Tony, I foiled the top of the wood box and the bottom of the unit (with a hole punched for drainage). I had the drip pan under the unit, as is the design. No other drip pan was used. I've had notice that a replacement heating element has already been shipped, so I appreciate the awesomely fast customer service on this issue (this company is awesome). But, like I said before, I don't want to have Steve send me a new heat element every 2 months if something else could be the fundamental issue. As to the certainty if my wire connections to the element are tight...I haven't gone back and checked them but they were tight when I hooked up the new element. I'm quite obsessive-compulsive, so I know that I checked the connections (probably 4 or 5 times before I put the back plate on).
On a side note, I'm thankful that I had these wings last night and discovered that the element was bad. My son is having his first Holy Communion tomorrow night and we are having a family party of 20+ people afterwards. Of course, BBQ was the desired meal, so I've had a 9.5 pound butt brining and marinating for the event. Fortunately, I caught the flawed burner ahead of time and happen to have a neighbor who owns a #2 unit that let me borrow it. I'm prepared to put this butt on the #2 at 1:30am and plan a 14 hour cook to get to IT of 205 before resting. Had I not tried to cook the wings last night, I never would have gotten the butt to temp on the bad burner and the dinner would have beeen ruined. So, I'm thankful for the misadventure! And, I'm hungry for tomorrow night (I brined this baby in Tony's brine recipe for about 12 hours, then slathered with mustard and the homemade rub (from this forum) for another 16 hours)! I'm cooking at 225 with 6 ounces of hickory, a small pan of apple juice on one side and a can of water on the other side of the burner.
