22.5 WSM Water Pan


 
M

MJDoog

New member
Good morning everyone.

I was the very proud owner of the 18" WSM for many years; this year I gave it away to a friend starting out and decided to buy the 22.5. This concern just really got to me over the weekend; I smoked 6 baby backs and 3 whole chickens. I have to be honest, I'm very disappointed with the "shallowness" of the water pan. When I bought my 18" many years ago, I had a very deep water pan and another friend had a shallow one. It was fabulous, I was able to smoke pork butts for 16-18 hrs and add water once with some coals before I went to bed for the night. This weekend, at 240 ish degrees, and after my stuff was completed, I left the water pan in place, and let the smoker run as if I was still cooking. I used very little charcoal and actually ran out of water before my charcoal burned out.

Feeling a tiny bit aggravated, I called Weber's customer service line yesterday and the lady that I spoke to wasn't a whole lot of help. All she told me was that was the proper pan for the 22.5 WSM. I did a general search on Google and found a replacement pan on Amazon; it may be a generic picture but this guy looks deep. Is there a deeper pan available? If not, what is a good technique to filling this thing up on long smokes? Do I need to break it all down each time?

Your input is greatly appreciated

Mike Dugan
 
Providing a sideways answer to your question, lots of people don't use water at all, just a foiled clay saucer (with great success I might add). Have you considered trying it that way instead of water?
 
As one that cooks both with and without water depending on what temp I want, on a 22.5 manufactured after '09 (the latest version?)....I'm wondering why you let your coals simply burn out and not shut the WSM up to smother the coals? Shutting the vents down, kills the coals to save for the next cook.

Longest I've run mine was about 17+ hours, with a full water pan. Towards the 15 hour mark I had to refill, as I was concerned I was about to "burn-in" my drippings, so I added about 1/2 gallon to get me through the last 2 hours. Maybe it's cause I never had your experience on an 18" (this 22" is my first smoker). But I didn't think a water pan that lasted 15 hours was too bad.
 
I have a 22 and dont use water any more. it was a pain in the butt to pour all that nasty fat water after each cook.
I went to lowes and purchased a 16" clay saucer then foiled the water pan along with the saucer.
Cleanup is much easier now. Only difference is you have to catch your temps a little earlier than you did with the water.

good luck.
 
I am going to Lowe's after work today to look for the clay saucer; I find this technique extremely interesting. Thank you guys so much!!

16" clay saucer, then what? Foil the pan for drippings, of course, then just foil the clay? how on earth does this work? where is the moisture coming from?

The flatter style saucer, yes? No water at all??
 
Foil the clay 2x, then put it inside and foil the whole pan 2x. Cleanup forever will be easy, just swap the outer layers of foil. No water at all.
 
The 16" clay saucer fits down into the 22" water pan doesnt matter if there is a lip or not. Its not snug. I foil the water pan from the bottom all the way up to the top inside and out.
I also foil the saucer. then I take another sheet or two of foil and use it to cover the water pan to catch any drippings. When the smoke is over cleanup is just taking the foil off the top and replacing it.
No water at all.
 
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