fire bricks to replace water pan in vertical pellet smoker

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BigDave11

Fire Starter
Original poster
Mar 7, 2023
36
50
North Texas
I was thinking about trying to replace the water pan rack with a rack of fire bricks. I figured the primary purpose of the water pan was to distribute heat so why not wrap some fire bricks in foil and use those instead? Its such a large surface area, shallow water pan I have to refill every hour and a half, 2 hours. I dont want it to run dry and risk any flames from drippings. I thought using the same surface area of fire bricks would give roughly the same heat distributing effect and not require me to fill a water pan every 2 hours. I would most likely use a smaller but deeper and thicker dish as a water pan if I want any moisture added. I'm using a pit boss 5 series vertical smoker. Has anyone tried anything like these on these pit bosses?
 
In general when folks don’t want to use the water pan they just fill it with sand. I just found a nice fitting foil pan and use it as a drippings catch. I replace after a couple three cooks.
 
Keep some tupe of pan there, grease will over flow quickly, it’s amazing the amount of fat that comes out of meat.
 
Fire bricks block heat UNTIL they heat up, then they radiate heat, which is the opposite of what a water pan is for.
Plus, water in the cook chamber helps keep meat moist as it cooks.
 
I do run a dry, aluminum pan on my OJ's Rider DLX when low and slow smoking set at 225F. I use to use water but felt that was just too much humidity in the smoker. I put the pan right over the area of the cooking grate that is above the fire pot. The OJ pellet grill the fire pot is in the center.
May not work for you. Where does the fat go if you use no pan?
 
I do run a dry, aluminum pan on my OJ's Rider DLX when low and slow smoking set at 225F. I use to use water but felt that was just too much humidity in the smoker. I put the pan right over the area of the cooking grate that is above the fire pot. The OJ pellet grill the fire pot is in the center.
May not work for you. Where does the fat go if you use no pan?
with no pan fat would fall to the floor of the cooker. fire pot is right in the middle, it is covered though but grease would still flow in if theres enough volume of fat. i would never run it without the water pan there, whether its full or not. i figured the primary purpose of the water pan was heat distribution and the added moisture was just a bonus. i tend to smoke closer to 275, 300
 
I was thinking about trying to replace the water pan rack with a rack of fire bricks. I figured the primary purpose of the water pan was to distribute heat so why not wrap some fire bricks in foil and use those instead? Its such a large surface area, shallow water pan I have to refill every hour and a half, 2 hours. I dont want it to run dry and risk any flames from drippings. I thought using the same surface area of fire bricks would give roughly the same heat distributing effect and not require me to fill a water pan every 2 hours. I would most likely use a smaller but deeper and thicker dish as a water pan if I want any moisture added. I'm using a pit boss 5 series vertical smoker. Has anyone tried anything like these on these pit bosses?
mine is a pit boss. I still use the shallow pan which dries pretty fast. I found that 2 13x9 aluminum pans fit well enough to allow heat an what smoke here is to get by. never have
to worry about g IMG_5564.JPG

grease droppings.
 
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