New pellet smoker

[smokedady]

Just purchased Rec-Tec 700 any benefit to using a water pan when doing a long cook I've been smoking on weber bullet for years always filled the water pan with water,apple juice , spices ect

[Sweaty Paul]

I don’t think you’ll need a water pan. I don’t use a water pan with either my Yoder or my GMG. I suspect if you contact Rec Tec they will tell you the same. Good luck and enjoy your cooks.

[SMOG MAN]

I have always used my Rec Tec 680 without a water pan, for me I don’t need it

[Fire Art]

I have a 700 pit boss and I go pan less

[jacmac422]

I have a GMG Danielle Boone, I tried a water pan on the same shelf as my food and didnt notice a difference. I installed a second shelf and when I do Pulled pork or Brisket I put a water pan on the bottom shelf directly underneath the meat and I did notice a difference. Better smoke ring, seemingly more moist, more consistent cook time. Its the only way I do it now.

[Troutman]

I gotta agree with jacmac422 , water and a humid environment helps set the bark on long cooks for briskets or pork butts. You just, as he mentions, need a pan filled with a quart or so of liquid near meat. I'm not going to fall on my sword over the issue but it does help in those instances.

[SmokeyGator]

I use one in my ceramic grill. The manufacturer says it doesn’t need one, but since air cant get any more than 100% relative humidity (and then it would be rainy or foggy in your grill, that never happens) it doesn’t hurt to use one.

But think about this. If you use a pan to catch grease drippings (making grill cleaning easier), the heat deflector over the burn pot will get hot enough to burn the drippings into a hard crust that requires a long soak in heavy duty oven cleaner (or drain clog remover, same stuff) to remove. I dislike throwing out aluminum pans after every cook, and I try to dispose of as little foil as possible. My "water pan" is actually an inexpensive nonstick coated steel lasagna pan that has water in it only to prevent drippings from getting crusty. If it adds extra humidity it can’t hurt, but it’s mainly there to make cleaning easier and reduce needless wasting of perfectly good aluminum.

[DWCowles]

I never used a water pan in my RecTec 680 and never had an issue with bark or moisture.

Congrats on your new purchase.

[Sweaty Paul]

After reading above will try a water pan under next long cook. GMG didn’t have a second shelf so it was a non issue. Now with the Yoder I have the ability so why not try if nothing else for easing cleanup.

[GoDuke]

FWIW, Rec Tec says that using a water pan will throw off the pit probe's accuracy. I'm not sure why humidity would affect it but I don't know how exactly it's reading and calculating pit temp

[Jstuartk]

I tried the water pan thing in my rec tec, and completely ruined the cook. The temperature was way hotter than indicated on the controller as it was misreading it, and ending up cooking way too fast. Apparently it really does mess us up the probe temp. Because you don't have to normally be concerned with temp on the RECTec, I slept through the mistake.

[JakeT]

That's interesting, I've always used a small bowl of water whenever I do a cook over 1 hour on my RT680 and have always maintained temp +/- 5*

[DavidNorcross]

You are going to love your RecTec. No need for a water pan in my opinion.