MES 40" Gen 1, Arriving Today - Break-In Question

dbbyleo · May 28, 2015

Hey guys...

I should find my new MES 40 (Gen1) from Amazon when I get home from work. I've downloaded the manual and read in advance what I have to do to "pre-season" the smoker. It bascially said to run it at 275 degrees for about 3 hours. In the last 45 min, it states to add the wood chips.

Is that about it?

I've read here people doing a "break-in." Is basically just the first thing they smoke after the "pre-seasoning" is done? Is there anything purposeful I need to know about this? I'm thinking about doing some boneless, skinless chicken breast (from Costco) as my trial run. Like another fella noted, if I screw this one up, it's just $2 worth of meat.

Also, I also bought the AMNPS and a pound of AMNS pellets (apple). I've got trout caught this season in the freezer that's been waiting for the smoker. I think I'm just going to pick some hickory chips locally and use that to do the pre-seasoning and the break-in with chicken (and save the apple pellets for when I'm ready for the trout).

Anything else you guys recommend I do or keep in mind?

themandlj32 · May 28, 2015

Good afternoon. You will love that MES I got one for Christmas. I broke mine in by spraying it with olive oil and ran it at 275. Then threw 8 game hens in it. Those hens came out great. I would say it comes down to how anxious are you to use it lol. I was pretty anxious.

bmaddox · May 28, 2015

I would break it in exactly as the manual says. There is no need to add oil as the metal is not porous like on a traditional steel smoker. You will get a little smoke during the break in as the leftover manufacturing residue burns off.

Good luck.

Bearcarver · May 28, 2015

bmaddox said:
I would break it in exactly as the manual says. There is no need to add oil as the metal is not porous like on a traditional steel smoker. You will get a little smoke during the break in as the leftover manufacturing residue burns off.

Good luck.

Plus if you didn't already break in your AMNPS, throw it in the MES to burn off manufacturing oils.

Or throw it on your gas grill when hot, or put it in the DW for a cycle.

Bear

themandlj32 · May 28, 2015

Correction. I sprayed a different smoker. Sorry for the wrong info.

dbbyleo · May 28, 2015

Second question...
"Manual states to store in a dry area. "

Do you keep the unit outside... Like on the back deck next to the propane grill. I have the cover for it. With the cover, is there any concern keeping this outside?

themandlj32 · May 28, 2015

I keep mine in the garage. Sure it makes the process a step extra buy I know I don't risk electronics damage from the weather change.

bmaddox · May 28, 2015

I keep mine in the carport that stays dry but there are plenty of people on here that keep them on porches or decks with a cover on them and it works well for them.

mummel · May 28, 2015

Subbing to this thread. Im going to need to season my MES BT smoker soon too. So 275F for 3 hours, check. No oils, check. As I've already burned in my AMPS, I dont need to do that. Can I skip the wood chips part during the seasoning? I'd rather save those precious AMZN pellets for a real smoke (I got the sample bag). Is adding smoke actually required for the seasoning?

bmaddox · May 28, 2015

@mummel As I said before, I would follow the procedure in the manual. You can get a small bags of chips at HD or Lowes and use those to season it.

dbbyleo · May 28, 2015

Thanks guys! I looking forward to see some smokes... even if its just pre-seasoning smokes! Hopefully I'll be posting my first Qview once I get my first smokes going. Thanks for all the tips and advise... which has led to this purchase, which I feel has been a very educated purchase.

daricksta · May 29, 2015

dbbyleo said:
Hey guys...

I should find my new MES 40 (Gen1) from Amazon when I get home from work. I've downloaded the manual and read in advance what I have to do to "pre-season" the smoker. It bascially said to run it at 275 degrees for about 3 hours. In the last 45 min, it states to add the wood chips.

Is that about it?

I've read here people doing a "break-in." Is basically just the first thing they smoke after the "pre-seasoning" is done? Is there anything purposeful I need to know about this? I'm thinking about doing some boneless, skinless chicken breast (from Costco) as my trial run. Like another fella noted, if I screw this one up, it's just $2 worth of meat.

Also, I also bought the AMNPS and a pound of AMNS pellets (apple). I've got trout caught this season in the freezer that's been waiting for the smoker. I think I'm just going to pick some hickory chips locally and use that to do the pre-seasoning and the break-in with chicken (and save the apple pellets for when I'm ready for the trout).

Anything else you guys recommend I do or keep in mind?

