My lid is empty...

I just bought a 60 Qt. Igloo Ice cube. I think it will make a great MLT. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the lid is hollow, and devoid of insulation. Has anyone ever filled a hollow cooler lid with expanding foam. Would it even make much of a difference.

I used a 40 qt Igloo for a long time. I'm not sure if the lid was insulated or not, but I suspect it is. I didn't have any problem maintaining temp over the course of the mash time.

If your lid really is hollow, I'm sure that drilling a hole and filling it with foaming insulation would be fine, and probably a good thing. I always just threw a couple of towels over mine.

I use my 60 quart igloo for a "lagerator"- and I realized the lid was hollow. I made a "new" styrofoam lid with three layers of cut foam. I just removed the other lid, in case I ever want to use it. Here's a picture, and there are more in my gallery:

A lot of people drill a hole in the top of the lid and iject some "Great Stuff" into it. "Great Stuff" is that expanding foam that comes in an aerosol. You should be able to pick it up from any type of building/hardware store.

I posted a thread a few days ago concerning the Igloo Ice Cubes. I'm going to use the 50qt myself, but there were a few posts about the "Great Stuff".

Which Cooler Should I get??

mklawz did this with his

There was just a thread on BA about someone filling their lid with an expanding foam but while mashing the foam liquified and dripped into the mash. So I guess you'd need to find a high heat foam and make sure you plug any holes on the underside of the cooler lid just in case.

Why would anyone drill the holes inside? I have considered putting some in mine but figured I would drill from the outside. Am I missing something?

Nurmey said:

Why would anyone drill the holes inside? I have considered putting some in mine but figured I would drill from the outside. Am I missing something?

Click to expand...

seriously.

No Nurmey, I think you have the right idea. Drill form the top, shoot a bunch of foam in. When it expands and comes out the holes, cut off the excess flush and you're done.

The cooler I'm looking at has a small plug on the underside that acts as some kind of pressure relief valve. This could be a place for something to drip through. I would just plug this hole first with some food grade silicone or caulk. In my case this plug is where I will run my vinyl tube through the lid for my sparge arm, so I'll run some kind of collar(that the tubing would fit snugly in) through the hole first before I spray in the foam.

Nurmey said:

Why would anyone drill the holes inside? I have considered putting some in mine but figured I would drill from the outside. Am I missing something?

Click to expand...

My lid has a plug and 4 little holes on the underside. I was just saying that if you spray any foam inside to just plug up any holes on the bottom in case something happened to the foam and it started dripping.

DrinksWellWithOthers said:

My lid has a plug and 4 little holes on the underside. I was just saying that if you spray any foam inside to just plug up any holes on the bottom in case something happened to the foam and it started dripping.

Click to expand...

Gotcha! My lid doesn't have any holes so I was trying to figure out why someone would put one inside. I thought it sounded like a silly thing to do.

I filled my cooler-tun lid with Great-Stuff. My lid just happened to have holes for shooting the foam in. Because coolers are usually build to keep things cool, their bottoms and sides are very well insulated. But using a cooler as a mash tun, tons (pardon the pun) of heat will pour "up" through the lid. So insulating the lid helps tremendously. Great-Stuff worked fine. I only put in about a 3/4 inch layer in my lid, and my mash temp doesn't move for 1-1/2 hours. It took a LONG time for great stuff to cure though. I suggest extra ventalation holes, plenty of time (2-3 days) and loads of humidity. I filled my MT/cooler with nice hot sparge temp water, and popped the lid on to the humidity would seep through and cure the foam. Before I did that though, even after 2 days the foam was very goopy in the core of the lid. I've seen great-stuff pull 16 penny nails out of walls, bend 2x4's, etc... so please give plenty of room for the stuff to expand.