OK Joe Highland or WSM 18.5 or GM Daniel Boone

[lancep]

Not having a guru I did use the water pan. I never had to refill it before 12 hrs or so and sometimes not even that. With chicken I ran dry to get a hotter temp and for grilling I just took it out.

 

[worm304]

 
For a new WSM owner, I would use the water pan with water to help moderate temps until you get the hand of the way to adjust the WSM.  Then you can run it with a dry water pan, or fill it with sand covered with foil or sit a clay flower pot base in the dry water pan (all add mass to help stabilize the pit, but water will bring down an over temp as steam wants to flash back to water and when it does it pulls heat out of the air).

They also will run a little hot the first 2 or 3 smokes until you get that smoke layer built up on the inside.  They are super stable and will hold a temp pretty much as long as you have fuel, but just remember top vent is 100% open all the time (never touch it), and control temps with the bottom vents only. If you make a vent change, give the pit 15 minutes to respond and settle back down at the new air flow setting then evaluate if you need to make further adjustments.  It's easy to want to move a vent, wait 2 minutes, move it again, etc...  and you end up chasing a yo-yo temp if you do it that way.  Fire and heat take a few minutes to adjust to air flow changes.

But you are going to be real happy with it....

Oh, and one day after you have had it for a while you might want to look into adding a power draft like a BBQ Guru unit.  Basically you close all the lower vents except one, and block off all the holes in that vent except one and then mount a computer controlled fan on that one open vent hole.  The BBQ Guru then controls the airflow and the WSM will absolutely hold a set temp as long as there is fuel to burn.  It is literally a set and forget setup and is a dream on an long overnight smoke!

Thanks!  I don't have an issue running water, I read or watched somewhere that it needs refilled but I am happy to hear it's good to go for longer smokes and it even adds smoke flavor.  I already have my guru picked out but will have to wait a while until I can justify spending the money.  I will def be picking up the door gasket and extra grate for the charcoal pit right out of the gate.