Camp chef vertical - water pan

[Jonnybnyc]

Hello everyone - first time posting, looking forward to sharing with the group.

Just ordered the Camp chef XXL wifi vertical pellet smoker. Already planning my first few cooks, so excited! Looking at the pics online and user manual, doesn't appear this rig comes with a water pan. Anyone have any experience using this smoker? Are you inserting a water pan down at the bottom?

 

[bill1]

You'll get a range of responses on this one. Pellet machines move a lot of air with their blower fans. So unless you're boiling off a LOT of moisture from a water pan (adding about a pint per hour) you're really not adding that much humidity to the air that the meat sees.

My Masterbuilt vertical came with a small pull-out water tray (hard to NOT spill when pulling out) but it was mounted under the highest side of the slanted grease drip tray, far from the fire crucible, so was very inefficient..maybe a teaspoon of water consumption per hour. I'd suggest a 6x6 or 8x8 cake pan directly on top of the heat deflector--the largest that will fit--and pulled out to the front so you can add to it easily with just a quick door opening/closing. (Note the condensation thus formed on the underside of the grease tray may then roll down into your grease bucket. If that's excessive, you may have to put a strip of metal adhesive tape under the drip tray to catch the water drips and deflect them back into the water pan on the right/lower side of the drip tray.

I'm finding a big flavor/moisture improvement, esp with chicken, with generous humidity and it helps power through the "stall" with large cuts of pork as well. I don't claim to have an exhaustive amount of data on this but my anecdotal evidence is making me dig a water tray.

I should mention I also have variable 50-300 ohm resistance in series with my fan so I spend most of my cooks blowing quite a bit less air than Masterbuilt intended...another mod I like but is apparently rare with pellet grillers.

But stay tuned, you'll hear other opinions.

 

[Chasdev]

The stall happens when the meat's internal moisture content evaporates off and cools down the meat because it takes heat energy to change a state from liquid to vapor.
Adding water vapor to the cook chamber slows the evaporation rate of the moisture inside the meat as it cooks out.
Does this make the meat more tender once it drys enough to absorb more heat?
Some say yes, some say no.
I use a water pan to try to protect the meat when the design of the cooker or the temp of the fire wants to over cook or burn the meat.

 

[JWFokker]

Pellet burners could potentially benefit from added humidity. Stall behavior is definitely different with that much airflow. Meat tends to stall earlier (lower internal temp) but because evaporation is faster the stall is shorter. Bark formation is different as well and a lot of people spritz when cooking on a pellet burner. Kamados are at the opposite end of the spectrum, very low airflow and high humidity inside the cooker and the bark takes much longer to firm up.

 

[Jonnybnyc]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. The cooker is due to arrive in two weeks or so, I'll report back once I start using it. I'm also going to ask Camp Chef directly and see what they say.

 

[bill1]

"time in the stall" is a function of energy...the entering energy tending to heat up the meat versus the exiting energy from the meat moisture's evaporative phase change at the surface. "Fast draft", which pellet machines give you, is the difference between natural convective heat flow and forced convective Heat Flow...a significant energy difference. If you then replace air with steam, (which a vigorously evaporative water pan does for you) the specific heat of the heating/cooling medium itself is greatly enhanced.

 

[Winterrider]

Congrats on the new rig !

 

[Kevin Braker]

I have the same smoker, best choice I've could of made with what I wanted. I haven't seen the need for a water pan yet, I've done everything but fish and a whole/half turkey.