The water pan quest is over finally NOW with PICs

I've been bugging ya'll about this thing for a while and I think I finally found what works for me, I'll know better on my next low temp cook. I know water is the perfect heat sink for low temps but I wanted to find something that would work about the same with less weight and won't slosh around. I tried sand, didn't like it,to hard to get temps stable at any temp for me and I had heard that the clay saucer would pretty much have the same results mainly because they absorb the heat then let you have a healty dose all at once it seems. The plain foiled pan is good for high temps but can be kinda touchy for lower temp cooking so I'm told and read that one person warped his pan that way. I had made mention of using a 1/8 thick steel plate in the pan which no one has tried before, so I brought home 2 round pieces of metal, one a little over 1/16 thick or lets say about the thickness of the water pan and the other 1/8 thick. The dimensions are 15.75 for the thin one and a little over 18 for the thick one. The thin one nested about 1.5" above the bottom of the pan and the thick one about the same distance above the thin one which still leaves room at the top to collect drippings. Everything is foiled with a dbl layer on the top for easy clean up. The weight was much lighter than sand or water, I ran the temps up to 270* and closed one vent and let it get to 310* then closed 2nd bottom vent and the temps held there for a little over 2.5hrs until the chicken was done. Time to see how easy it was to bring the temps down and closed the 3rd vent about 90% and the temps dropped to around 260* and stayed long enough to make me happy then shut it all down. So far I would say I am satisfied with the results. I think and 18" plow disk would have done the trick because the ones I saw on line where about 1/8" thick and I didn't have to pay for the disks I brought home. Thanks for letting me rant.

Rant all you want. It's always interesting to hear about another approach to the water/no water/foiled pan/clay saucer question.

I've been having the heat all @ once problem with a foiled clay saucer after . In an effort to prevent the excessive heat all at once problem with my clay saucer, I took 6 pieces of HD foil, crumpled them and then straightened them out in layers below the foiled clay saucer trying to create additional air space, but that hasn't seemed to make much difference in the temp creeping up on most cooks. Butts seem to take more like 4-5 hrs. for the inevitable temp creep, but the temp still rises after they seem to build in some heat.

However, I had a small roast & tri-tip on the top rack on Saturday, and got the temp stabilized @ 235° for about 45 minutes. Thinking it would be OK for a while, I went to Home Depot to get a key made, was gone for < 30 minutes, and by the time I got back, the temp was over 275° and climbing. This was after I fired up the WSM with 10 Stubbs briquettes Minion style in the center with about half a ring of Stubbs because I wasn't anticipating this cook taking more than 3-4 hours at the most.

Tt was a bit breezy when I started, with just slight gusts around 10 mph, which usually aren't enough to affect the temp very much, but the wind died down to almost nothing before I left, and my smoker was under the patio cover out of direct sunlight. The middle section is not more than 1/8" out of round, the lid fits snugly and the door has just a wispy leak on one side after a little tweaking, so I don't think I have a problem there. Two of the three bottom vents work perfectly and open & close with no problem, but the third vent is a little loose, which I have read here that a vent being a little loose should not be a problem either.

If I can come up with a metal disc like Don suggested maybe that would help and I will certainly give that a try. In the meantime, I just watch the temps like a hawk after the first 2-3 hours.

Here's some pics if anyone is interested. First off I made a mistake in the size of the disks,the thin/smaller one is 15 5/8"dia and 1/16th thick and the large/heavy disk is 17"dia 1/8th thick. The bowl depth is about 4 1/2 " deep, the distance from the top of the rim to the thin plate is 3 1/8" and from the rim to the thick plate is 2 1/16" approx.
Assembled pic


Thin plate


Comparison of the two


I still think a harrow/plow disk would work and you probably don't need both disks, I'm using them because I have them.