A new variation on the "Sand in the water pan" bit?


 
C

ChadVKealey

TVWBB Pro
As I was scooping out our cats' litter pans and remembering back to cleaning up from Friday night's brisket cook, I had a crazy thought. Sand is often used to soak up oil spills (in garages or driveways, not in large bodies of water), so it seems like it could serve the same purpose in my WSM's water pan.

So, I'm thinking that I could foil the pan inside & out and then fill it about 1/2 way with sand. Conventional wisdom would be to then apply another couple layers of foil to the top, leaving a bit of a depression to collect drippings & grease. If I don't care about recovering the drippings, I could leave those top layers off and just let the gunk drip into the sand. After the cook, I'd just dispose of the sand; it's cheap enough and easy to dispose of in the regular trash bin. Actually, it might even be possible to just scoop out the hardened clumps and reuse the sand that isn't "soiled".

There are two potential downsides:
1) Sand possibly getting onto food on the lower grate. If the pan's only half-filled, this possibility is minimized. Plus, I can't imagine that drippings would hit the sand with enough force to kick it up to the level of the lower grate.

2) Heating pure sand shouldn't produce any weird or harmful fumes, but the "play sand" that's readily available isn't pure sand. There's some other bits in there that, when heated, could release some stuff you wouldn't want getting onto your food.

So, what are your thoughts on this? It seems like it would solve two problems (providing a 'heat sink' and easing disposal of greasy/fatty drippings) at a minimal cost (a $5 bag of sand would last at least a dozen or more cooks).
 
Chad;
This will NOT directly answer your question. However, I use nothing but a foiled pan and have no problems maintaining temps both low and slow and high temps. It completely eliminates the use of ANY other material.

FWIW
Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
 
Robert McGee said:
Chad;
This will NOT directly answer your question. However, I use nothing but a foiled pan and have no problems maintaining temps both low and slow and high temps. It completely eliminates the use of ANY other material.

FWIW
Keep on smokin',
Dale53:wsm:
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I've done that as well, but I still ended up with a good deal of ugly, greasy drippings to get rid of. I guess, to me, that's the bigger draw of this idea. I usually dump the drippings into the same galvanized bucket I dump ashes into, so the soot and ash soaks it up. This system works, but if I could put something into the water pan to absorb the drippings immediately, that would just simplify things.
 
You should always foil over and under the sand, if you allow the drippings to just drip into the sand it'll turn into a hard clump that has been known to be a real problem getting out I've also read where play sand is best to use because it's washed and cleaner than other sand because after all, little ones will be playing in it. The idea of only a half pan of sand sounds good, a full pan takes awhile to absorb heat and trust me, it'll take on quite a bit then it releases that heat which can cause a big spike so you may find yourself on a roller coaster of heating and cooling the sand in an effort to stabilize the temps. The saying here is try different things and use what's best for you, myself, I tried sand, didn't much care for it, water would be my second choice, I use a baffle in my pan which just converts my water bowl into a large diffuser.
 
Hi Chad. I use sand instead of water(old restaurant habit under the charcoal grill). I washed the play sand and on top of the sand I use an round foil sandwich tray (sandwich party platter). You can use it a couple of times then throw it away and keep the sand clean.
 
What Don said:

You should always foil over and under the sand
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Therefore sand will never get in your food - I learned this lesson the hard way. Also while sand is a good, reliable heat sink, it can be relatively heavy and add more weight to your smoker than water. And if your fire gets out of control - i.e. too many coals light - sand doesn't have the 212 degree boiling point of water, and the more heat it gets (and absorbs), the more it gives off. Just a couple of things to think about.
 
We use a product at work called "speedi dri " to soak up oil spills. it is pelletized clay ,( which is what most cat litter is ) I have used it in my empty water pan where it functions as a heat sink and soaks up drippings reasonably well. You can buy it fairly cheap at auto supply stores I think. It has no perfumes like some cat litters. You can also use it right after you cook to soak up most liquid or grease
Having said that , I have given up using it just because it ain't worth the trouble for the benefit you get. (Same story for sand). I always go empty water pan no heat sink no water just control the heat with the vents.I might throw round foil pan in the bottom of the pan to catch big drips but lots of times I just use it naked and scrape it out after. I've kind of relaxed about how clean the water pan is just because it doesn't seem to have much effect on the food anyway.
 
personally I don't find it that horrible to fill the water pan with. . . . . . . . . . WATER! but I seem to be in the minority here.
 
Matt H. said:
personally I don't find it that horrible to fill the water pan with. . . . . . . . . . WATER! but I seem to be in the minority here.
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even with the drought here, I also will continue to use water. There are probably more water people than we realize.
 
Yea I'll tack on to the fellas above me. I almost always use water. The only times I do not is if I am doing chicken and want the cooker at 300+. Never messed with a clay saucer or anything like that. There are a lot of ways to get to the same result of good BBQ!
 
I also always use water. That's what weber designed the pan for. I know several people who have pellet smokers who purposely add a water tray. It's also one of the main reasons I bought the weber smokey mountain.
 
For all you water users, for me the issue is disposing of the water. When you have a simple answer for that please post. I use a clay saucer but this would be the same for sand if foiled over. I just let the grease cool wad up the foil and throw away in the trash. Simple and easy. Dealing with water is a pain and I don't like making more work for myself but to each his/her own.
 
Jerry N. said:
For all you water users, for me the issue is disposing of the water. When you have a simple answer for that please post. I use a clay saucer but this would be the same for sand if foiled over. I just let the grease cool wad up the foil and throw away in the trash. Simple and easy. Dealing with water is a pain and I don't like making more work for myself but to each his/her own.
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I foil the pan. As for the used water I either get a trash bag dump the water and then dump the spent coals over that or just dump the water in a bush if I get lazy. you can put a drip pan on the bottom grate if you really can't handle the stuff that drips into the water.
 
Jerry N. said:
For all you water users, for me the issue is disposing of the water. When you have a simple answer for that please post. I use a clay saucer but this would be the same for sand if foiled over. I just let the grease cool wad up the foil and throw away in the trash. Simple and easy. Dealing with water is a pain and I don't like making more work for myself but to each his/her own.
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I take the water and ash from the coals and dump them in a trash bag. Although I do have to admit I am pretty lazy a lot of the time and do the same as Matt and pour the water in the bushes.
 
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