No water pan


 
P

PeterSims

TVWBB Member
Hi , so my 14.5 wsm is not new and shinny any more and I keep seeing people using direct grilling with no water pan. But normally on the 18 or larger . Is the 14 to close to the heat source any feed back would be appreciated
 
I would not know about that as I have only seen one 14 in HD. I stopped using them water pan ad I did not need it all my cooks come out nice and mosit without it and I get more even heat across the whole item I am cooking. Once my cooker warms up it will hold a temp within 25 to 40 degrees solid depending outside conditions. I just bought a handsucker fire dial but have not used it yet.
 
There’s a specific reason why 18 owners don’t like to use the stock water pan and go with an alternate diffuser.

The stock 18 pan is way deeper than it needs to be and overly compresses the fire compartment.

But most of us still use something most of the time — flower pot saucer, pizza pan, firedial etc. And there is a lot of variation among 18ers on whether and when they cook with or without water.

I think no diffuser is mostly done for high heat cooks — like Chris’ hot n fast chicken. Or uds pbc style hanging ribs.

I think the pans on the 14 and 22 are relatively flatter and so don’t not get in the way so much. But I think full pan, dry pan or no pan are all good options for different kinds of cooks in any size of wsm.
 
Well I went in the end for a dry pan wrapped in foil but changed it up for a fully lit chimney of lump wood and the vents fully open . Got close to Max on the temp gauge but come down quickly. But resulted in crispy skin on my chicken legs and a nice light smoke from the small peace of apple wood I added .
So in short think Im going to play more with lump wood for hot and fast smokes with the pan as there is no need to make a mess and stick to the kettle bbq for a more BBQ flavor
 
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