Rubbermaid vs. Gott cooler

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Ivan Lendl

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I plan on buying a cooler type mash/lauter/hlt set up and have a few questions.

1. I heard rubbermaid coolers will warp from the heat of the mash/strike water, and that gott coolers dont. Is this a problem?
2. Should i buy the 5, 7, or 10 gallon cooler (im definitlety leaning towards the ten gallon for the mash tun, but thinking a 5 gallon would suffice for the hlt?)
3. Do these coolers really hold the temps for 60-90 minutes? I like to stir my mash every 20 minutes, and since i mash in my kettle heat loss due to stirring is not a problem. Can i just shake the cooler up instead, or just stir and add hot water?
4. Lastley, how do you do a mash out? just by adding boiling water?

thanks in advance!

p.s. i currently use my kettle as a mash tun and a zap-pap lauter which works fine, but has its problems (namely keeping constant temps)
 
I'd make sure to buy the 5 day coolers, and definitley go 10 gallon on both, if you can. You'll need it.

Try to get the igloo extreme or the "maxcold" by I think coleman. They hold heat great.

I have the 5 gallon igloo extreme coolers and I lose less than 1 degree in 90 minutes of mashing. I just wish they made a 10 gallon size.
 
Dude said:
I'd make sure to buy the 5 day coolers, and definitley go 10 gallon on both, if you can. You'll need it.

Try to get the igloo extreme or the "maxcold" by I think coleman. They hold heat great.

I have the 5 gallon igloo extreme coolers and I lose less than 1 degree in 90 minutes of mashing. I just wish they made a 10 gallon size.

are these easy to convert though? id really like to just buy the ones that already have a ball valve, and false botom installed, (like from midwest, or northern brewer)or is that just plain lazy?

Most sites ive visited just sell the rubbermaids...
 
Bjorn Borg said:
are these easy to convert though? id really like to just buy the ones that already have a ball valve, and false botom installed, (like from midwest, or northern brewer)or is that just plain lazy?

Most sites ive visited just sell the rubbermaids...

I think you'd be better off doing that anyway. After all the trips I made to Lowes to figure out the ball valve assemblies for that, I could have bought the whole shebang and been happy.

I know Swami has the rubbermaid system, and it does really well. Hopefully he chimes in here.
 
The Rubbermaids will definitely warp. I just did my last mash in mine tonight. I converted it last July ('05):(

I just bought an Igloo MaxCold and will convert it this week. I may keep my Rubbermaid to use as an HLT holder.
 
Rhoobarb said:
The Rubbermaids will definitely warp. I just did my last mash in mine tonight. I converted it last July ('05):(

I just bought an Igloo MaxCold and will convert it this week. I may keep my Rubbermaid to use as an HLT holder.

Was yours the same as the ones in my link above? I started using mine a little before you did yours, and they're fine. My strike water generally goes into the HLT at about 190F.
 
I have a 10 gallon Igloo cooler for my mash/Lauter tun and it has a little warpage in it. My hot liquor tank is a 5 gallon Rubbermaid and it is seriously warped. Much hotter water (180 degrees) gets put into it. It's probably not unusual for a "cooler" that is designed to keep things cold to warp when near boiling water is poured in.
 
cool...thanks for the nc link. Why such high temps both on the sparge water (180) and the strike temp (190) ?

i figure if i put 170 h20 in the hlt, 168-170 will come out?
and i strike 10-15 degrees above mash temp, usually 145 for a 130 protein rest...which gets me around about 133.
 
Bjorn Borg said:
cool...thanks for the nc link. Why such high temps both on the sparge water (180) and the strike temp (190) ?

i figure if i put 170 h20 in the hlt, 168-170 will come out?
and i strike 10-15 degrees above mash temp, usually 145 for a 130 protein rest...which gets me around about 133.

In my 5 gal igloo, I strike 13° higher. I needed 185-190° in my HLT (same cooler) for it to stay around 170 for sparging.
 
Bjorn Borg said:
cool...thanks for the nc link. Why such high temps both on the sparge water (180) and the strike temp (190) ?

i figure if i put 170 h20 in the hlt, 168-170 will come out?
and i strike 10-15 degrees above mash temp, usually 145 for a 130 protein rest...which gets me around about 133.

Sorry, mixed up my terminology there. I meant pretty much what Dude said. For 170F out of the sprinkler, the water goes into my HLT at about 190F.
 
I have the 10gallon rubbermaid and it warped (slightly) on it's maiden mash out. I was going to start a thread about this but it seems I don't need to now. I wonder if the spec has changed since the swami got his?
 
Bjorn Borg said:
1. I heard rubbermaid coolers will warp from the heat of the mash/strike water, and that gott coolers dont. Is this a problem?

