anyone use water in your WSM

[THoey1963]

Used water once. It wasn't laziness, but more inconvenience of where to dump it. We have enough skeeters and flies here, don't need to attract more. Bought a large Terra Cotta clay saucer, wrapped it a couple times in foil, never went back.

 

[Steve S]

I've done both. My first cooks without water in the pan yielded much better results than with. I often toss a disposable pan under the meat that I am smoking, which makes cleanup quite a bit easier. I will sometimes add a bit of water to that to keep grease off the meat from flashing. If you aren't wrapping, Id recommend a little water in the cooker for large cuts. If you are wrapping, you won't need it. Just my two cents.

 

[Big N Hot]

I use to. Once I went sand I never went back.

 

[Sevengoals]

No, never.

 

[Danny B]

Spraying the water pan with Pam makes clean up easy. I like using water because I can leave all vents wide open and the fire burns as clean as possible. I can get temps around 250-275 with water but it does take more fuel and I have to add water occasionally. I crack the lid to ramp up the temps if they start to drop.

 

[Swine Steward]

My two cents:
After fits and starts at the beginning with my water pan, I found good advice in an online forum like this one. Fill the pan with water right after one chimney of lit charcoal is added to one chimney or more of unlit charcoal. Set the bottom vents to two fully closed and one fully open. Then let it run for 20-30 minutes before I put on any large meats (brisket or 2 pork butts). Do some meat prep during this time, injecting or rubs. When the temps get to my target or above, add the meat.
When I didn't following this rough timeline, the temperature would drop because too much volume was added all at the same time that was at room temp or lower. The chamber will eventually climb above 200, but then I have to open all of the bottom vents, then watch for when the chamber temp hits my target, and adjust the vents to stabilize. Watching the thermometer, moving small metal vents...way too much work for me. Much easier to be patient at the beginning of the process.
Clean up is usually easy, as long as I get to the pan soon. After it cools, but before it starts to cake. Usually after dinner is a good time.