2012 MES 40 vs. Old Model MES 40

[geerock]

Oh that didn't cost me a thing. MB sent me a refund and said it wasn't worth paying to have the units shipped back. So I put the units to good use.

 

[bmaddox]

 
Good answer SmokeOne!

I have better luck with the water pan out

I did test the unit with the drip pan out, and the temp variations was wild.  The right side was extremely H-O-T!

So, you'll need to keep the drip tray in

Personally, I would use a disposable pan on the first rack, and allow the drippings to fall into this pan

TJ

Todd, what was your final verdict on the gen2 drip tray? This topic seems to keep coming up on other threads and as a gen2 owner I would like to know what works best for you.

Thanks

 

[voldaddy]

Well I have the 40" 2nd generation smoker and have had temp issues. The last ribs that I smoked using 3-2-1 seemed to have spots that weren't done. I smoked a ham at 225 and it didn't heat like I thought it should, so I put my Maverick in, and between the temp on the control panel, built in meat probe, and Maverick, it was 45 degrees different from the control panel to the Maverick.

I called Masterbuilt and I will say that their customer service is A-1. They sent me a new element and control panel that I replaced. Fired up the smoker and it was worse, almost 100 degrees off. I bought a Rubbermaid oven thermometer to use to help monitor temps as well.

2nd call was made to Masterbuilt, and they said my internal thermostat probe must be bad, and as it's made into the cabinet then they cannot do anything to replace it, so they sent me a whole new cabinet. I had to cut the power cord off of the back, removed one of the serial # plates, and send the picture to them.

I received the new cabinet, installed all parts needed from the old one, and ran several tests in the seasoning period, and the temps remained close to steady.

I have 2 racks of babybacks in now, using my Amaze-N-Smoker with the chip loader out and tray opened about 3 inches, and my control panel shows 225 but my oven thermometer was about 180.

Very frustrating to say the least. I have raised the control panel temp to 250 to see what the oven thermometer that's on the rack with the ribs shows.

 

[tjohnson]

My first 2 MES Gen 2's wouldn't shut down.  One had a "Melt Down" at about 340° and I got to the other one before it melted down.  I am on my 4th unit and have to set the controller to 205° to maintain 225° on the middle racks.  Some guys have to set their controllers at 250° in-order to maintain 225°.  It's certainly a quality control issue at the factory.

I remove the water pan and place it on the floor

This seems to allow for better air flow and circulation in the smoker

 

[chears500]

HI Todd, thanks for all of your help with this stuff.  What is your final verdict for the set up for the AMNPS and the MES 40 gen 2 talked about in this thread?  I personally have pulled out the chip loader completely, pulled out the chip tray a few inches and placed the AMPS above the rectangle slot for the drip pan.  It seems to work great for pecan pellets but struggles with hickory and apple.  I notice you say to, "put the drip pan on the floor" does that force/push air up to the AMNPS above?  

Any chance you could take a pic of the complete recommended set up?  Thanks so much and I do love the product!

 

[addertooth]

I ended up d

HI Todd, thanks for all of your help with this stuff.  What is your final verdict for the set up for the AMNPS and the MES 40 gen 2 talked about in this thread?  I personally have pulled out the chip loader completely, pulled out the chip tray a few inches and placed the AMPS above the rectangle slot for the drip pan.  It seems to work great for pecan pellets but struggles with hickory and apple.  I notice you say to, "put the drip pan on the floor" does that force/push air up to the AMNPS above?  

Any chance you could take a pic of the complete recommended set up?  Thanks so much and I do love the product!

ing the mailbox mod, all problems solved

 

[jimbuchanan]

Hello, everyone. I have the Lowe's model 20079015, I suppose is a Gen 2 30 inch. Solid door, temp probe, inside light for $179. I like it a lot, however I have a need to modify it. Like others, I noticed the right side is/was up to 25 degrees hotter. Oh, by the way, I got this idea before I saw the inverted grease shield experiment a few pages back.

This model has the air vent on the left back top corner, which I believe is appropriate for air flow from the bottom right heat coil. I decided in the beginning I would not use the water bowl and the fact that the grease shield was slanted down away from the heat source probably contributed to the hot spot on the right. So, I basically flipped the shield left/right, reshaped it, removed the water tray side rail, angled it up by re-positioning the 4 side screws, and making a channel for grease to drip down to the drip pan on the right edge.

It works. With temp probes left and right sides of all racks, I get a 5-7 degree variance. However, as noted a few pages up, the temp gets progressively hotter low rack to high rack.

Thermostat setting. In the beginning I also noticed the actual temp being about 25 degrees above the temp setting of the unit. But yesterday I spent all day monitoring for hot spots and all day the Thermostat setting was within 10 degrees of the middle interior actual temp. In fact this morning I set it for 200 degrees, and the left/right probes and the internal temp all 3 were 199 degrees. I am wondering if the unit needs time for the thermostat to adjust for accuracy, after all at least originally a thermostat was mechanical with 2 dissimilar metals sensitive to heat. By the way, on my unit the thermostat sensor is the small metal stub right in the middle of the back side. Put an ice cube on it and the reading immediately drops.

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• jimbuchanan
• Dec 20, 2015

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• jimbuchanan
• Dec 20, 2015

 

[old sarge]

jimbuchanan - If you use the search feature above you should be able to find some posts and solutions that will answer your question.  From the thousands of MES postings throughout the electric smoker section, I know there have been many problems and many solutions that have kept users up and running/smoking.  The temperature issue has been reported on numerous times with certain models.  Not being a use of the MES I cannot say which model. But try the search feature.  Also, here is a link with some additional info/links.  And good luck.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/239290/bought-a-gen-2-why-the-hate

 

[jimbuchanan]

Thanks, for the information on the search function, I guess. In case it wasn't apparent, the purpose of my above post is to share with the forum, my solution for eliminating the left right hot spot. I have no more temperature issues.   As I said "it works".

 

[old sarge]

jimbuchanan - I was just a little confused.  Maybe if you start a new thread regarding the heat issue fix it will get more attention and help others.  And congratulations of your fix!