Disaster strikes!!

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goobi99

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Jun 18, 2007
157
10
South Fla
Well, kind of anyway....while cleaning my WSM I discovered a hole in the water pan, rendering it useless. In the past I used a brinkmann charcoal pan but they have since gone out of business....should I go online and pay the $30 for the one I found or is there another hack that I don't know about? I can't believe the price of those bowls is up to $30!!! Thanks for the help.

PS..it's the old weber with the shallow pan


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Don't really need to use water do ya?

I don't use a water pan in any of my smokers.
 
Last edited:
How about a Stainless mixing bowl? I use those in my Brinkman trailmaster verticals I have.Don't know how much space is in a wsm for one.
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Mike
 
I've never NOT used water in there....I thought the whole point was to provide even heat . Have I been misinformed the whole time?[emoji]129300[/emoji]


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Maybe I'll try just lining it and going dry.[emoji]128526[/emoji]


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The pan is there to act as a heat buffer and to even out any spikes from the coals. I have used both sand and water and to be honest I have not really noticed much difference in the end result between the two. For me I do find it works better than not having the pan there as it helps provide a more even and less variable heat.
 
The only time that I put anything in the water pan is when I am smoking in extremely unpleasant weather. Like below 30°f or if it's blowing 30+ mph. Then I will put sand in the pan and cover it with foil for easy clean up. In those crummy conditions the thermal mass helps. Water isn't a form of stable thermal mass. When you heat water the molecules can't hang on to each other and they fly apart forming a gad (steam) which causes evaporation. So you are loosing mass and you are creating a heating ans cooling cycle in the pit. By removing the water you are creating a more stable environment.

Like Wade said the pan by itself acts as a buffer or diffuser shielding the meat from direct heat. Quite often I remove the pan all together and don't use it all. I typically do this with poultry, pork loins and lean cuts of beef roasts. Things that normally benefit from a fast hot smoke, rather than a low and slow cook.
 
I'm a no water kinda guy too.....Mine's full of sand. It does exactly what it's supposed to do......that is to act as a heat sink to even out the temps and hold them stable. Water is a huge hassle as far as I'm concerned.......very messy.
 
Replaced the water pan with a clay saucer in my 18.5, gives me more room to load up the ring with charcoal on longer cooks and I use less fuel than using water in a pan, I usually cook at 275 to 350 and running it dry makes it easy to run at those temps.
 
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