Heat Diffuser/Drip Pan


 
B

BJSteere

TVWBB Member
So I built my MWSM and I have to say it looks absolutely fantastic. I cooked Bacon in it to season the pot, but what I noticed is the drippings went and dripped all over my heat diffuser. Now normally I would not mind this as you pull it out and throw away the tin foil I had however, removing the heat diffuser was such a pain in the arse. Not only that I almost spilled the grease/drippings all over the place. So my question is..

Would you guys recommend anything to fix this issue? I thought of instead of a 12in terracotta pan I would use a 8in round. That way I could just drop it from the bottom, but then I would have to find a way to unscrew it without it being a pain. I thought about using a second rack for a waterpan/drippan and only having one rack. That way if I pulled it from the top my therm would not have gotten in the way. Attached is pictures so you know what im talking about.



The needle for the therm gets in the way from bringing up the pot without spillage.
 
I put a grate that sits right on the indent of that pot and then I set my defuser (foiled) directly on that grate. Granted your thermometer goes in further than mine, but tilting the pot while pulling out the defuser should solve the problem for you

Edit: The grate where my defuser sits

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My setup is almost identical to @ChuckO's, since I too have the first grate resting on the indent at the bottom of the pot.

I started, like you @BJSteere, with a 12" terra cotta saucer, which I foil wrapped. I didn't find the drippings to be a problem if I let the saucer cool before removing, as they mostly solidified, and didn't fall off.

I did find that the thermal mass of the 12" terra cotta saucer worked incredibly well to dampen temperature fluctuations in the mini, but this was at the expense of fuel. I found that I had to add fuel if I wanted a smoke longer than around 5 hours, and I'd read that some users here were able to get 12 hour smokes with their mini.

I tried a 10" terra cotta saucer, and found this to be an improvement in terms of efficiency, with not much of a sacrifice to temperature control. I also tried a 10" metal pie dish, and found this to be much more efficient, but difficult to control the cooking temperature.

Some people have used the steamer plate as a diffuser, and others have removed it altogether. I think how you've worked the bottom of your steamer pot will have some influence on the effectiveness of that approach; mine is cut out and removed, but other have drilled holes in theirs.

I'm perhaps not as skilled as some of the cooks on this forum, and that might account for my struggling to control temperatures. I'm going to probably go with the 10" terra cotta for now, but I just wanted to give you some more info on the choices available to you.
 
I like the idea of the brass flare fitting, I must ask does your therm screw into the fitting then? Or is it placed inside just sitting there?
 
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