- Dec 30, 2014
- 34
- 10
I just bought a new 1st generation 30 in electric MES smoker with the controls at the top rear and a window. I used it for the first time this weekend too do two Boston butts for pulled pork. I live in North West PA and the temp outside when I started the smoker at 3am was 14 degrees. I placed a Maverick 733 probe in the smoker to monitor the inside temp. The probe was on one of the clips that comes with the unit under the middle shelf. Originally the smoker when turned to 220 deg on the smoker only registured 208 on the maverick. I turned the smoker temp up to 240 and the maverick registered 220 deg and I put the two room temp butts in the smoker. After and hour in the smoker the temp would only come up to 205 deg on the maverick. I turned the smoker up to its highest setting and the smoker would only come up to 228 deg but would fluctuate between 228 and 201 deg. I used the smoker for 11 hrs that day and the temp outside did reach 30 deg as the sun came up. Is this normal for this smoker? Is there something broken on the smoker that will not allow it to come up to temp? When I seasoned the smoker two days before I set the smoker at 275 and the maverick read 298 deg after 1 hour and the temp outside was -1. Why would the smoker not come up to temp and the highest it would go is 228. When I seasoned the smoker it was inside my un-heated garage and when I used it to do the pork it was on my open deck. Please advise me to why this happened and what I can do to get a higher temp when its cold out. I replaced my older electric smoker (Bradly) with this MES. The older smoker can and did reach temps of 260 deg running right beside the MES. I used the 2nd and the third shelf. The temp prob was under the 2nd shelf. The two butts were on the 2nd shelf from the top and weighed 4.47 and 5.5 pounds. I preheated for approx 45 min to and hour while I lite my AMnps and got the meat prepped and to room temp. During the preheat the smoker came up to 208 deg when the smoker was set at 240 deg so I turned the smoker up to 240 about 30 min into the pre-heat and the smoker went to 220 deg. I do not have any problems with the maverick 733 in my other smoker with the same set up so I do believe the smoker never got above the stated temps on my MES. Also after 9 hrs I pulled the 4.47 butt and the external probe temp was the same as when I checked it with my thermapen 169 deg. I only had one probe in the small butt and I used the second probe of the maverick for the barbecue temp of the inside of the smoker. The temp probe for the inside smoker temp was on a clip under the 3rd shelf. I also noticed today that the bottom of my door on the inside looks at if it has melted. The metal peice at the bottom inside comes to a point and the paint or coating has cracked. Is this normal for the door to do? I did not notice the point on the inside of the door before. Thanks for any help.
Steve
Steve
