[flyingbassman5]

Originally Posted by cinmur

I have a 30 and 55 gal drums ...is it necessary with a 30 gal drum to have a water pan as a heat buffer due to size of drum....what happen if you put heat buffer...water or sand in the 55 gal drum. I have not started anything yet.Thanks

Its unnecessary in both of them. You can do it if you want but a UDS is so efficient that it retains a lot of moisture to begin with. My suggestion, add the option when you build it, that way if you need to keep temps low add the water pan, and if you need to get up around 300-325 for chicken or turkey you can take it out and get higher temps without having to heat up a gallon of water first. Doing that just wastes charcoal.

For the record I don't ever use a water on vertical cookers. My offset I do but only to help even out temps.