BBQ Smoker Water Pan

Using a water pan when using indirect-heat in a Weber Kettle does a lot of things, some of which you may not be aware of. We have put together an article on what the smokers water pan can do for you.

Water Pan Usage

Placement

There are two major placement options for your BBQ Smoker’s water pan.
The first and more widely used is underneath the meat being smoked. This does a few things, first off it catches all the drippings from the meat that falls. You can either catch and reuse these for self basting purposes, or let it fall and do nothing. I choose option one. The second uses evaporation to it full potential and moistens the meat from the bottom up keeping your marinade or rubs intact.

The second option is to have the water pan above the charcoal. This will add water into the convection action that is responsible for BBQ smoking your food.

Me being me, I would rather have the moisture be absorbed on its own then lessen the effect of the heat to BBQ the food. Granted, we are smoking using indirect-heat, and the name says it all. It does not have the punch as if we were using direct-heat. Just my 2 cents.

Filling the Water Pan

It may seem like a very simple thing to fill up the smoker’s water pan. Shoot, the title basically tells you what to do. Then, why, you may ask am I still writing? Well, I’ll tell you.

I was smoking a beef brisket one day and figured that if I filled the water pan to the brim, I would not have refill it. Seems like a good idea, right? WRONG!

What actually happened was all that great moisturizing fat that we like to collect in the pan wound up overflowing the pan. As you can guess it caused the fat, grease, marinade, and water concoction to merge with the ash at the base of the weber kettle. Let me just tell you, if I would have caught it earlier, it might not have been such a big deal to clean…. but alas, it WAS! By the time I was able to clean the Weber, the bottom looked like it was molton rock. So, yeah, no so much fun.

So moral of the story, only fill the pan about half way, and you won’t be stuck cleaning your barbeque or smoker for as long as it took to smoke your meat in the first place..

Water Addatives

-Soon-

Water pan effects

Easy Indirect-Heat

It is well known that using indirect-heat (read: meat not over the coals) is one of the basics to BBQ. Cooking your food over the coals is more akin to grilling rather than smoking BBQ low and slow. The water pan helps to hold the coals or lump at bay so it becomes a shield from the direct-heat.

Using *indirect-heat* simply put is making sure your meat is not over the charcoal.

Using direct-heat is the opposite of indirect-heat, and your meat is sitting right on top of the coals. People don’t usually think of this as barbeque as it is not the smoke cooking the food, but as long as you keep the temp low, around 250 or so, you should be ok. Hotter than that and you will be getting into oven cooking temps, and might as well go inside.

Self basting

The water pan, being placed under the cut of meat, will also catch any drippings that fall from the meat, doing two things. One, prevents flare up, so once again preventing that grilled taste. Two, it collects all the juices and self bastes the meat. Cause the only thing better than moist tender meat, is when the indirect-heat is doing all the work for you.

Temperature Regulator

* Science Gibberish *

It breaks down to simple Hydrology. Water when heated, begins to evaporate. The evaporation is in direct ration to the amount of heat applied to the water. Evaporated water, in essence, becomes airborne and makes the air denser. Air density greatly affects the resonant heat inside the BBQ. So, more water in the air, less heat from the same heat source.

On the same note, but polar opposite side of the spectrum, when the temperature is too low, the water works as a heat sink, and while the water is trying to evaporate, it absorbs the heat. So you basically have two sources of heat.

* Gibberish Over *

What does that mean for you? That means that using the water pan can help regulate the temperature while smoking your BBQ to avoid spikes and drop-offs. Put very simply, the water can make the internal temperature of your smoker or BBQ hotter or colder depending on what is needed, and it knows better than you usually which one to do. Making vent adjustments easier, cook times more stable, if you can keep the lid closed, and the meat not dried out.

On a side note, the water pan can help you keep a stable temperature internally, but good luck getting the internal temperature of your smoker over 300 and staying there. That water says, ”HUH-UH” and does all in its power to bring that temp down. So if you need high temps for something… like being in a rush (smirk), put the water pan to the side, ignore its wining about not being included, and get to going.

Internal moisture

As we have already discussed, the water in the pan will evaporate. It’s going to do that. Get used to it. It’s a good thing, really. The now airborne water wraps the meat and keep it moist before escaping through the vents, or from your lid being opened

There are people that are convinced that a water pan inside the smoker is not needed and think that the meat does not need help staying moist. Some are right. I believe more in the temperature regulation aspects more than the moisture thing myself.

Just like with anything else, it really is a trial and error thing. You will not know which works best for you if you don’t go out and do it for yourself. So try both, and see which works better for you. Then let us know what you find after your smoking is completed.

What to look for

Basically what you want is more about how you have your pit layed out. For the sake of convenience, Weber has created many different water pans for many different types of applications. Take a look at our amazon store to see what we are talking about.

Comments Welcomed and Asked For

Your comments are welcomed to add this is article. We would like to be ever evolving and eventually encomapss all there is to know about the usage of a water pan for low and slow smoking BBQ. So, please post your suggestions, ideas, or methods you have found. We will post it up in the main area, and give you credit for your contribution.

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2. Rules about checking your meat while smoking it…..
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4. Bacon Chicken BBQ Recipe