For what its worth - I think that Gott and Rubbermaid are one and the same. My 5 gallon blue rubbermaids (the $19 at walmart type) have a stamp embedded in the bottom of them that says "Gott Corporation". Looks like Gott was bought out by Rubbermaid at some point?

No warpage yet after 1 mash.
 
pokey said:
For what its worth - I think that Gott and Rubbermaid are one and the same. My 5 gallon blue rubbermaids (the $19 at walmart type) have a stamp embedded in the bottom of them that says "Gott Corporation". Looks like Gott was bought out by Rubbermaid at some point?

No warpage yet after 1 mash.

I have a Rubbermaid/Gott cooler that I bought about 10 years ago, and another Rubbermaid made by Gott, that I bough about 6 months ago. They are both 5g in Home Depot Orange rather than Walmart blue. Neither has warped at all.

-a.
 
The one from Midwest looks much better than the eBay cooler. The Rubbermaids have a totally flat bottom, which you can use a false bottom, S/S braid, or a Bazooka Tube (altered a bit). They will drain almost completely when sparging. The one on eBay has a wierd bottom. Its stepped, and with the bottom and the supplied manifold, or any other type, you will struggle to get all of your wort out. Plus the shipping is crazy.

My opinion...I started with a twin 5 gallon Rubbermaid set up, and it was well worth the money. Always sparged well, took the heat without major warping, and was east to use. With ball valves, a s/s false bottom and a spinning sparge arm, it was a breeze to use. I moved up to a 48 quart Ice Cube, which has a flat bottom, and I use a Bazooka tube. It drains just like the Rubbermaid, which makes me happy.

I think you will be good with the one from Midwest.
 
Bjorn Borg said:
3. Do these coolers really hold the temps for 60-90 minutes? I like to stir my mash every 20 minutes, and since i mash in my kettle heat loss due to stirring is not a problem. Can i just shake the cooler up instead, or just stir and add hot water?

Want to say that my inicial cooler purchase was an Extream 5 Gal and I screwed it up. I ended up pluging the blasted hole I made and drilled out a smaller hole to put a hose through and use as a HWT. That thread that I put all the pictures up shows you it. The thing is... I started loading it up with boiling water oh... around 2ish and loaded it with more hot water around 5ish. It was half full when everything was done and over, but by the time I had cleaned up most of the stuff and felt like a screwup for the small output I got I kinda left it. The top was on and I took it off the next day around 11am to dump it. I BURNED MY HAND! I am F*cken serious. It was stinging all day! So... what were talking close to 17 or so hours!
 
thats funny i was looking at your gallery yesterday, and was admiring the dark blue cooler. Did you convert that one yourself?

and you had boiling water in the other one and no warpage?

(ill be sure NOT to burn myself thanks for the caveat!)
 
GOD said:
Thats an Ice Cube. They look real cool and inicially I was thinking there would be too much space, but when mine warps thats what I'll get. Dont get it on Ebay though if it goes to much above that price. Wallmart has them for I think.....$20....cant recall but it was real close to $20.

yeah im not gonna get that one, it looks like the manifold will either float, or get knocked out of place when stirring...thats what i like about the n. brewer set up: it has a stainless false bottom, and the brass ball valves...im just weary of warpage, ill be pissed if it warps to the point of not being able to use it!
 
Bjorn Borg said:
thats funny i was looking at your gallery yesterday, and was admiring the dark blue cooler. Did you convert that one yourself?

and you had boiling water in the other one and no warpage?

(ill be sure NOT to burn myself thanks for the caveat!)

Yeah the blue on is the rubbermaid and it was real easy to convert once I convinced myself to just buy the damm Kewler Kit and not try to find the parts. That was hell. The only problem with the igloo is that on the top it is one dimention and on the bottom its smaller. It gets narrower as you go down. So inicially I had a plastic false bottom and sanded it down a bit to fit but then had other problems with it and finally got the SS false bottom which is real nice actually.

Just doing some math here.....

2 Rubbermaid 5 Gal coolers roughly 20 per.... $40
SS false bottom was like .....around.....$25
Kewler Kit was around.......................$30
Extra fitting, teflon tape and hose .... around........$10 (even number)
--------------------------------------------------------
$105

This is my setup here, because folks here seemed to go on about batch sparging that you dont need a sparger. So I did not get one. But SS spargers run around $25 ish... You still dont come close to $160 though. Certainly nowhere near $200.
 
160 is approaching 2 hundy..AND its 2 for the 10 g. not the 5 g...i dont mind spending the 200...IF IT DOESNT WARP!!!

so does the stainless sparge arm work better then the plasic one? ive heard about the plastics only working with fast flows wich seems counter productive to me...i want a nice S-L-O-W flow for sparge...i do fly sparge now, with a ladle and patience i get about 70 percent E. with my set up...

im not too keen on batch sparge. i feel there HAS to be a reason slow, spray type sparges are the norm...
 
