Coleman vs Igloo picnic coolers for MLT

[Peruvian802]

I have a friend who is interested in converting a cooler to a MLT but he's very concerned about the plastic interiors at mashing temps (heck, he even tried BIAB with a cotton bag - total fail!).

He ended up calling Igloo customer service and they advised that their coolers are not 'food grade' and not suitable for hot liquids.

This lead me to call Coleman (the brand I use). Interestingly, they confirmed that their interiors are polypropylene, are food safe, and withstand temps over 220 deg. easily.

I've read here many times that all coolers are the same plastic, etc. I'm not trying to start a fight or prove anything, I'm just passing along what a few phone calls to Igloo and Coleman revealed.

 

[KeninMN]

Rubbermaid explicitly states that their round drink coolers are not suitable for uses as a mash tun. But that never stopped anybody. In fact, all of the round cooler-style mash tuns commercially available look suspiciously identical to Rubbermaid coolers.

 

[RmikeVT]

Huh. Interesting comment from Igloo. Both homebrew stores I go to locally sell the yellow and red igloo coolers pre-fabricated MLT. I've never experienced because I built my own from a Home Depot cooler which I think is Rubbermaid. Maybe Igloo was just covering their a**. Plenty of folks use those coolers without issue, although it makes me happy my mash tuns are rubbermaid (10g) and coleman (70qt).