What's with the waterpan broohaha?

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I've seen several comments on the WSM waterpan being too small and needing checking every 2-3 for hours for refilling.
Granted, I am new to this, but after many cooks on the WSM of 4-8 hours I have found the pan sent with the unit only has a 20-30 percent usage.
I could see replenishing the water supply if it reached 30-50 percent mark, but I'm not coming close to that after 6 hours. I understand that water consumption increases proportionately with the cooking temp/duration.
I'm not into doing 10-12 hour cooks (need my beauty sleep dontcha know). This pan works fine.
 
When I did first few cooks, the WSM ran hot and I needed to refill the water pan around 4 hours or so. As I get better at controlling temps, the water pan issue seems non-existent... except for smoking butts. Still tempted to do the retrofit with the Brinkman charcoal pan. Cheap insurance, but reduces need to keep checkin' the WSM and drinkin' beer.
 
On over-nighters with no wind the WSM will easily run 8 hours without a refill, sometimes even longer.

However, add a little wind and the whole picture changes. I did some BB's a few weeks ago and it was pretty breezy. Refilled every 2 hours or less. Guess I should build a wind screen soon!
 
The brinkman fits tighter than the Weber pan and holds more water. When you start doing overnighters and real long cooks you will see the advantage of having a larger pan. The brinkman pan costs 6-7 bucks, not a real big money thing.
 
Cheaper than that, even... I picked one up at our local Academy Sports for $2.49 a while back. Can't get much more reasonable than that for a bit of extra insurance. I use the big pan for water, and just leave sand in the original water pan than came with the WSM. Ready to cook, either way.

Keri C
Smokin on Tulsa Time
 
I'll probably eventually get the Brinkmann pan. I'd have it already if I could find it locally. It will cost me quite a bit more to order it on the internet.

Jeff
 
I've never bothered to buy the larger brinkman charcoal pan. I still use the stock WSM water pan and I have done many overnight cooks. I just check it every couple of hours during the cook, fill it before bed and refill it again when I get up. No sweat. I've found that the pan needs refilling less as the cook progresses and it starts to get a layer of juice and grease on top. I do use sand occasionally simply because the clean up is a breeze. One reason I haven't gone to the larger brinkman pan is the fact I would then have to deal with a larger amount of the scummy water (scientific term) at the end of the cook.
 
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