Water = better results over clay pots

I conducted a little experiment over the past 2 months. I cooked ribs, pork butts and briskets two times each. One time I used water in the pan and one time I used a clay pot. This experiment had a total of six cooks. My wife, my friends and I judged the results.

Almost every time, we felt that the water cooks produced better results (most said the meats were more tender). I believe that the water cooks came better not because that there was more moisture (I don't think that has anything to do with it) but because there was less radiant heat coming from the water. I truly believe that the lid temp when cooking with water offers a more exact temperature. The clay pots seemed to up the temp inside the cooker, especially on the bottom grate, producing a "false" lid temp.

Advantages for using water: Much more stable temps, better cooks on both grates, much better heat sink.
Disadvantage: messy water pan to clean up.

Advantage for using clay pot: less of a messy water pan to clean.
Disadvantage: inconsistent temps inside the cooker, much more radiant heat, tough to cook on the bottom grate, not as effective as a heat sink.

I will be using water in my pan from now on. The little bit of quicker clean up is not worth trading for better results. I hope this little experiment proved to be worthwhile in the water pan, clay pot debate. I have to say, this has been a delicious two months!

thats why i use water for long low/slow cooks every single time. I feel if I can keep my temp. super stable the whole time because maybe (hopefully surely) later I can duplicate a cook temp wise and stability wise, and analize what else could be goin on. this may or may not be true but it's true for me so far, ex: I believe briskits with much higher marbling and fat content then normal produce moister, more tender meat then a well marbled briskit, or under marbled one.... or whatever. forever now i've cooked at 235-240 stable with water (except when i had a guru) and finnaly concluded the above. I had exellent, and I had good, and I had dry but somewhat tender, and even about 2 dissasters... the last two described were almost completely red briskits with shallow fat caps and thin flats.
Now there will always be someone more skilled then me that would say that they make perfect, low fat content briskits, and thats fine, I have no proof my idea is correct and true, but I DO know that im winnin these days with briskits without fail, and I buy em thick flat, and as white as I can find, no trim. weather we like the fact that water consumes more fuel or not, i've never found anything more stable including my guru, but that can't count cause im positive there was something wrong with that darn thing . have fun!

Good point about the briskets. I always look for briskets with a nice layer of white fat on it. I trim very little off. They have always been very moist and tasty.