That's all I did when I seasoned my MES 30 Gen 1. I didn't and still don't spray the inside and I've done no mods, other than switch to using wood pellets with my AMNPS.

As for what to smoke first, the Gen 1 smokers are built so well the only way you can screw up the meat is to oversmoke, something I found very easy to do when I started out using wood chips. I buy all my wood pellets from Todd Johnson. I've got them in every flavor I feel I need. In addition to hickory and apple, I think you should also have oak, mesquite, alder, and pecan. You already got a bag of his Pitmaster's Choice with your AMNPS. That has cherry wood in it. Cherry wood burns easily as a wood chip but it's hard to keep lit in wood pellet form which is why it's often mixed with hickory or oak or some other easily-burned wood. A number of guys also like using maple (I never have) and now Todd's added all these exotic flavors to his stock like wine barrel and others. For now, I just stick with the classics. I'll also mix hardwoods with fruitwoods for more complexity of flavor.

The biggest cleaning and preventive maintenance tip to keep in mind is this: clean the two sensor on the inside back wall. On the left side there's a round, dime-sized notched hi-temp cutoff switch. When this thing gets dirty the MES can overheat into the 300° because the sensor isn't able detect high temperatures in order to send a command to the controller to turn off the heating element. This happened to me once and figured out what happened, thanks to Todd. Now, I wipe it down with a damp paper towel and for extra measure clean out each notch with a toothpick if I feel they've gotten to grimy from smoke. The temperature sensor is the toggle-switch looking thing on the right side. I think a lot of temp inaccuracies and fluctuations are caused by a dirty sensor for obvious reasons. Just wipe it off with a damp paper towel.

Heavy duty foil is your friend. Foil over anything that grease and fat might drip down on. I also keep the water pan empty and foiled over. Some guys fill it with clean playground sand and use it as a heat sink. Don't fill it with water because then it acts as a steamer and you want your meats roasted over wood smoke and not steamed. @Bearcarver has erected a moveable heat baffle in his MES 40 because it tends to run hotter on the right side than on the left. He readjusts the baffle as needed during a smoke to equalize the heat between the two sides. In my MES 30 I've seen my smoker grow hotter on the right side, equalize, and the grow hotter on the left side during a smoke. I just leave it be. Bear says that since the MES 40 is larger it's wise to use a heat baffle. He's posted photos of the ones he's constructed.

Happy smoking!

mummel · May 29, 2015

tjwheels said:
Bearcarver - your comment got me to thinking about the chamber temperature and how much it could vary, so today I decided to put it to the test. I used an iGrill2 with the ambient temperature probe. I did the ice water, boiling water test and hit 32 degrees and 209/210 degrees (210.532 is boiling point in my location). The water pan was empty and covered with foil and vent was open all the way. I set my temperature on the smoker to 235 degrees and put the iGrill2 ambient probe on the second shelf back middle for the tip was about a 1/4 inch from the smoker chamber thermometer tip. They both hit 235 degrees within a second of each other. Now on to the test, I took 27 measurements on the bottom, middle and top racks (9 on each rack). For each reading I would put the probe in a location and make sure the smoker temp dropped below 220 degrees. As soon as the smoker hit 235 degrees I would document the iGrill2 temp and move on. I'm not sure what to think of all these numbers but here they are.

I color coded them as follows; Green = within 5 degrees of 235, Blue = more than 5 degrees lower that 235, Yellow = 241 to 255, Orange = 256 - 275 and Red = greater than 275.

MES_40.jpg

tjwheels

Feb 28, 2015

WP_20150228_17_20_34_Pro.jpg

tjwheels

Feb 28, 2015

dbbyleo · May 29, 2015

daRicksta said:
That's all I did when I seasoned my MES 30 Gen 1. I didn't and still don't spray the inside and I've done no mods, other than switch to using wood pellets with my AMNPS.

As for what to smoke first, the Gen 1 smokers are built so well the only way you can screw up the meat is to oversmoke, something I found very easy to do when I started out using wood chips. I buy all my wood pellets from Todd Johnson. I've got them in every flavor I feel I need. In addition to hickory and apple, I think you should also have oak, mesquite, alder, and pecan. You already got a bag of his Pitmaster's Choice with your AMNPS. That has cherry wood in it. Cherry wood burns easily as a wood chip but it's hard to keep lit in wood pellet form which is why it's often mixed with hickory or oak or some other easily-burned wood. A number of guys also like using maple (I never have) and now Todd's added all these exotic flavors to his stock like wine barrel and others. For now, I just stick with the classics. I'll also mix hardwoods with fruitwoods for more complexity of flavor.

