Safety Issue: Adding water.


 
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Rob O

TVWBB Pro
Hello all,

I had an explosion while adding water to the cooker yesterday. I was thinking about what I did and was wondering if maybe I uncovered a safety issue.

Here's the question: Is adding very hot water to a nearly dry water pan a potential safety problem?

Here's what happened yesterday.

1. Woke up in the morning and saw my water pan was nearly dry.

2. Temperature of WSM was a little lower than I wanted so made a very minor vent adjustment.

3. Went inside the house and *boiled* 1.75 liters of water.

4. Poured water into magnum sized wine bottle.

5. Added water to WSM water pan through the fuel access door.

6. Mount St Helens (Long Island Branch) Explodes!


What I'm thinking is since the water pan was extremely hot and the water was near the boiling point the water to flashed to steam which in turn caused a rapid pressure build up in the top section of the cooker. Hence the explosion.

Does any of this make sense?
 
Rob,

Makes sense to me. You did have the top vent open right? Think of what would happen if you didn't...ouch.

I honestly don't worry about the temp of the water....I turn the tap on hot and take it only as hot as my hot water heater provides. I may see a drop in temp a few degrees but usually goes right back up cuz you really are sort of stoking the fire inadvertantly (letting more air in) when you open the side door to add water. My biggest problems seem to be keeping the temp down even during long cooks vice getting the temp up and keeping there.
 
It sure sounds like a safety issue. If the pan gets much about 250 - 275 degrees F you're going to convert liquid to steam on contact. The pan also has enough mass to hold an impressive amount of heat empty.

I'm in the process of trying to jury-rig an external water monitor and fill pipe. It's going to mean boring some holes in my WSM but worst case is I patch them.

I just can't put sand in a cooker ... it's a mental deficiency that I must have.
 
MattJ-

I live in Jax and it seems like I have trouble with high temps as well, I figured it may be because of the FL heat, do you cook in the shade? I moved the WSM under my deck umbrella and have much more luck. Also, I've dumped ice cubes into the water pan on occasion when the son of a gun would not drop below 240 on hot days this summer. Let me know if you have any tricks to beat the florida heat.
 
Chrisnole88,

Interesting ... I live in The Great Open-Air Oven Experiment (known to you as Phoenix, AZ) and I don't have any temp control issues. I use water and can idle the WSM between 225 to 235 without much problem even when the air temp is 105 - 110. I do find I only use one bottom vent most of the time but the temp is reliable.

Great tip on the ice if I ever need it, though!

Also, I do cook in the shade. In Arizona, everthing but swimming, golf, and sun tanning is done in the shade.
 
Rob, you might consider putting sand in the pan instead of water. Don't fall for the water adding noisture to the cook myth some might have you believe! There is a lot of old threads regarding this topic...I use sand and it works great!!
 
Jimbo. I have actually rigged up a way to pour the water in without opening it. Still working on a way to monitor it without opening it. Of course there are those who say...who cares, just get a brinkman pan and you don't have to deal with it. Also, as Greg said you can just add sand, which is perfectly valid too. Me..I just prefer to tinker with it...it's part of the appeal of this hobby. Here is a post I put up regarding this type of mod and what I did. Chet Johnson also had a good idea that he discussed in my post.

Chris Nole,

I actually do have mine under the overhang of my back patio....which then connects to the pool enclosure. My biggest thing is I play around with it too much and need to just let the WSM do it's magic. Gotta leave they side door shut
icon_smile.gif
. I am considering putting it outside of the patio/pool enclosure away from the house though. I got my Guru recently and I wanna be able to hooker up and cook while I'm gone and I don't want a fire going anywhere near anything that can catch on fire. In also going to switch to sand for those types of cooks..that way the pan doesn't dry out while I'm at work or sleeping. God knows we got enough sand here in FL.
 
Matt, interesting posts.

I'm with you ... this is a hobby. I have a stressful job herding cats (re: managing software engineers) and I look forward to this each weekend I get the chance to do the Q.

Let me see if I can put my thoughts into words ... I'd like something simple but efficient.
 
Jimbo,

The part I am having problems with is how to know if it is low on water and then how to know I have put enough in. Knowing you put too much in is easy...just listen to the water hit the hot coals, the ash coming out the top vent, and the temp on the temp probe go down LOL.

Seriously though, Chet had a interesting concept that he illustrated in they post I referred to.

For those who didn't go to the post I'm referring to here is what Chet said.


QUOTE:
I haven't actually done this, but it would seem that a simple siphon arrangement would permit you to check and fill the pan from outside the smoker. The only bit I'm still working on is how to prevent water in the tube from boiling and breaking the siphon.

It's ALL about building a better mouse trap!
 
Matt,

I read what Chet had, but it had the flaw that there wasn't a way to measure the water.

OK, picture this:

The water pan has a hole in the bottom. To this hole is threaded a metal pipe with a small vertical neck (to attach to the pan) and a horizonal piece that goes through a hole in the side of the WSM. The pipe is then extended (not sure whether this is one pipe total or one inside the smoker and one outside) outside the smoker and goes to a T (a vertical pipe) with a 90-degree ball valve that allows flow to be "up", "down", or "off'.

Off is easy ... it caps the line. There will still be water in the pipe, but that's pretty negligable.

Down allows you to drain the water from the pan (due to air pressure and gravity).

Up is the measuring/filling state. The air pressure will equalize in and out so the "up" part of the pipe needs to be long enough to go above the water line in the pan. The pipe could be marked to show 1 QT, 2 QT, 3 QT, 4 QT, etc. If you go fancy, the up part could have a window (like a carpenter's level) that would allow pretty accurate meaurements.

This would allow you to drain the hot water, turn the ball valve and fill with cold water ... essentially dumping heat out of the WSM.

There is a problem with all the goo and sludge that forms in the pan, but I think that could be easily solved.

This shouldn't take more than an hour to put together and if it were made out of copper or steel, there wouldn't be any issue with heat for low and slow (temps around 200 - 275). Because the water pan in on the bottom of the center section of the WSM, assembly would take about 2 minutes (sober) or take me about 10 (not sober).

None of this probably makes any sense to anyone other than me, but I thought I'd try and share to see what folks think.
 
Jimbo,

Sounds go to me........too bad you don't live in FL.....we'd get a case of brews and get this project done.

Now you have me to the point that I'm gonna have to give it a try. Of course I'm gonna get me a brinkman pan to replace the weber pan with if I screw it up and it doesn't work. As with the holes in the side of it..you could run the pipe out the door to test it. Then if it works...you drill the hole in the side and thread the pipe thru. Whatcha think?
 
Matt,

Nothing like beer, welding torches, and smokin' to create an eternal bond!

I'm with you ... if I hose the Weber pan, I'll put a Brinkman into the smoker. You could test it by running it out the door. You could even calibrate it that way, but a real test would require a hole in the WSM and a grommet to seal the pipe to the smoker.

I'm thinking I'm going to bite this off before my Turkey Day turkey. It sure would give me another reason to fire up the smoker!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

 

Back
Top