This is just a brief description of how I built a bulk-head fitting and a copper manifold for my 10 gallon and 5 gallon Rubbermaid (Gott) coolers. The bulk-head ball-valve assembly was made using Robert Arguello's Bulk Head Fitting for a Gott cooler. His site is no longer up so I can't direct you to the diagram I used which is why I made this page. Robert's page was very helpful to me when I first got into making my equipment for all-grain brewing and I hope that this page will be as helpful to others.

The cooler wall falls in between the garden hose washer (outside of cooler) and the white cooler washer (inside of cooler). I'm not real sure what the black rubber washers were for originally but at the time they looked like they would work and they didn't stink of rubber so I bought them. They have caused no problems with rubber odor at all. The amount of washers needed (rubber & SS) is determined by how many you need to get a tight fit. I used a total of three SS washers and four rubber washers.

The reason I am making the page now is that after 3+ years of use the bulk-head was loose on my 5g cooler so I decided to take it apart and check things out. I beleive it came loose because the spigot had been turned around a few too many times and loosened the connection. What I found after it had been taken apart was that it had not leaked at all. Nothing had gotten into the insulation of the cooler and all the pieces looked fine. I imagine after I get it back into the cooler I will have several more years of use with the same parts. It is a very good design that works perfectly.

This is another view of all the pieces. As you can see from this picture there is a 1.5" x 1/4" Stainless Steel nipple attached to the ball-valve. This is what actually passes thru the cooler wall.

The copper manifold is constructed of 1/2" copper piping. I placed the copper elbows and T's in the cooler and eye-balled how much tubing I needed between them. It worked out pretty well. The manifold is not soldered together so I can take it apart and clean it. The ends of the tubes are bent slightly out of shape before pushing them into the elbows and T's so that there is a nice tight fit.

The slits were cut with a hacksaw about half-way thru the tubing and are 1/2" apart.