I have a Rubbermaid/Home Depot 10gal cooler I converted to a mash tun. I have been using it for approximately 10-12 batches so far and today I had a stuck sparge. This was my first one and I cleared it with no problems. However when I emptied the spent grain it had a huge domed bulge in the bottom which filled the area of my false bottom. I believe it has separated from the foam core because you can push on it and it keeps coming back up a little bit.
Is there a possible fix for it or should I purchase an Igloo brand? Has anyone had issues like this with either brand? I am afraid it will get worse if I continue to use it or starting leaking.
You may just have a bad cooler. I’d keep using it but start looking for a backup. I have a round yellow igloo cooler for which a friend paid $1. I put boiling water in it with no problems. Over 60 batches with a bazooka screen and no stuck sparges.
seems like every time there’s an issue with cracking or warping its rubbermaid coolers. i bought two orange igloo round coolers when i first got started. realized i didn’t need two as i just used my second pot for sparge water. not one issue of warping or cracking in my igloo, and i will use 185F sparge water.
if you don’t want to get another at this point, you could drill a small hole in bottom, squirt in some adhesive and then put something heavy in bottom over night until adhesive dries. then fill the drill hole with epoxy or other plastic filler.
short of that, you may want to get that new cooler.
Fortunately I have not experienced problems with either of my round coolers but I assume they have a limited life because we are using them under conditions they were not designed to suffer. I suspect the issue with the foam bulging in the bottom was caused by a dramatic change in temperature when you mashed in but it could have just been from prolonged exposure to heat.
I had the same trouble with my first MT. It too was Rubbermaid brand. Not sure if it is coincidence or if it is brand specific. I now have 2 rectangle coolers I use. One is Coleman Extreme and One is Igloo MaxCold. I like the Igloo the best and have not had any issues with either. I would look at getting new, easy fix without being a major cost.
From what I can ascertain, Rubbermaid has cheapened the build quality of their beverage coolers over the years in order to meet big box store price points. The old Rubbermaid/Gott beverage coolers were much more bulletproof.
Indeed… Mine has a bulge on the side, fortunately didn’t occur at the bottom. There’s another thread out there somewhere talking about these. My next one will likely be rectangular.
170F strike water. I will just replace it and put this one back to it original configuration and either use it for cold products or donate it to the school if they want it.
Is there a difference between igloo coolers? Is the yellow and red industrial cooler the same one you can get at Lowes which is blue and has their logo on it?
The industrial Igloo coolers are built to the same level of quality that all beverage coolers were built before the big box stores drove the smaller outlets out of business. I put 181F hot liquor in my industrial yellow Igloo beverage cooler-based hot liquor back every time I brew.
I mentioned recently in a post that I hear a cracking sound in mine after spraying out with cool water after using. I’m sure over time a crack will show up.
I had this problem several years ago. It took me a long time to figure out what it was. In my case the bulge only clogged the false bottom while it was hot, but worked fine at cool temps. Anyway the way I fixed it was to pull the white inner lining away from the outer orange layer and shove my mash paddle down inbetween. The air in the bottom burped out. The white lining is more flexible while it is at mash temps. And the weight of the mash pushed out the air. It’s still a risk, it might crack. After doing this many times, my cooler bottom warped back and I don’t have that problem anymore (knock on wood.)
We started out with a 5 gallon Igloo Maxcold mash tun due to our extremely cold garage in the winter. Since then we’ve moved into the basement on a completely different system… but our original Igloo was used for a lot of batches (2 years worth of brewing at least every other weekend). We have a very small bulge about dead middle on the wall inside. Still completely usable. Plastic material has to expand when heated and it is a lot easier for it to go inwards than outwards towards the supporting insulation. Makes sense the larger 10 gallon units would suffer a bit more in this regard.
