Finally got my 36qt Extreme plumbed (bulkhead, anyways)

Whew...after trolling the internet and the plumbing aisles of the big boxes for what seems like an eternity I got my 36qt Coleman Extreme bulkheaded. My breakthrough came when I finally discovered the rubber washer bin and mentally merged the 'brass section' with the 'copper section' of Lowe's. For $30 I was able to get all hardware/joints/pipes and should have plenty of copper pipe left over. I think it will work out pretty nicely, although the manifold will require a little bit of design work as the drain in this cooler is set in a narrow little 'sump channel' which means you can't just tee off of it, but I think I've got something worked out in my head (uh-oh) and in theory the channel should help eliminate some of the traditional coolertun deadspace. Anybody else using one of these and has come up with something?

My 5g round cooler has served me well, but it's just too limiting in terms of squeezing in bigger beers and it should make a very serviceable HLT for sparging into my new favorite cooler.

nice work! get us a pic when it's finished. we need to drool :~)

DeRoux's Broux said:

nice work! get us a pic when it's finished. we need to drool :~)

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Will do...I'm planning to get the manifold squared away tonight if my hacksaw holds out.

BTW, got your 'goods' ready...just need to sneak by the post office.

thanx! i'll be ready to kick some tunes.....

It's plumbed up now, slotted and soldered despite two of my neighbors deciding to come over for 45 minutes each yesterday. I might solder a few more joints if it proves problematic, but it's fairly easy to disassemble for cleaning and the joints that actually make it square are soldered. I think it will work pretty well, time will tell whether the sump channel is a boon or a bust. I think I've got enough copper pipe to go from ss braid to copper ring manifold in my old cooler. SWMBO thought my copper glitter on my black shirt was pretty spiffy.

I'll try to get some photos this weekend. I'm sitting at work now waiting for a 9:00 soccer game, and my boss gave me tickets for the NC State basketball game tomorrow night.