Humphrey’s: Water Pan or No Water Pan?

[Matt_Leaf]

I recently upgraded to a Humphrey’s Weekender and am loving it.

Any thoughts on running it with no water in the pan?

[WI Bubba]

I don't own a cabinet smoker and I don't know anyone that does, so take this with a big pinch of salt.

Water in the pan is not only going to add moisture to the air, it will also provide thermal mass to help keep steady temps. I know on my WSM if I want to keep steady smoking temps having water in the pan helps. If I'm cooking chicken and want to run higher temps, then I remove the water pan. I think the same would hold true for a cabinet smoker.

The best way to find out is to try it and see how it goes. For test cooks I like to use pork butts. You can often find them on sale for cheap, and it's meat that will tolerate abuse in the cooker and still be edible when it's done.

[bbqLuv]

I never heard of a Humphrey’s Weekender. I googled it, Looks like a nice smoker.
Look forward to your cooks with it.

[J-Melt]

I have a backwoods party 2 that is bigger, but with a similar setup. The water pan is a must in mine. If I don’t use it, the temps fly like crazy. The crazy amount of moisture it produces allows for the quickest cooking I’ve seen for briskets and pork butts. The Backwoods smokers are reverse flow like the Humphreys, and I think the water pan helps insulate the bottom. I have never needed to wrap because of it!

Yours may react differently, so definitely experiment

[Spinaker]

I would use a water pan. It allows for more smoke adhesion and it works as a heat sink, especially in cabinet smokers.

More information on water pans, just in case you have not seen this article.

Also......let's see that smoker. I would love to see your set up.

[Matt_Leaf]

Having difficulty with uploading the pics. Is the file size limitation part of the trial membership?

[J-Melt]

raywjohnson do you know what the photo limit size is? Or if this is just a glitch?

[RAYMBO]

See my reply below.

[UncleSpike]

I have a home built gravity unit, and I would never consider adding a water pan. For some reason unknown to me, the moisture in that chamber is very high - it drips off of the chimney cap.

[texastweeter]

Low airflow

[RAYMBO]

raywjohnson do you know what the photo limit size is? Or if this is just a glitch?

128MB max size, no height or width limitations. System will resize all images to max 800px (h or w, depending on orientation).

Only these image formats are allowed: bmp, gif, jpe, jpeg, jpg, png, webp

Trial members WERE set to not allow post attachments. I changed that to allow one attachments per post.

If spammers start taking advantage of this, I will have to remove that permission.

[Matt_Leaf]

Here’s a pic from this weekend.

4 racks of St. Louis Spares
2 Dry
2 with Maple Bourbon Glaze

Friends and family very happy

[Matt_Leaf]

A before picture

[Matt_Leaf]

The glazed set

[J-Melt]

Looks great! Did you go with or without the water pan?

[Matt_Leaf]

Went with pan.

Going to try a butt soon without. I may get some firebricks for that cook

[WI Bubba]

Those are some fine looking ribs. Looking forward to seeing how the pork butt turns out.

[carolts]

I've never run a water pan in my Stump's Baby. Not sure if being in humid SWFL has any effect. I may try it in my M1 when running in smoker mode. That one loves to run hot.

[SMiles]

I always use a filled water pan in my Humphrey's Pint, and only occasionally will wrap if a pesky stall bugs me too much. As Spinaker notes, it really helps temp control as well as adding moisture.

[Matt_Leaf]

I always use a filled water pan in my Humphrey's Pint, and only occasionally will wrap if a pesky stall bugs me too much. As Spinaker notes, it really helps temp control as well as adding moisture.

Chiming back in after formally joining this board.

do you ever do birds in your pint? I imagine that having water in the pan would be an issue for getting the skin crispy.

[J-Melt]

Glad you joined formally! Welcome to the Pit!!!