Recirculation/sparging port in side of cooler

I'm about to drill a hole in the side of a HomeDepot 10 gallon cooler and install a bulkhead to enable me to vorlauf and then sparge using a March pump. I've seen this dedicated port on keggles but not many times on coolers. I'd like to have my lid screwed on my cooler and have my sparge water enter through the side wall using cam locks.

Any reason why I should'nt do this? Anybody have pics of a similar setup?

I've often thought about doing this as well, with a bulkhead assembly w/ball valve + male camlock fitting. What holds me back is the problem of keeping the inner and outer cooler walls from compressing together when tightening up the bulkhead assembly and causing a leak, either all the way through - or worse, into the insulating space.

So, if you come up with a solid, leak-free solution please post it here!

Cheers!

Couldn't you make the hole large enough to insert a sleeve of some type (CPVC perhaps) that would allow some compression of the side walls but not much?

kklowell said:

Couldn't you make the hole large enough to insert a sleeve of some type (CPVC perhaps) that would allow some compression of the side walls but not much?

Click to expand...

It's possible - I think I recall variations of a sleeve implementation being discussed in the epic 10 gallon cooler thread.

The problem will be finding the right O-ring or gasket to use on the inside: it has to be wide enough to cover both the gap between the bulkhead fitting and the sleeve, and the sleeve and the cooler wall. A CPVC sleeve would be pretty thick walled, and a conventional O-ring likely wouldn't provide a wide enough sealing area to cover both of the gaps. Perhaps a flat, wide gasket could work if uniform pressure across its surface could be maintained...

Cheers!

When I put a brewmometer in my cooler, I just cut a bigassed hole in the outside, big enough for the brewmometer to fit in.

My recomendation to you would be to cut a hole in the inside plastic big enough for your weldless nipple. Cut a hole in the outside plastic big enough for the nipple and other hardware to fit through, (scoop out some of that foam insulation). Make the seal on the inside plastic only.

You'll lose a BIT of heat retention, but not much. Insulation is based on area. The area of foam you cut out is very small compared to the total area of the cooler....

why not go through the lid? wouldn't have to be watertight that way...

day_trippr said:

I've often thought about doing this as well, with a bulkhead assembly w/ball valve + male camlock fitting. What holds me back is the problem of keeping the inner and outer cooler walls from compressing together when tightening up the bulkhead assembly and causing a leak, either all the way through - or worse, into the insulating space.

So, if you come up with a solid, leak-free solution please post it here!

Cheers!

Click to expand...

I thought about this as well. I figure it doesn't have to be crazy tight. I'll be using a bulkhead from Bargain Fittings. It comes with an o-ring and a lock nut with a groove so that when it's up against the inside of the cooler wall, it should seal poperly, as long as the hole is just wide enough to fit the nipple through.

I like the idea of the CPVC sleeve proposed below. Might try that...

Anybody have pictures of their MLT rigged out this way?