What to put (or not) in the water pan?


 
J

John A in Windsor

New member
Hello all,

I’ve been looking just for a short time but have noticed that there seem to be several options for what to put (or not) in the water pan...among others, I’ve seen:

* sand
* dry pan covered with foil
* clay/ceramic dish
* water

Suggestions?

Thank you in advance,
JA
 
With my 14 and 18 WSM.s I just foil the pan. I tried a clay saucer but eventually discarded it. With my 22 I bought a heavy duty Pizza pan and foiled that. Much easier than foiling the big water pan.
 
I started smoking years ago with A Brinkman. They had no temp control,so water was really needed.
I bought a Weber and started reading these forums about so many here don't use water. Tried it with no water,and havn't used water since. I do use a foiled clay saucer on top of the water pan.
My theory is since you can hold a steady temp with all the vents the WSM has ,makes it where water really isn't needed.
 
Depends on your target temp?
225 on a naturally run WSM usually needs a heat sink like the water, or sand, terra cotta saucer etc.
250 you could go with either a empty foiled pan or saucer, pizza stone, steel disc.
275 or higher, just an empty foiled pan.
HTH and welcome to the forum!

Tim
 
Before the WSM was the old original Brinkman which taught me how nasty cleaning a water bowl was.
In my WSM research phase I read about no water and foiling the bowl, tried it on my first cook and have never tried anything else.
Leaving an air gap between the bottom of the bowl and the foil greatly reduces burning the grease drippings.
Clean up takes 10-15 seconds.
I have no issues with maintaining low stable temperature of 230-240 f.
 
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