Stainless steel water pan

[glenh218]

I'm new to smoking and bought a used Masterbuilt M7P that needed a new waterpan.  My question is it what to replace it with, do I replace it with the same matierial pan, or stainless steel water pan?  Is there any recomendations?  It is a 15" pan coated pan that is in there now.  Don't know if Stainless will cause any change in the flavor of what is being smoked or not.

Thanks,

Glen

 

[bear55]

My Bradley uses a stainless pan.

 

[dward51]

Stainless should be non-reactive and should not contribute anything to the flavor of the meat or water in the pan.  It's a source of moisture and thermal moderation (heat sink).

 

[daveomak]

Use an aluminum throw away pie tin.... works fine... or any of the above...  

 

[tommt]

Glen,

I have a MES 40" and have 4 racks in it. I use a disposable pan (like Dave said) on the bottom rack even though I have the factor pan available to me. I chose to go with a pan that covers the entire rack ( about 20" wide). This allows me to add moisture to what I am cooking and also catch all the drippings which equals less of a clean up. Yes I gave up an entire rack to smoke with but in my opinion it is well worth it.

 

[chuck41]

Throw away pie tin sounds like a great idea.  I'll look for some about the right size at Wally World.  Would go a long way toward making clean-up simpler.  I don't really need that 4th rack most of the time and having a pan above the water filled one sounds like a good idea.  Should spread the heat out better all around as well. I suppose you need an inch or two of free space all around for air circulation.