mash tun leak and insulation question

[wtfDean]

my mash tun (rubbermaid 10 gallon w/ weldless ball valve & bazooka screen) occasionally leaks from the bottom of where the weldless valve attaches to the cooler. i'm talking something like 5 drips per hour, so it's never caused me to have to halt production or anything. my mash tun maintains its temperature well too.

if there has been any wort leaking into the insulation of my cooler over the last year, would it be obvious? should i consider epoxying the place where the white inside sandwiches against the orange outside to close the gap that might allow liquid into my insulation? what does a cooler with liquid in its insulation mean for the quality that mash tun's performance?

i'm asking because i was considering upgrading to a false bottom rig, but if this one isn't in any danger of being damaged then i won't worry about that for a while

 

[day_trippr]

Haven't had that problem - yet - but I imagine if you tried to coat the insulation in the gap between liner and the outside with epoxy, once you reinstall the valve that epoxy would fracture (cured epoxy is pretty brittle). Maybe something more compliant would be a better choice. Or, solve the leak?

Cheers!

 

[wtfDean]

yeah, working on solving the leak. more interested in if there's possibly been any functional damage to my mash tun (i.e. bad insulation from being saturated by wort) that might not be visibile, or if that kind of damage would be obvious (i.e. a bad smell, liquid sloshing, losing lots of heat during mash).

 

[day_trippr]

I don't know exactly what kind of foam is used in these coolers, but if it isn't closed cell, I suspect the area below the ball valve will indeed become saturated with wort eventually. If that happens you can imagine the smell isn't going to be pleasant, and the insulative quality of the bottom of the tun will be compromised...

Cheers!

 

[ChuckO]

I had one leak a little and didn't have any problems from it. When the liner finally cracked I put a 44 qt. Bayou Classic pot inside the cooler as a replacement. When removing the old inner liner I did find some moisture and mold growth on the foam insulation, but it wasn't a big problem. Now I have an insulated SS mash tun that holds heat almost as well as the original and has silver soldered joints with no leaks.