Long cook - Water in pan ?

[BRUN]

Im planning on cooking a large brisket in around 2 weeks, probably from T&G, ill probably have to use heat beads as BigK are out of stock of ACH15, im wondering if water in the pan is going to affect how long I get out of a full basket of fuel, and whether id be better using something else for what could be a long cook

[JEC]

Id use sand or a clay saucer for a long cook, you won't have to keep topping up the water that way and temperature will be much more stable too

[JEC]

Id use sand or a clay saucer for a long cook, you won't have to keep topping up the water that way and temperature will be much more stable too

[RobinC]

Im planning on cooking a large brisket in around 2 weeks, probably from T&G, ill probably have to use heat beads as BigK are out of stock of ACH15, im wondering if water in the pan is going to affect how long I get out of a full basket of fuel, and whether id be better using something else for what could be a long cook

I'm probably in the minority in that I do use water in the pan on my WSMs. I have tried without but I've found for me I get more stable temps with the water particularly when opening the lid. You do need to keep it topped up but even on a long cook (12 hours +) you aren't doing that many times.

[BRUN]

If water will get me long enough cooking ill stick to using that, its what ive always used so far, but im worried about having to add fuel mid cook, I really want to avoid it if possible

[RobinC]

If water will get me long enough cooking ill stick to using that, its what ive always used so far, but im worried about having to add fuel mid cook, I really want to avoid it if possible

Use Heatbeads + minion method and you shouldn't have to

[derekmiller]

I am with Robin on this one. I still use water and find it is a better buffer for the spikes. On a 57WSM I tend to use two chimneys of unlit and half a chimney of lit, Weber briquettes and easily get a 12hr+ cook. I have a watering can for the water and just top it up with hotwater from the tap. Only have to do this the once in a long cook.

[Scantily]

I still use water in the pan, haven't experimented with clay saucers or sand and only run a dry foiled pan for hot n fast chicken.

If you want absolute fuel efficiency then using any heat sink is going to be less efficient than just a dry pan as you're wasting energy heating up a mass. A full ring on my 47cm wsm using water would last around 14-16 hours I reckon, my longest cook so far was probably about 12 hours and I still had quite a bit of charcoal left and still had some water left in the pan. So I think water or no, vertical smokers are just quite fuel efficient.

[BBQFanatic]

Ben and I have very many experiments on our wsm's in this area and settled on clays saucers. You need to understand that as its a heat sink you don't need as much energy to keep the unit going. Try keep the lid open to a min and you are fine. I have cooked a brisket for 14hrs mids summer on one, yes that's one starter of semi lit big k charcoal. Sat at 250F for the entire time
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