Mash-tun upgrade advice

I "need" to replace/upgrade some of my mashing equipment which is about ten years old now. I am thinking about pulling the trigger on a nice new 10 gallon stainless pot with a ball valve and a built in thermometer. I am also thinking about a new five gallon mashing cooler with valve and false bottom.

my question is: should I just get the false bottom for the stainless pot and use it as a mash tun and my primary boiling pot or just stick with the cooler? What are the pros and cons to mashing in stainless steel versus a cooler? I assume there is greater heat loss onthe stainless, but i would have the option of applying direct heat to the stainless for step mashing.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

TIA,

Jeff

I guess it depends if you are going to change to batch sparging or not.

If not you'll need to adjust temperatures so the stainless steel would be best.
If you are then I'd stick with a cooler. Just put the water in, put the lid down and leave. Mine only losses around 1c over 90mins.

I'm not sure how batch sparging comes into play on this decision--for the record I do not batch sparge and assumed I could fly sparge in the stainless the same as I would in the cooler.

Does anyone here mash in their brew kettle? I am beginning to think the answer is no...

The big problem I see is having to put your hot wort in a separate container while you clean out the kettle and then transfer it back to the kettle. This would add time to the brew day and expose your wort to more hot side oxygenation.

I use my old 30 qt kettle as a mash tun, if I'm doing a stepped mash. Otherwise I use a cooler.