Coolerator Build

LiquidGold said:

This was the inspiration for this project.

I'm new to homebrewing so I was very excited.

I won this as a raffle project at the homebrewing club I joined. The club was going on a beer bus trip, so I started to think of ways to keep the keg cold. I had an idea but it would not be possible to complete until after the trip. I asked the guys at work to save me some old 5 gallon rubbermaid coolers to experiment with and they were finaly able to help me out.

I didn't want to cut up new ones in case this idea did not work.

I haven't tested it yet but here it is. The space between the keg and the sides are small, so I would recommend having the keg cold beforehand.

The front view

The side view

The backside

The cart is from Costco one of the folding ones rated to 150lb.

The cO2 tank is sitting on part of an old cutting board I made 28 years ago.

I have the word out to people I know in construction to save me a couple of 10 gallon Rubbermaid coolers to experiment with.

Thanks to all of the HBT people who post. I'm trying to soak up all of the knowledge here like a sponge.

Thanks to ollllllo for helping me test posting pictures. I hope this works.

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Loweface said:

Looks good to me. how did you cut the top one?

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camiller said:

Did you consider just turning the top cooler upside down, removing it's spigot and running the faucet out the spigot hole? That way you could have restored it later if you wanted.

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dantodd said:

I would have picked up a couple extra lids if possible and hooked them together as a coupler. Then cut the center out so you can invert the top cooler and just screw them together.

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LiquidGold said:

I used a jig saw and cut the cooler so the inside liner was cut at the top of the spigot hole.

The outer shell was cut above the spigot where the shell goes all the way around. (This was done carefully as not to cut the inner liner).

Then I used a screwdriver to clean out some of the foam so that the top would set down over the threads of the bottom cooler.

You can see the color difference on the outer shell.

Nothing likes to adhere to polyproplene. So with the threads of the bottom cooler and the ridges of the upper cooler I thought putting liquid nails in there and letting it harden it might work.

This is how I placed them together.

There are a couple pieces of wood underneath standing on edge so the disc would stay at the right level I wanted.

Then for extra measure I added some weight to the top and let it dry.

Once that was done I used a clear kitchen silicone caulking and buttered that around the seam.

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olllllo said:

I saw this last night and it works as advertised. Good Job!

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LiquidGold said:

This was the inspiration for this project.

I'm new to homebrewing so I was very excited.

I won this as a raffle project at the homebrewing club I joined. The club was going on a beer bus trip, so I started to think of ways to keep the keg cold. I had an idea but it would not be possible to complete until after the trip. I asked the guys at work to save me some old 5 gallon rubbermaid coolers to experiment with and they were finaly able to help me out.

I didn't want to cut up new ones in case this idea did not work.

I haven't tested it yet but here it is. The space between the keg and the sides are small, so I would recommend having the keg cold beforehand.

The front view

The side view

The backside

The cart is from Costco one of the folding ones rated to 150lb.

The cO2 tank is sitting on part of an old cutting board I made 28 years ago.

I have the word out to people I know in construction to save me a couple of 10 gallon Rubbermaid coolers to experiment with.

Thanks to all of the HBT people who post. I'm trying to soak up all of the knowledge here like a sponge.

Thanks to ollllllo for helping me test posting pictures. I hope this works.

Click to expand...

oswegan said:

Just two questions:

Where does the engine go and where do you sit?

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Loweface said:

Looks good to me. how did you cut the top one?

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