Kirk,
My post wasn't ment to be critical toward you and I apologize if taken that way. I just come from the store where I bought my smoker and looking at the picture in this post and the two at the store, one stainless and one black there is a big difference in the two! The water pan in the black smoker is just like mine and the one pictured in this post, the stainless model has at least 3/4" between the heater and the pan! My concern was that by the two touching wouldn't it cause unessary condensation from over heating the water in the pan as I'm getting a lot of moisture running out of the bottom of my door every time I smoke! Does this make sense?
Larry M