Help with Heat Loss in my Cooler Tun

[72Chevelle]

I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out how to fix my loss of heat in my Mash Tun.

I brew 1 gallon batches because I am in an apartment and because I am using it to learn on a small scale.

My problem is I am having a lot of heat loss in my 2 Gallon Home Depot water cooler that I have converted to a Tun with fitting and braided stainless sleeve off of a supply line. Am I having such a heat loss because of it being such a small volume of water? I use SpargePal to figure out the temp to start with to hit a target of 153 I start with about 160 after preheating the tun with hot water. I hit the 153 almost right on but then when i check it in 30 minutes its down to 140 or lower. I cover the whole thing with a towel and wrap the sides as well.

As far as correcting the problem I have a hard time adding boiling water because its such a small volume I cannot add too much at a time. I am wanting to see if I can tap some of the water off the Tun and boil that and then add it back in to raise the temp. but I really want to see if there is a way to get it to maintain better.

Any Ideas????

 

[Pezman1]

Use your mash water to heat the tun instead of pre-heating. Heat your mash water to 185 degrees, add it to your tun, then shut the lid. Wait 5 minutes and check the temp. Repeat untill you have 160 then dough in.

At least that is how I was told to do it and it works great in my larger igloo MLT. Pez.

 

[Dandolf]

^^^ Sounds like good advice. Priming/preheating it (adding hot water and letting it sit for a while before putting the grains in) would help too. If you have an electric heating blanket, you could wrap it in that. Though you will need to be careful not to electrocute yourself :cross:; plug into an outlet with a GFCI.

 

[cadarnell]

Do you have a warm setting on your oven? ... if so will it fit in there? ... that's what I do but with my BK ... I don't think a cooler would be a problem though if the oven is just warm

 

[72Chevelle]

I like the idea of the heating blanket or a heating pad. I will be trying that this weekend I have a good recipe i just found that I will be trying Saturday.

 

[fixitoscar]

feel your cooler on the outside during your mash. if you feel warm/hot spots that is were you are loosing heat. Its usually through the lid. Drill a few holes and spray some expanding foam in there. Should help. electric blanket sounds good too.

 

[72Chevelle]

So I brewed today and it was def the lid. I overshot the temp by 10 degrees covered the top with foil then put the lid on and covered it with a heating pad and a blanket. Stayed at 150 for the full hour and checking my efficiency I was at 70 percent so I am very happy with that. Thanks so much for all the help.

 

[tagz]

On a side note, I had problems holding temps when I did partial mashes in a 2 gallon cooler. I even wrapped it with bubble insulation, towels, etc. That problem disappeared when I moved to 5 gallon all grain batches. I think the larger thermal mass helps hold temps better. I don't even loose a whole degree these days.