Water Pan Thought

:tsk:Water in a waterPan It's going to be ok eventually you will wake to the fact that a Clay saucer or filling that pan with Cat litter is the way to go.

There are cookers that have auto fill water pans. Myron Mixon's comes to mind.

One of the coolest designs, other than mine, was from an Austrian bbq site and the builder's craftsmanship was amazing. One thing incorporated in his was a reservoir mounted on a pole outside and control via hand valve. When the fill tube went through side of barrel, there was a sightglass for seeing the pan's fluid level! The brackets and attention to decal rivaled some of my friends that do indycar/aircraft fabrication work. Lots of hand hammered brackets and rivets. Beyond beautiful. On my smokers I size the pan to service in around two hour intervals. Then it takes only seconds, plus it's usually time to wrap, glaze or pull something at those times. Outside reservoirs can be problematic due to tempertaure of the fluid being added. That's why if I want to cool things down, put cooler fluid in pan and so on.Hotter fluid being added will take less time to get back to cooking temps. Steve.

IMO the water is there to help control temperature. If you are boiling the water out of the pan, your temperature is too high. If you want to cook higher than about 225 or 250, then just foil the pan and let 'er rip.

It depends on the volume of fluid in relationship to cooking area. I always hear these stories about not being able to cook above boiling temps and I will say that's just not true. At least not in my smokers or many others I've cooked on. My average cooking temp is 275 for most things and much higher, 325-350 for chicken and other things. Never had a problem when my water pan is filled with apple juice getting to temp or maintaining. Now I have seen pits with huge water pans that took hours to get to 200 and left so much soot and creosote on the food they wrap in cheesecloth for some reason. Not near enough airflow and the pan is way to big. Not all cookers are the same. Steve.

I've seen folks use a 5gal water jug turned upside down with some kinda drip system on a offset before it looked crazy, I don't know what he called it I'll take a picture of it this year when I see him in comp next month.

Sent from my SGH-T999

In my Off Set... I use a 5"X9" stainless steel steam table pan.
I add applejuice and water once midway in a long smoke. Short smokes I don't refill... Needless to say I don't fill my pan full...

I don't use water in my UDS.
The UDS maintains a WET environment without adding water.