Cube cooler MLT

Hey just thinking about picking up a new cooler for my MLT and was thinking about the iglo Cube cooler. It hold 50Qts and looks like it will work well.

Just wondering if you've seen/used em and have any words of warning about them?

Avoid the one with wheels. thats my 2¢.

I like mine a lot, I've been getting in the mid 80% efficiency and have not had a stuck sparge.

Ditto. I got the one with wheels and it is a bit of a PITA to get the sparge all the way out (batch sparge here) but all in all GREAT buy! loses 1 or less degrees over an hour if you preheat it.

Mine doesn't have the wheels and I've been quite happy with it. If I pre-heat it, there is almost no temperature drop during the mash.

I have the one with wheels, I think it's 60QT but it's been a long time since I bought it. Naturally, I had to do some fancier plumbing to get the pickup tube at the bottom, but it works quite well. In case the picture isn't clear, the spigot's at a 45 degree angle in the cooler, so it comes in, through a 90 degree elbow, and down to the bottom where the tee is.
Unfortunately, the wheels are relatively useless as the spigot gets in the way, but that could be rectified with some more plumbing as well.

I originally bought it to stick a carboy in for fermentation temp control. If I had known I'd be using it for a MLT, I would have gotten the non-wheeled version to make it easier to convert.

when you soldered those joints- What solder did you use?

MikeFlynn74 said:

when you soldered those joints- What solder did you use?

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typical lead-free plumbing solder and flux, soldered with a cheap propane torch, the same stuff you'd use for sweating copper pipes when plumbing a house.

In retrospect, soldering isn't that necessary. I wish I would have left the joint on the top side of the 90 degree elbow unsoldered instead of vice versa, it'd be easier to assemble and right now I can't really position the valve the way I want since it'd rotate the elbow and thus the whole pickup tube. But I'll be buying another elbow and threaded fitting and switching it out to fix that issue.

You could probably reheat and disassemble the joint, right? The extra solder left in there would make for a good friction fit......

the braided line is the outside part of a braided rubber hose or can you buy the braided sleve at homedepot?

ScubaSteve said:

You could probably reheat and disassemble the joint, right? The extra solder left in there would make for a good friction fit......

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I could get it apart, but I think I'd probably have to do quite a bit of sanding to get it to a good friction fit as the solder would bead up once the joint was disassembled - might be sort of tough to sand the female parts (no pun intended...) but not too bad with a dremel and sanding drum. But, I think I might actually go that way, it would save me having to order new parts from mcmaster (as I don't think I've seen the 1/2" solder to 1/2" NPT female adapters at home depot or similar, could be wrong though) - so thanks for the suggestion!

MikeFlynn74 said:

the braided line is the outside part of a braided rubber hose or can you buy the braided sleve at homedepot?

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Yes, it's the outside of a braided "floodsafe" hose from home depot. I bought a really long one, I think it was 10 feet, because it didn't cost that much more than buying a much shorter one. I upgraded my 5-gal MLT with a much longer braid as well, and I still have extra.

here's how I converted mine on the cheap

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=42027

I use a 48 qt with SS braid/batch sparge...lost half a degree over the course of an hour for my last brew (first with the new tun).

I think it's a steal for the Wally World price as compared to the 10 gallon round. After I clean the tun out, my carboy sits in the cooler filled with water and supplemented with frozen water bottles for "temp control" so it acts as a multitasker.

I'm still toying with mine, i used the copper water heater supply line to give it a nice stiffness (dirty) with a braided ss hose over the tip.... the only problem with this is you can't get every bit because of the shape.... i'm gonna eventually re-do it completely, i was thinking of a way to convert it so i don't have to worry about the curve (i hate the stupid wheels) and not have to have it 6-7 feet above what i'm draining to (grains + water = heavy lol). That and my spigot looks ghetto because i had to work with what the HD had at the time...

As for functionality, it's great about temperature, as long as you pre-heat it well you should hi your Mash Temps and maintain them with no temp loss...