water, sand, or nothing...im confused.


 
A

Allen S.

TVWBB Member
been using water in my pan, but have read about people using sand and even nothing at all. can someone explain to me in plain English what the pan does and what i should use in it?
 
It's not what you should use, but what you prefer. Water controls temps and many like water, but others don't like the cleanup involved so they use other means, sand, fire bricks, clay saucer. When doing a high heat cook, many don't use anything in the pan because temp control isn't as much of an issue. In any case, foiling the pan makes cleanup easy. I like the clay saucer, but that is just my opinion.
 
Allen you will get many answers on this. The question is are you comfortable with your WSM temp/vent control? What temps do you cook at most of the time? Nothing but a foiled pan will work if your WSM is air tight. If your fire goes out when you shut your vents by one hour you can use this method. The clay mod will help with internal temp fluctuations, acts like a shock absorber on a spring if you will. If you never cook above 275 the clay is great. If you like to carry the temp to 325 on a regular basis the foiled empty is for you.

Either of these will save you in a major way in fuel usage. I use the empty foiled pan 70% of the time and clay the other. I only use water every now and again just to clean the internals of mine. It acts like a steam cleaner.

Hope this helps, don't hesitate to ask more about it if you want.

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well, it is definitely NOT airtight. It would be if I could get the derned door to fit rig, but thats for another post. I have a problem with having to add fuel to a longer cook at around the 10-11 hour mark. Im wondering if it is because of using water in my pan? Any ideas on this? 14 hour cook the other night and I used a back and a half of Kingsford. Never used CLOSE to that much in my now retired UDS.
 
Yes water is a fuel eater! The door is easy to massage to fit better. Did you use water in your UDS?

Take a tape measure and check all 3 sections at 12 and 6 then at 3 and 9. Bear hug them to less than a 1/4" difference and it will seal much better.
 
Allen,I used water for the first 2 and 1/2 years of owning my WSM. I bought a clay saucer this last spring,and haven't looked back!
But it also sounds like you are having out of round problems. Do a check and repair like Glenn said. That should do the trick. Also,as you use the WSM more and more,it will get "gunked" up and become more airtight. Hang in there! The WSM is the greatest smoker out there. Unless you want to sink BIG bucks into a professional pit. BUt that's a different thing altogether!
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Ill try that, Glenn, and no I didn't use anything in my UDS. It was straight heat from the fuel basket with no diffuser.

Phil...talk to me about the clay saucer. what are the benefits/cons? Im interested. How much are these?Where to find them, etc?
 
i used water the first 2 smokes and the clean up was just too much for me so i went to the clay saucer. then i got a pitminder and used nothing but foil on the pan. after my pitminder broke i never remembered to start using the clay saucer again. i just use a foiled pan and catch the temp early enough to keep it regulated.
 
Allen you can get a 12.25" at lawn/garden stores that sits about halfway inside the water pan. I use it for less than 2 butt cooks, it keeps the temps from spiking to high to fast or if your fire starts dying out it will keep things warm/safe longer than with a empty pan. This is when I do overnight butts. If loading more than 20lbs of meat I use an empty pan because the meat is the heat sink and your temps are less likley to get out of control with a big load.
 
I found it messy using the water pan after the first couple of times too..Switched to the clay pot method and never looked back.
 
I've never used anything but a foiled/empty pan and do low & slow as well as high heat. It's all in what you are comfortable working with.
 
Just to give you anotherboption I use a 14 in cast iron griddle covered with foil as a heat shield/ sink.
It weighs 12 lbs, & it serves double duty as a griddle. Best of all was $12 @ acadamy sports.
 
Just to quantify what everybody already knows, you use more charcoal if you put water in a water pan.

My assumptions are as follows:

2 gallons of water are put into the water pan @ 80F (I will discuss what heating up the water can do below)

All of the water is boiled off during the cook (may not be appropriate for short cooks)

Kingsford Briquettes have a heating value of 9,700 BTU/lb

There are 10 Briquttes/lb (I have not actually measured to see how accurate this number is)

Based on these assumption it requires 18.9 additional briquttes when putting water in the water pan.

If you preheat the water to 150F it decreases the number of briquettes used to 17.7 briquettes.

If you use and boil off only a gallon of water (80F) you use 9.4 briquttes.

If you use 2 gallons (80F) and only boil off half then you have used 10.6 briquttes.

IMO heating the water saves you very little in fuel usage, it does save in time to heat up the cooker though.

The amount of water boiled off is the key to how many extra briquettes were needed.

Calcs:

Mass (lb water)= Gallons of water x 8.34 lb/gal
Energy Required to heat water to 212 (BTU) = Mass (lb water) * 1 (BTU/lbF) * (212 - Water Temp)
Energy Required to Boil off Water = Mass of water Vaporized (lb) * 970.33 BTU/lb

Total Energy = Boil Off Energy + Heating Energy

lb of charcoal = Total Energy (BTU) / 9700 BTU/lb charcoal

# of Briquttes = lb of Charcoal * 10 Briquette/lb Charcoal

Sorry got bored today...
 
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