Water pan on new models?

[Jeff Davidson]

Hi,
I recently bought a new wsm off of fb marketplace, my old wsm had a much shallower water pan. Over time I went from water in the pan to sand to running with nothing in the pan and then a digiq (which I no longer have).

Is there anything I need to know about using the deeper bowl?

Best,

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

You,can do what I did and find a nice spot in the garage for it and forget where it is!

 

[Andy Kaminski]

Sure would be nice if we could use those as a stir fry bowl but I don’t think that would be safe.

 

[Jonas-Switzerland]

Its enamel. As long as it is free from all sut, you could absolutely cook in it.

 

[Brock Gingery]

Jeff, from your other post we know you have the 18" WSM in your lucky Haul. The deeper bowl doesnt affect much other than the headroom of the charcoal under it. (The 22's and 14's are a shallower bowl design)

I know a lot of people here have disdain for their Bowls. I approach it differently perhaps than most. Over the last several years using my WSM I have started to use the bowl particularly when I am cooking on both grate levels as a heat shield either with or without water depending on the meat and if I want it to act as a heat sink.

When I am only cooking on the top level grate and have the extended distance from the charcoal I do not use the water pan, but instead have my Hunsaker Vortex plate on top of the coal basket.


One last item... If you ever want to get a one piece charcoal basket for your WSM I highly recomend the Arbor Fabrication basket. They are stainless steel and they do last. I have nothing but high marks for mine.


I hope some of this helps or is of consideration for you. I know you have experience with the WSM's from years ago so you shouldnt have any issues with the pan or without it. Happy smoking.

 

[Jeff Davidson]

Thanks Brock, I pretty much always ran with a foil lined pan as a heat shield. I did manage to forget it once for a competition, I was talking to the neighboring team when I smelled someone’s ribs burning and then suddenly realized they were my ribs!

I’ll take a look at the basket, I used jim minion’s method of attaching the grate to the basket, worked pretty well, Chris has a photo on the mods page.