Newbie questions

You are correct about what the water in the pan is supposed to do, it supposed to act as a thermal mass to help maintain temps but the problem with water as a thermal mass is that it will not get hotter than 212* and as it evaporates the size of the mass changes (gets smaller) so it can't do as good of job maintaining temps. I have a propane smoker also and when I used to use water in the pan I would see temp swings all over the place. I dumped the water and filled the pan with sand. Sand will get as hot as you can throw temp at it and it's mass will not change. Since I have converted to sand I have had much better more consistent temps. Once I get it up to temp and stabilized it will stay right on for hours. I use a disposable foil pan sitting on top of the sand to catch drippings, you can also put water in that if you want more moisture/humidity in the smoke chamber though I have become a firm believer of the dry smoke chamber.

The play sand works just fine and it's clean.

I don't have a gas smoker, but what a lot of folks don't know is that the natural by product of gas is moisture.  You don't need a water pan when using anything gas. 

I read t

Wes W said:

I don't have a gas smoker, but what a lot of folks don't know is that the natural by product of gas is moisture.  You don't need a water pan when using anything gas. 

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I read that in the book Smoking meat and smokehouse design. They said no need for water if using gas. To much moister can cause problems with the smoking process. It's a great read and suggest it to anyone.