Water Pan Boil Over?


 
J

JimT

TVWBB Pro
I had a problem with wet charcoal on an overnight cook this past weekend. My assumption at the time was that I had spilled water on it when filling the bowl at the start. A friend of mine who is more experienced with water smokers says I probably boiled the water hard enough to have it overflow the bowl. It's happened to him more than once. After thinking about this for a few days and reviewing my Cooker Log, I'm inclined to agree with him.

Has anyone here on the forums had this happen, or heard of it happening?

Thanks,

JimT
 
Well, I've never seen a full water pan at a rolling boil in my WSM, it usually just sort of steams. But, it would be prudent to allow some head room for the collection of fat on top of the water. I've heard of overflows happening that way--fat floating on top of the water and overflowing into the charcoal bowl. Perhaps that's not your problem, though.

Did you wrap the pan in foil? If so, depending on how you wrap it, water can wick out of the pan and into the charcoal bowl. See Using A Water Pan In the WSM for more details.

I have also overfilled the pan in the dark at night, resulting in overflow.

Regards,
Chris
 
I have never had a problem or heard of water overflowing the waterpan on a low/slow cook as a result of boiling over. My guess is that you were correct and that water spilled over when you were filling the pan. I don't foil my waterpan, but I have read that can create a problem of the water seeping up as Chris mentioned because of the wicking issue.

Paul
 
Jim,
I have had a similar issue, not really boilinig over but on my first overnight cook I was paranoid about the pan burning dry through the night so I filled it pretty close to the rim. What happened was that every so often I could hear the hiss of water hitting the coals when I got the cooker up to temperature. The result was 'ashy shoulder'. When the water drops hit the hot coals, ash blew around inside the cooker and coated my pork shoulders. When I checked on them in the morning my polder thermometer had a layer of ash on the probe and the shoulders had a grey coating on them. I brushed them off and they came out well, but I didn't like the thought of eating ashy bark.
 
I questioned my friend a little more on this subject. He says it is not so much the water actually boiling over, but the fat dripping into the boiling water and creating foam. It has happened to him several times. I have seen this foam develop when par-boiling meat on the stove (sorry), but wouldn't have thought the water pan would boil that hard.

On the other hand, it was a cold night so I loaded the charcoal ring to almost over flowing, and used 30 more lit briquets to start (MM.) This put the large brinkman pan pretty close to quite a hot fire. I guess I'll just have to pay a little closer attention the next time, and forgo the little nap.
icon_wink.gif


Food for thought,

JimT

Did someone just mention food?
 
I wonder if part of this problem may have to do with the amount of fat left of the butt during prep. I completly remove the fat cap and other areas of fat on the surface of the butt during prep. My primary reason is to allow better penetration of the rub, but I'm sure it also results in less fat dripping into the waterpan ?

Just a thought.

Paul
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top