Ok is it just me or does the water pan that comes with the 18.5" 2009 WSM not actually fit inside the smoker once you add charcoal???
I did my first smoke last weekend and thank God I had a brinkmann charcoal pan laying around or I wouldn't have been able to smoke anything. The water pan that came with my 2009 WSM (ordered from amazon a couple weeks ago) is extremely deep and shaped like a serving bowl - its like a smaller version of the bottom of the smoker (only without the vents). It actually holds more water than the Brinkmann Charcoal pan, but it's also about 3" deeper!
Imagine my surprise when I filled my charcoal ring with charcoal and dumped hot coals on there, and then went to go insert the middle section of the smoker and the water pan was laying directly on top of the charcoal and then sitting about 1/2" above the hangars it is supposed to rest on! I poured almost all the water from it into my Brinkmann (again, it actually holds more than the brinkman charcoal pan) and then put the brinkmann in and everything was fine. I feel like I should just throw away the stock WSM water pan since it is pretty much useless - there is absolutely no way it will ever fit in the smoker - with the smoker completely empty it dips down into the charcoal ring
I did my first smoke last weekend and thank God I had a brinkmann charcoal pan laying around or I wouldn't have been able to smoke anything. The water pan that came with my 2009 WSM (ordered from amazon a couple weeks ago) is extremely deep and shaped like a serving bowl - its like a smaller version of the bottom of the smoker (only without the vents). It actually holds more water than the Brinkmann Charcoal pan, but it's also about 3" deeper!
Imagine my surprise when I filled my charcoal ring with charcoal and dumped hot coals on there, and then went to go insert the middle section of the smoker and the water pan was laying directly on top of the charcoal and then sitting about 1/2" above the hangars it is supposed to rest on! I poured almost all the water from it into my Brinkmann (again, it actually holds more than the brinkman charcoal pan) and then put the brinkmann in and everything was fine. I feel like I should just throw away the stock WSM water pan since it is pretty much useless - there is absolutely no way it will ever fit in the smoker - with the smoker completely empty it dips down into the charcoal ring
