theoretically, for like $10 (assuming i could do it without kinking it). hmmmm.

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I do have a ball valve attached, and my efficiency went from around 75% to 65%, draining slower might help, or perhaps just having some more patience and letting the sparge water sit for 10 min before draining would fix the problem. I'm also looking into getting either a paint stirrer or a mud mixer attachment for my drill to help still the mash more vigorously.

using this tutorial now. wish me luck!

nice simple build, using today for my "Hybrid IPA". Thanks so much for posting all this awesome info.

Anyone have a problem with the braid constricting with the number of batches. I bought my braid from home depot, i thought it was stainless, didnt know at the time they also had a composite braid. I dont know which i have. The braid worked great for the first 6 batches. Yesterday on a batch of Edmund Fitzgerald porter i had a stuck sparge which required constantly reaching the mash and moving the braid around. I noticed it is nowhere the original dimensions but has constricted down in diameter a bit. Anyone else know of this problem and what is a good fix.

I just did this conversion as well, and have a couple of pointers.
1. The only real stainless that I found was in some "flood proof" toilet lines.
2. I put a piece of 10gauge copper wire, spiraled around a pencil into the center to keep it from crushing.

Hope these help!
Larry

BullF-16 said:

Anyone have a problem with the braid constricting with the number of batches. I bought my braid from home depot, i thought it was stainless, didnt know at the time they also had a composite braid. I dont know which i have. The braid worked great for the first 6 batches. Yesterday on a batch of Edmund Fitzgerald porter i had a stuck sparge which required constantly reaching the mash and moving the braid around. I noticed it is nowhere the original dimensions but has constricted down in diameter a bit. Anyone else know of this problem and what is a good fix.

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in this LOOOOONG thread, several of us have talked about putting a notched bit of hose back in the braid....in fact I just took the nylon core that I pulled out of it...drilled a bunch of holes in it all around it, boiled it for 15 minutes to dislodge all of the tiny bits of material left from the drilling, and put it back inside the braid....I've not had any problems yet...others have used the clear nylon tubing as well.

Here's the setup I'm using in the cooler MLT. It's just a copper pipe with small holes drilled in it. I used a couple 45 degree elbows to get the "manifold" to lie flat on the bottom. I didn't solder it, so I can take it apart and clean it easily.



I'm using a brass full port valve, which works nicely and was WAY cheaper than stainless. Speaking of SS, I need to upgrade my outside washer to SS...didin't think I needed to worry about it but it's looking ugly.

This is great - I've been researching mash tuns and I think I know what to build now. Also, FYI...NorthernBrewer sells something very similar for over $200.

Just one question: did you consider more steel braided wire to cover more of the bottom surface. The J. Palmer book recomends a configuration that looks like cross-hairs at the bottom for collecting the wort.

Thanks,

E

Without reading all 56 pages of this...where can I get SS 5/8" washers? I looked at Lowe's, which had every size BUT 5/8ths, and home depot, where they didn't have SS anything.
Not that it matters much, but I bought everything at Lowe's except the cooler ($18 - Walmart), and I'm pushing $58 right now.

crap double post

phissionkorps said:

Without reading all 56 pages of this...where can I get SS 5/8" washers? I looked at Lowe's, which had every size BUT 5/8ths, and home depot, where they didn't have SS anything.
Not that it matters much, but I bought everything at Lowe's except the cooler ($18 - Walmart), and I'm pushing $58 right now.

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Fastenal was the only place I could find SS washers at.

Do you happen to know the part number? I searched but the only inner diameter size I can find says "0.692", which is 0.053 larger than 5/8". Is that the same size, or no? This is the one I'm talking about: 5/8 x 2 18-8 Stainless Steel Fender Washer | Fastenal

Just wanted to let everyone know. I also had a hard time finding the 5/8 SS fender washer. Iwas able find a 3/4 SS washer though. So i tried it and it wrks great. No leaks and Tun is working great.

Lowes seems to have a better selection of SS stuff the Home Gestapo (not to mention HD doesn't have 1/2" to 1/4" copper reducers... F-ers.....)... However I was talking with the rep that does the fasteners for Lowes and they were cutting back on the larger sized SS stuff....

phissionkorps said:

Without reading all 56 pages of this...where can I get SS 5/8" washers? I looked at Lowe's, which had every size BUT 5/8ths, and home depot, where they didn't have SS anything.
Not that it matters much, but I bought everything at Lowe's except the cooler ($18 - Walmart), and I'm pushing $58 right now.

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If you have a True Value (Ace) or a local Mom and Pop hardware store, try there. Places like that usually have a much better hardware selection than the big boxes.

I would like to add a bit more detail around maximum mash volume for this setup. It was previously stated that 28 lbs @ 1qt/lb was the maximum that could be handled. I incorrectly assumed that at 25 lbs I could manage 1.2 qts/lb of strike water. Although it did barely fit in the tun I had no room for stirring so I had just the slightest overflow. If you are doing 25 lbs I'd recommend 1 lb/qt (6.25 gallons).

My second issue is handling the recommended sparge volumes. The calculator I used recommended 9 gallons of sparge water which I split into two 4.5 gallon batch sparges. unfortunately, after draining the bed I could only get about 4 gallons for each sparge. I ended up collecting 12.75 gallons for my 10.5 gallon batch and hit my gravity with a 60 minute boil. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what my final volume was at my converted keg fermentor as I have no graduated volume measurements.

Lastly, I'm concerned that if I lower my strike water ratio to 1 qt/lb I would not be able to hold enough sparge water in my 10 gallon converted cooler HLT. The calculator told me I'd need 10.5 gallons. I suppose I could fudge that to 10 gallons and split it into three batch sparges. So even if I could hold 28 lbs of grain I could not hold enough sparge water in my HLT to sparge at the recommdned rate. I'm interested in others experiences here...