Any thoughts on Gravity Fed Vs Vertical water cooker? Im seeing most recommendations on the water cooker and only a couple gravity fed. Any reason for that or just personal preference?
I've cooked on both and you can't really go wrong with either one. There are pluses and minuses to each type.
Gravity Fed pluses:
1. The ultimate set it and forget it cooker: consistent from cook to cook (if you buy the right gravity cooker)
2. Easy to start: light a cube or drop a lit chimney into the chute, attach the fan and walk away
3.
Gravity Fed minuses:
1. Potential for grease fires- varies by company/brand
2. Very heavy and this can limit mobility; it took four or five of us to get my largest gravity cooker out of mud and onto plywood to roll back to my trailer
3. With a small load the food can sometimes get a little dryer
4. Bridging: charcoal can get caught in the chute and not drop down and light.
5. Can run on the expensive side
Vertical Water cooker pluses:
1. Backwoods and Humphreys are very mobile cookers (the Humphreys weighs a little more than a BWS, but it is a better built cooker IMO)
2. Moist cooking environment
3. Temps even side to side
4. Easy to maintain consistent temps on
5. Fairly affordable cookers
6. Convection effect: the reverse flow pattern of the heat along with the radiant heat provides a very even cook
Vertical Water cooker minuses:
1. Cleaning up the water pan/grease
2. A little more work to initially load with charcoal and to re-load; ashes can get in your food if you aren't carefully
3. With the standard BWS the steam from the water can make your bark not set properly (some users will debate this issue). Humphrey's has a solution to this: they have a slide out water pan that isn't right over the firebox that provides the moist environment without all the steam.
4. Temps can get away from you if you don't add water or if you light too many coals at one time
I'm sure I'm missing some pluses/minuses, but this a start that others can add to as they see fit.