Bjorn Borg said:
so does the stainless sparge arm work better then the plasic one? ive heard about the plastics only working with fast flows wich seems counter productive to me...i want a nice S-L-O-W flow for sparge...i do fly sparge now, with a ladle and patience i get about 70 percent E. with my set up...

Is the listermann whirlygig the one you consider plastic?

I have that one and the only parts that touch the sparge water are copper. The T that fits over the lauter-tun is CPVC, but it never touches the mash or the sparge water. It is a great value. Works awesome.

You
 
Bjorn Borg said:
so does the stainless sparge arm work better then the plasic one? ive heard about the plastics only working with fast flows wich seems counter productive to me...i want a nice S-L-O-W flow for sparge...i do fly sparge now, with a ladle and patience i get about 70 percent E. with my set up...

Is the listermann whirlygig the one you consider plastic?

I have that one and the only parts that touch the sparge water are copper. The T that fits over the lauter-tun is CPVC, but it never touches the mash or the sparge water. It is a great value. Works awesome.

You hve
 
Bjorn Borg said:
so does the stainless sparge arm work better then the plasic one? ive heard about the plastics only working with fast flows wich seems counter productive to me...i want a nice S-L-O-W flow for sparge...i do fly sparge now, with a ladle and patience i get about 70 percent E. with my set up...

Is the listermann whirlygig the one you consider plastic?

I have that one and the only parts that touch the sparge water are copper. The T that fits over the lauter-tun is CPVC, but it never touches the mash or the sparge water. It is a great value. Works awesome.
 
Bjorn Borg said:
160 is approaching 2 hundy..AND its 2 for the 10 g. not the 5 g...i dont mind spending the 200...IF IT DOESNT WARP!!!

so does the stainless sparge arm work better then the plasic one? ive heard about the plastics only working with fast flows wich seems counter productive to me...i want a nice S-L-O-W flow for sparge...i do fly sparge now, with a ladle and patience i get about 70 percent E. with my set up...

im not too keen on batch sparge. i feel there HAS to be a reason slow, spray type sparges are the norm...

Two 10s would be good. At the time I wass thinking of this stuff I thought I would have to go Partial cause I dont have one large pot. Now that thats cleared away I thiiink I'd get the ice cube to use as the Mash/Turn. There is one thing I forgot to say about the Rubbermaid. The top screws on. They dont push on like the igloo. Was not terrible, but was a pain at times.
 
Dude said:
Is the listermann whirlygig the one you consider plastic?

I have that one and the only parts that touch the sparge water are copper. The T that fits over the lauter-tun is CPVC, but it never touches the mash or the sparge water. It is a great value. Works awesome.

yeah i dont know which ones actually have a bad rep. i was just guessing the plastic one, cuz thats what a friend of mine had.

is the listerman the 'phils sparge arm'? is that a good one?

i guess im just wondering which one NOT to get...i figured stainless would be better...or copper.
 
Hey dude, how are you connecting the short three or so inches inside the cooler from the false bottom to the coupling going out? The vynle tubing I used did not work on a long shot... then again I could have use SS clamps and tighten them down that way.....
 
GOD said:
Hey dude, how are you connecting the short three or so inches inside the cooler from the false bottom to the coupling going out? The vynle tubing I used did not work on a long shot...
Use 3/8" ID hi-temp vinyl tubing...I've used it for three mashes now without a problem.
 
SwAMi75 said:
Was yours the same as the ones in my link above? I started using mine a little before you did yours, and they're fine. My strike water generally goes into the HLT at about 190F.
No, it was a blue rectangular Rubbermaid.
 
Bjorn Borg said:
yeah i dont know which ones actually have a bad rep. i was just guessing the plastic one, cuz thats what a friend of mine had.

is the listerman the 'phils sparge arm'? is that a good one?

i guess im just wondering which one NOT to get...i figured stainless would be better...or copper.


Ok... lets use pictures here....


This is called Stainless Sparge Arm at Northern




And this is Phil's Sparge Arm also at Northern


So, which one are we talking is better here?
 
I think they are talking about the Phills (listermen) sparge arm. I have that one and when the HLT is full there is no problem spinning it at even low rates. But I did have an issue of it not wanting to spin when the sparge water was getting low as there seems to be less water pressure going to it. I would just give it a flip now and again to get it going. This MAY be remidied by having the HLT at a higher level so the water drops farther to give it more pressure. I am going to experiment more with my next batch.

BTW, the phills arm looks like its brass to me. The stainless arm pictured above was quite a bit more $$ if i recall correctly.
 
Oh and by the way of humorous things that happened my first mash... if your spoon looks like this one used to, you probably want to get a stronger one. Mine, as you see, snaped in two.

2560-100_0480.jpg
 
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