Water question

[ahrjmrecr]

When you fill your smoker with water, do you use hot or cold water or doesn't it matter for temperature control?

Thanks,

Jim

[Peter]

Conventional wisdom says hot water. If you use cold water, the fire will have to heat the water before the pit comes back to cooking temp. You lose time and fuel. Think about it!

[doogster]

Everything instructional I've seen says to use hot, even boiling, water.

[Burtess]

You can use whatever you want, but what Peter said is true, if you use cold the temp. rise will be slowed (which is not always a bad thing), and you will consume a bit more fuel bringing the volume of water up to boiling.
Generally I will use hot when I start up the WSM, but will replenish with cold (or ambient temp, I keep a bucket of water beside the cooker during the cook).
You will see a slow in temp rise if you use cold water and put a large piece of cold meat on the cooker at the same time and you may notice a longer time to temp stability this way.

Burt