Water pan

dmirish1

I've been using the water/drip pan for most of my cooks that go over a couple of hours on my LBGE. Does anyone believe the water is necessary? Will the meat still come out extremely juicy? How about on the MiniMax? Being that the platesetter sets right below the grid, does anyone put anything of a drip pan there?

Grillin_beers

Water pans aren't necessary on the BGE.  Someone will come along with the science behind why it isn't necessary.  When doing a long low and slow I find that water pans can contribute to not getting great bark on your meat.  Other than that they aren't hurting anything. 

fishlessman

only for turkey at roasting temps for me.  on a side note, if there is water in the pan and you let the temps creep over 300 degrees dome, be especially caseful opening the dome, my worse burn came from steam opening that dome, made for a painful blistery tday

saluki2007

I don't have a MM (yet), but I would imagine it's the same as the large.  A drip pan helps, but making it a water pan is not necessary for juicy meat.  If anything it can hurt you on an over nighter.  If you have your temps stable with water in there, it will be a higher temp once the water is gone.  The water pan will actual lower your ambient temps as long as there is water in there.

dmirish1

@saluki2007 I think that's a great point Sir. I didn't think about what would happen overnight when the water was gone. Guess I was lucky my last pork shoulder came out well.

dldawes1

I always use a waterpan.  Yes, the end temp will spike up but I have never noticed it being enough to hurt anything. If anything, it may ( MAY ) help push through the stall. 

I'm not saying it is necessary, but it is how I started and tend to just stick with what works.  No problems with good bark. 

BigJonMoo73

I will usually just have the pan down there to collect all the grease so that it doesn't jack up my PS.

HoustonEgger

BigJonMoo73 said:

I will usually just have the pan down there to collect all the grease so that it doesn't jack up my PS.

Same here - helps keep the eggs clean - and I've used a drip tray (with water or beer) on everything from pork butt to ribs - never had any crust issues, always nice and tender inside as well. Stick with what works for you.

I do add balled up foil or crushed beer cans under my drip tray to raise it from the plate setter - helps prevent the tray from burning if the water evaporates before the cook is over.