Deeper Water Pan

[DoctorTomF]

I have an older 18" WSM. 8 years or so now. I think I have noticed that the newer WSMs have a deeper water pan. Is there any reason I should upgrade to a new deep pan? I'm old school and have always used water in the water pan for several reasons, none of which I want to debate right now

I also have a couple Brinkman pans I use as well.

Just wondering if there's something I'm missing out on with the deeper pan. Forgive me if this has already been discussed. I did a search, but didn't find anything.

TIA

 

[RParker]

Best move I made when learning to use the WSM's was ditching putting water in the pan. Instead think of it as a heat deflector and foil it. The water cools it off way too much and is a nasty by product to deal with. I now have pizza type pans that fit just inside the water pan lip and foiling those makes clean up a snap.

On some high heat cooks I remove the pan, cook on the top grate for direct heat, especially when doing chicken. The WSM will run quite a bit hotter with no pan.

 

[Chris Allingham]

Just wondering if there's something I'm missing out on with the deeper pan.

No, you're not missing much. Your stock WSM pan and especially the larger Brinkmann pans work just fine. The problem with the deeper pan is that it hangs so low that it can touch the charcoal and smoke wood when you've really loaded up the charcoal chamber to overflowing for long overnight cooks. And it gets in the way of adding more charcoal and smoke wood through the access door if you're trying to do that mid-cook.

I think there's a place for the use of water in the WSM, as I've written about in the past. I've done plenty of non-water cooking with all cuts of meat and for long and short cooks. I especially go waterless for poultry and even panless for hot & fast chicken. But when cooking low & slow, I like using water and I think people overstate how hard the cleanup is. You let most of the water boil-off toward the end of the cook and pour the residual into a garbage bag containing the ashes from the cooker, which absorbs the liquid. Drop the bag in the trash, give the pan a quick wash in soapy water, and you're done.

 

[DoctorTomF]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm with Chris on the water. I've always used water. Cleanup is not pretty, but it certainly isn't difficult. I'm of the opinion that the water serves an important purpose. It does act as a heat sink. It will never get above 212*. Sand, flower pots, other stuff can get way hotter. I want my temps better regulated. So it isn't a problem to add water when I need to, or spray the pan out and hit it with some dish washing soap. Takes all of 10 minutes.

In my Weber kettle, I use something called a Slow 'n Sear. It holds the coals and has a water reservoir. No one that I know of fills that reservoir with sand.

I do agree that hot cooking doesn't need the water pan. That's why I got the hanger rack from Gateway. No water pan at all and I hang half chickens like in the Pit Barrel Cooker.

But, with that said, not trying to persuade anyone to change what they do. I will say that I believe there is a reason Weber calls it a "water pan"

Back to my original question... thanks, and I'm just glad I don't need to buy a new pan.

 

[Bill Elwell]

I always use water, except for chicken. I foil my pan and load the ashes into it to soak up the left over water. I fold the foil over (left and right) and again (top and bottom) making a neat small foil pillow. The whole thing slides right into the charcoal bag. Easy cleanup. I just dry out the pan with some paper towels.