Installing a ball valve on a Coleman cooler

Step 7 The ball valve assembly cont'd

Tighten the pipe coupling onto the threads of the pipe nipple and snug with a wrench. This should make the cooler water-tight again.

Now put the hose barb on the other side of the ball valve and that's it.

Comments

[3frog]

Hey
Great idea, even if you use it to drain your cooler while camping!  I would recommend using braided hose. This is a much stronger hose that will not kink, bend or get damaged if anything is put on top of it by accident.  It is a little more expensive, however for 2 to 3 feet the difference might be a couple bucks!

[iPodGuy]

I actually work part-time at a campground and people throw away tons of coolers because the plug breaks off.  The blue cooler in this instructable is one that was rescued from the trash because of a broken plug.  Score!

[onlinenow]

Do you mind if I ask what part of the country you are in?

[iPodGuy]

Ocean County, NJ

[3frog]

You lucky guy!

[morgano]

Are you planning to use the internal coupling to hook up a hose braid, and then batch sparge with this setup?  Or would a manifold thread into the coupling?  Just curious.  You might want to either expand this instructible or link to another one to show how to complete the mash tun.  Nice job!

[iPodGuy]

This instructable was actually meant to go along with three others I have in the works (the mash tun being one of them).  I am making 3 cooler-based pieces of equipment but each of them has the same valve assembly.  Rather than repeating myself 3 times, I plan to link back to this i'ble for the valve assembly process.  If you look at the wort chiller i'ble I published, it links back to this for one step and then proceeds with the rest of the instructions.

For the mash tun, the internal coupling attaches to a CPVC fitting and that is what I use to lauter with. The filter is all CPVC. I am also working on an arm that could be incorporated into the lid for fly sparging, but the MLT could certainly be used for batch sparging.  I actually plan on trying both to see what my efficiencies will be.

[The Lightning Stalker]

They make special nuts that will thread onto the pipe thread.  You can use that instead of the coupling.  You could also drill the hole out bigger and use what is called a 'tank adapter' or 'tank fitting'.  You could even use an old water heater instead of a cooler since they are insulated.