Masterbuilt vertical smoker burner issues

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dfresh4130

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 17, 2014
3
13
I've had my Masterbuild vertical 2 door smoker for about 2 years now.  Got the model only sold at Home Depot.  It's been working great, but recently made took it from Kansas City to San Diego on a cross country move and have been having issues with the burner.  For the first 3-4 hours the unit works normal.  Then after a while the temp in the smokehouse starts dropping to about 140.  When I went out to take a look it was getting dark and noticed the orange glow being seen under the unit on the ground.  When I opened the bottom door I saw almost no blue flame at all.  Turned off the gas and when I reignited it the flame became very large and actually came out below the burner and got very close to where the hose turns to the metal valve allowing the gas to mix with the air before reaching the burner for combustion.  It's pretty rusty on the bottom so I'm guessing something is changing due to the heat over time.  Maybe I need a new burner, but with the way it's built just from a glance it doesn't look very easily replaceable.  The masterbuilt website doesn't list any replacement parts either.  Has anyone experienced anything like this before with a vertical gas smoker?
 
I had a similar situation on my masterbuilt xl about 2 years ago. It turned out that where the gas line is crimped to the flare fitting that attaches to the gas valve had a leak. It actually ended up catching fire and ruined the valve and ignition not to mention all the meat I had going...talk about a bummer. I was lucky however that I was able to shut down the tank before anything worse happened. We all read about checking for gas leaks but if your like me your always in a hurry to get that great smoke going. Lesson learned, I check pretty often now. I am not sure that this is your problem, but the flame you describe and everything sounds very similar to what I had. If nothing else checking for a leak can give you peace of mind.
 
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I had the same thing happen, but only after the second use.  Turned off the propane valve, just before the hose melted off.  The ignitor and smoker gas valve handle both melted and fell off.  I consider this a design flaw.
 
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