Assembled My New Masterbuilt

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Rings Я Us

Smoking Guru
Original poster
Jul 3, 2017
6,326
909
Southeast Michigan
I went and bought the Masterbuilt Bullet 1650 watt Smoker.
Often these smokers sell for $69.00 or $59.00.. I saw some at the local HD and had to pull the trigger at a sale price if $29.00 . I bought a $7.00 2 year replacement warranty for the heck of it.
I got the bullet to replace the ECB for a while. I guess I wanted to try out an electric type smoker and get some experience messing with one like that.
Being an analog controlled device won't be so much set and forget. The low to high will be changing due to weather conditions and the size of or amount of food to smoke.
Wood chips or chunks will burn different in this smoker than the charcoal ECB.
This Masterbuilt is not a totally enclosed unit and has a small 1/2" or so gap all the way around it's heat shield under the double round heating elements that the charcoal pan sits just inside of..
The charcoal pan has 3 feet to elevate it off the elements and they keep it centered.
A water pan rests about 3 inches above the chip pan and is about the same diameter as the water pan used in the ECB. This water pan is however not as deep as the ECB pan. About 2/3 of the water volume it will hold.

The entire Masterbuilt bullet smoker seems close to the old Brinkmann's dimensions, however, the body of the Masterbuilt is about 3 inches shorter.
The steel thickness is a bit thinner than what the ECB is made of. It's not as heavy duty in the lid thickness either. Close in size of the lids though.
This Masterbuilt comes with nice heavy plastic handles and a huge top vent. The thermometer is removable in the dome.
I did stick the thermometer in my oven to check the accuracy of it.
Have to admit.. Oven set at 275 and the Masterbuilt thermometer read 275 along with my regular oven thermometer next to it on the same rack.
At least the dome temp it shows will be pretty close to actual temp there.
During the assembly I kept wanting to grab the RTV sealant to put on all the holes before I screwed everything down. I refrained from bothering since this is not controlled by intake dampers at all.
There is a bunch of sticky coating in the lid and inside the body of this bullet. The inside of the lid and barrel are not painted except for some overspray from factory paint job.. So the initial seasoning period hopefully gets all that crap off the inside.
The manual calls for 3 hours hi heat with the last 45 minutes using wood chips.
Supposedly this smoker can go to 400° on full boogie.
It comes with a useless 6 foot power cord so I have to go buy another extension for it..
Apartment has no outside plug.
You need a cord rated for 1875 watts 15 Amp. Some cords you can get are 14/3 or 14 gauge and some are 12 gauge cords rated 15 Amp and 1875 watt.
I need a 15 or 25 footer. $20 added to my purchase I guess.
This smoker comes with a heavy duty plastic scoop for adding wood chips . Pretty nice. The door for your access to the water and chips is smaller than what it could be. It opens the same way as a WSM door.. Just kind of hangs there with no hinges.
The lid hass kind of a sloppy fit to it.. There us no need to seal the lid for temp control reasons.. So we will have to see how much it leaks. It doesn't fit into the body but rather rests on the body with a good sized flat rim.
A plus about the lid is that it has a tab just inside that is for hooking on the body rim to rest it there and you don't have to set it on the ground as you tend to food.
I'm going to put pics on in some orderly fashion for anyone thinking of buying this model.
The racks are actually 1/4 inch bigger diameter than the ECB racks. Smoker barrel is just under the 17" Mark. Racks are 15 3/4". The space between racks is 5 1/2" ... The top rack to just about to touch the under part of the lid is about the same amount of space.
Not room for a big turkey on the top rack. The legs on this Masterbuilt bullet are real stable and heavy duty. Platform pads give the legs great stability.
Can't wait to fire this thing up..
Need the extension cord and a day off..
Give this a ⭐⭐⭐⭐. 4 out of 5 so far. Can't beat this deal for $29.00
 
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I would add that the metal rod on this temp dial is also a probe that is in the smoker an inch or two and transmits to cycle on the heat as needed
 
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Sounds like a "Sore D*** Special".....You just can't beat it!
We don't have any in store near me and if I want to order one they're $60 delivered :(
 
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Sounds like a "Sore D*** Special".....You just can't beat it!
We don't have any in store near me and if I want to order one they're $60 delivered :(
Yeah.. regular price is $79 and a good sale would be $59 . I don't think I would pay over $49.00 for one myself.
 
I think I messed up buying that though.. it's for items $25-$50 and they replace it.. But on sale $30 it's more than HALF OFF! Lol

They may not replace it if the new one cost $59.00
 
Well Johnny for $29 its pretty hard to lose.
Keep us posted.
Gary

Congrats on the new smoker.
Im sure you will posting pic of some good Q from it!

Happy Smoking,
phatbac (Aaron)

Should be fun to learn this style smoker.
I think it will be good for crisping chicken skin since they say it can do 400°.

Will get a cord and season it this weekend and check to see what it can do as far as low and hi temps.. See if chunks will work too.
 
29.00 you could easily spend that on liquid refreshments. Good luck and keep us posted on how it performs.

Chris
 
Weather says 35 ° outside while I just start my break-in seasoning of the new Masterbuilt.
I put the probe on the top grate at 9 a.m. to watch the temp in there. It's on full heat right now while this thing hopefully burns off the factory new smell crud.

In 7 minutes this thing was at 250°
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After 15 minutes in the mid 30s outside with no wind it reached over 300° to about 320 and kicked off. Temps dove down to 245° and started to slowly climb back up..
I'm sure because there is no water in the pan, wood in the chip pan or food on the rack and the temp outside is so chilly that it will have issues keeping put.
It seems to have settled in at 255 now.
30 minutes in...

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Tripped the breaker on my living room line. The dogs space heater and my tv going with the 1650 watt Masterbuilt didn't last more than 45 minutes all going at once. :mad:

Plugged it in on another line in the kitchen with its own breaker . Just don't run the garbage disposal and the dishwasher o_O
 
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Less draw on this electrical line now has the temp increasing I think..
275 degrees steady.
Still 37° outside here.
 
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At 11:10 a.m. 285° I added a heaping scoop of scrap from the bottom of the bag of chunks. It was a little difficult to get all the stuff in at once. Maybe a smaller load would be easier. I also added in a chunk , to see how they will burn over time. Vent on top cracked about probe wire thickness. Temp drop of 10 degrees over about 30 seconds with the door open. So I'm seeing smoke already.

And as I expected, smoke from the top door area and a bit around the lid in places.
Hmm.. Wonder if the ECB lid fits ? . Lol
Have to get some gasket stuff some day.
The lid was actually stuck down when I tried to lift it. Stuck down real good. I guess the junk heated and got sticky under the lip.
 
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The therm on my WSM was fairly accurate when new.Now it's a crapshoot.Sometimes it's spot on and sometimes off up to 60 degrees :confused:
 
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