Myron Mixson smoker question...

i have the MMS 48 and freaking love it! very nice smoker. I pretty much do my fires with a small bed of charcoal and then throw small logs on throughout the cook.

But if wood was hard to get or a burden to acquire you could use more charcoal and less wood.

but keep in mind that it is pretty built to be a stick burner. that is the design. it's very well insulated so you dont have to have a ton of wood for a 5-7 hour cook but it does require considerably more fuel than say what I normally see gravity fed guys using.

but for me, i love the whole experience of acquiring the wood and throwing sticks during the cook. it just makes it more fun for me. more work? yes, but i feel like it's worth it to me.

I have the MMS-60 and couldn't be happier with it. I use charcoal/oak splits to create the bed of coals and then continue to feed it medium sized wood splits throughout the cook (I typically allocate out 2 splits per hour for each cook).

Like masque said, it is insulated and holds heat very well, but it is a large cooker so it requires a fairly significant amount of fuel.

Keep in mind with the flat rack cookers, you need to fill the water pan and keep it filled throughout the cook. Easy if you have a water supply, a bit of a pain if you have to do it manually. I ended up going with the gravity feed V33 and love it.

In my Backwoods and Humphreys, I used firebricks in the water pan instead of water, can that be done in these?

How much of a pain is it to clean that water pan??

The water pan does not come out. You must use water when cooking or you can damage the cooker.

It's hard to say how much wood I use because I split mine into very slim pieces. But typically one decent sized tote will do it.

While it's much easier to cook when water is readily available we have managed just fine when running water was not available. You just have to be prepared to feed it as needed.

Once again I'm a big believer in the water pan process so it's something I am willing to deal with.

Like masque said, the water pan does not come out and it is not recommended to cook without using water.

For those not familiar with the set up of the cooker, it has a automatic fill system with a float box that connects to a water hose, so you can have a constant supply of water running to the cooker without ever having to open the cooker to refill the water in the pan. If you are ever in a situation where you do not have a constant water supply, you can either open the doors of the cooker and refill it or even refill it through the site glass that is located near the float box (this process would be a bit more tedious).

As far as cleaning the water pan, it is very simple and not labor intensive. There is a drainage valve on the back of the cooker that can be opened to drain all of the water. Once the water is removed, it is nothing more than removing the racks and scrubbing/rinsing down the water pan.

Hope this was helpful.

Look at a Vulcan V33. 15 lbs of charcoal and 6-10 wood chunks for an entire comp cook.

masque13 said:

The water pan does not come out. You must use water when cooking or you can damage the cooker.

It's hard to say how much wood I use because I split mine into very slim pieces. But typically one decent sized tote will do it.

While it's much easier to cook when water is readily available we have managed just fine when running water was not available. You just have to be prepared to feed it as needed.

Once again I'm a big believer in the water pan process so it's something I am willing to deal with.

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If you manage temperature how does/can it damage the smoker?

Rocky Branch BBQ said:

If you manage temperature how does/can it damage the smoker?

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I can only assume that it may warp the water pan or something along those lines. I just know that when I purchased the smoker the "manual" indicated that it was a large "no no" to cook without water and claimed that it can damage the water pan if cooking without water.

I never was brave enough to test the validity of the statement. I just assumed they were correct.

Why look into buying a water unit if you don't want to use water?