Never again using my water pan


 
D

Dave Russell

TVWBB Honor Circle
...that came with my '09 18.5" wsm, that is.

Now the water pan obviously isn't the way to go if you want to do a long cook. There's no room for wood chunks when the pan is sitting on top of the charcoal! That's why I've been using a Brinkman charcoal pan for a while.

So why then would I go get the weber pan out of the shed to use in smoking some chicken thighs? I have no idea. Well, I boiled the pan a good bit since the gauge was almost down to 200 when I got back from an errand. Lump always burns hot in a wsm, huh? Vents were 100%. Anyhow, I got it up to 275 with the help of my extra top vent and the thighs were done on time.

So what's the issue? The smoke flavor just wasn't quite right from boiling the pan so much. It was 100% clean burning Royal Oak lump this cook, with a couple of medium small hickory chunks. I believe Famous Dave is right when he says you don't want the water pan too close to the fire in a smoker. Weber solved one problem to only create two others. The pan is going back in the shed.
 
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While I don't have that issue on my 08 WSM with the shallow pan, I always looked at the bowl on my SJP and wondered why Weber came up with that.
Good post, and I guess if you never want to use it on the WSM you could always use it for oil changes.:)

TRim
 
Tim, with the shape of the newer water bowl, that's just asking for a pool of oil in your driveway. There's nothing good about it other than it holds more water!
 
It's too bad that it's such a deep shape.

On a related note...

When I was at the Sam's Club BBQ Contest in Sacramento a few weekends ago, I watched Harry Soo use the heat shield, wrapped in aluminum foil, as a shallow drip pan instead of the stock water pan. Provided lots of head room over the charcoal chamber. And since we've run WSMs for years without a heat shield, why not? Interesting approach, I thought, for waterless cooking.
 
Chris Allingham said:
It's too bad that it's such a deep shape.

On a related note...

When I was at the Sam's Club BBQ Contest in Sacramento a few weekends ago, I watched Harry Soo use the heat shield, wrapped in aluminum foil, as a shallow drip pan instead of the stock water pan. Provided lots of head room over the charcoal chamber. And since we've run WSMs for years without a heat shield, why not? Interesting approach, I thought, for waterless cooking.
Click to expand...

Chris, no concerns about smoke from the drippings? Or maybe no issues at the temp that Harry cooks at? I thought that was why we left an air space between the foil and the bottom of the pan.
 
Dave Russell said:
Tim, with the shape of the newer water bowl, that's just asking for a pool of oil in your driveway. There's nothing good about it other than it holds more water!
Click to expand...

Yea, I forgot that it would roll around like a Slinky.
Never mind;)

Tim
 
Just an addition to this post regarding pan or no-pan.

The pan placement, IMO, does indeed do some good. It provides a method to create convective turbulence inside the WSM, rather than direct convection heat without it. Turbulence is a good thing as the heat is more even throughout the WSM chamber under turbulent conditions.

I'm a pan man. It works for me.

GIT
 
Greeting Greg.
I'll jump in and help revive this thread from 2014. I go both ways (and don't take that the wrong way). For butts and ribs Cooked low and slow, I use the water pan. For chickens and turkey cooked at higher temps I use an 18" pizza pan in its place.
 
Colin said:
Greeting Greg.
I'll jump in and help revive this thread from 2014. I go both ways (and don't take that the wrong way). For butts and ribs Cooked low and slow, I use the water pan. For chickens and turkey cooked at higher temps I use an 18" pizza pan in its place.
Click to expand...
That pizza pan will also provide good internal turbulence.

G
 
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