The biggest cleaning and preventive maintenance tip to keep in mind is this: clean the two sensor on the inside back wall. On the left side there's a round, dime-sized notched hi-temp cutoff switch. When this thing gets dirty the MES can overheat into the 300° because the sensor isn't able detect high temperatures in order to send a command to the controller to turn off the heating element. This happened to me once and figured out what happened, thanks to Todd. Now, I wipe it down with a damp paper towel and for extra measure clean out each notch with a toothpick if I feel they've gotten to grimy from smoke. The temperature sensor is the toggle-switch looking thing on the right side. I think a lot of temp inaccuracies and fluctuations are caused by a dirty sensor for obvious reasons. Just wipe it off with a damp paper towel.

Heavy duty foil is your friend. Foil over anything that grease and fat might drip down on. I also keep the water pan empty and foiled over. Some guys fill it with clean playground sand and use it as a heat sink. Don't fill it with water because then it acts as a steamer and you want your meats roasted over wood smoke and not steamed. @Bearcarver has erected a moveable heat baffle in his MES 40 because it tends to run hotter on the right side than on the left. He readjusts the baffle as needed during a smoke to equalize the heat between the two sides. In my MES 30 I've seen my smoker grow hotter on the right side, equalize, and the grow hotter on the left side during a smoke. I just leave it be. Bear says that since the MES 40 is larger it's wise to use a heat baffle. He's posted photos of the ones he's constructed.

Happy smoking!

Thanks daRick for the great, practical tips!

dbbyleo · May 29, 2015

Oh and by the way... my MES 40 is still NOT here!!!!! Damn you FedEx! You're Late!

dr k · May 29, 2015

dbbyleo said:
Thanks guys! I looking forward to see some smokes... even if its just pre-seasoning smokes! Hopefully I'll be posting my first Qview once I get my first smokes going. Thanks for all the tips and advise... which has led to this purchase, which I feel has been a very educated purchase.

I got mine in with a dented corner in back where the handle attaches. A few minor cosmetic door issues but everything inside looks new. It maybe a scratch and dent sale for mine. The box it came was dinged up but the cosmetic door issues weren't from that. It'll have to not heat for me to return it. Not a big deal so far.

-Kurt

dbbyleo · May 29, 2015

Ah man, no freaking way - are you serious? It didn't say that on the Amazon item (priced at $273). I'll definitely be given mine a good once over. Have you seen the price of it today.

Shoooot!!! The door bell is ringing as I'm literally typing this... its FedEx! I'll let you know how the unpacking goes!

dr k · May 29, 2015

dbbyleo said:
Ah man, no freaking way - are you serious? It didn't say that on the Amazon item (priced at $273). I'll definitely be given mine a good once over. Have you seen the price of it today.

Shoooot!!! The door bell is ringing as I'm literally typing this... its FedEx! I'll let you know how the unpacking goes!

Everything is brand new and complete. Very minor cosmetic issues I've already gotten over. Mines going to get dinged up moving it on the wheels. It's all about how it works to me. @&%$* light bulb is busted. WTF! That means it's going to be a great smoker.LOL

-Kurt

dbbyleo · May 29, 2015

Ok... unpacking went well. I didn't have any of the surprises you did - everything seems to be in shape. I agree, it's really about how well it smokes. In the end, it'll look ugly and beat up, the beauty is literally "within" ... :)

Question... does you remote display look dim at first, but then when you look at it from an angle you can see the display clearly. I had to borrow AAA batteries from my headlamps, so I'm not sure if its just a low-batt issue I'm seeing.

Anyway... it's pre-seasoning now!

dr k · May 29, 2015

dbbyleo said:
Ok... unpacking went well. I didn't have any of the surprises you did - everything seems to be in shape. I agree, it's really about how well it smokes. In the end, it'll look ugly and beat up, the beauty is literally "within" ... :)

Question... does you remote display look dim at first, but then when you look at it from an angle you can see the display clearly. I had to borrow AAA batteries from my headlamps, so I'm not sure if its just a low-batt issue I'm seeing.

Anyway... it's pre-seasoning now!

It must be your batteries. I turned mine on for a minute to see that it heats and turned it off. No time today to preseaon it.
-Kurt

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