Pellet Grills: To water pan or not to water pan??

[eschmid2]

I have been using a weber summit charcoal (and love it) and just picked up a GMG Trek and have been reading that it is not necessary to add a water pan to a pellet grill. As the temperature is stable with the pellet grill to me it's more about keeping the meat moist ... anyone have any opinions or tried both water and no water pan and learned anything? Would love to hear from you!

[Jfrosty27]

I’ve never used a water pan in my Recteq. No issues whatsoever.

[tstalafuse]

I have the JB, and I use one. However, I also live where the humidity is typically in the single digits, so it does help.

[klflowers]

The grilla chimp is too small for a water pan so no. But I believe Myron Mixon uses them in his pellet smokers.

[Donw]

I live by the coast and use a Yoder 640. Personally I tried a water pan once but it didn’t seem to be necessary so I never did again, and that test cook was 100’s of cooks ago.

[captainlee]

Agree, my Yoder living at very low humidity didn't seem to benefit from a water pan. Give it a try.

[Huskee]

I never have. I do in my stickburner on occasion but not every cook.

[DaveD]

The design of my vertical pellet smoker (Pit Boss Copperhead 5) requires the water pan be kept full mainly to provide thermal mass. Water has such a massive heat capacity that it really dampens any temperature swings and makes it almost physically impossible for there to be a temperature gradient in there of more than about 20F from top to bottom. With the pan, temps are super stable to within just a few degrees. Without it, they swing 30-50F back and forth, maybe more. So happens that in my most recent cook the other day, the pan in fact ran dry, and you can see it really obviously in the temp plot where it gets much more jagged about 2/3 of the way through (I'd also bumped the set point up from 225F to 250F right around that time).



Also does keep some humidity in the chamber, and in these parts our winters are very dry so that's not a bad thing. But the thermal behavior alone means I absolutely always run with it.

[eschmid2]

Wow that is some serious capacity on that smoker - I just looked it up! Thanks for your feedback, my GMG Trek is much much smaller. Good data to show with and without water pan on your system and that the pan is primarily for temperature control

[Draznnl]

I have never used a water pan in my Yoder 640. I used to in my WSM, but never saw the logic of one in a pellet grill.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I'd avoid it... you could be blocking airflow and also possibly throwing the thermocouple off. That particular model may be different though, don't have any friends with one and haven't fiddled with one in a store.

[ofelles]

Used one once in my almost 5 year old Yoder 640 and did not notice a difference

[bbqLuv]

No water pan for any of my cooks in my Traeger,

[Redwng]

I have tried it twice in my old Rec Tec and didn't notice a difference at least on ribs. May depend on the type of rib, how fatty etc.

[eschmid2]

Thanks to everyone for your advise and feedback! The general consensus is no water pan (unless the smoker is made for one as in DaveD's set up) but for my GMG Trek there will be no water pan in its future . Thanks again everyone!

[DaveD]

I think it's the vertical form factor and its placement at the bottom, just above the fire deflector, that makes the difference. In a pellet grill where the firebox is off to the side, it'd be similar to any other offset for use of a water pan. The Pit Boss manual and multiple passages in their support sections note that it's designed to have the pan full.

[Clark]

When we lived in Colorado at 7600' the air was very dry so I used a small pan of water on the grate, depending on what I was cooking. Now in Oklahoma, low elevation and humid, I don't use a water pan.

[rlozinak]

I never use one in my pellet cookers. I did in my WSM.