- Jul 4, 2014
- 4
- 10
I have looked through most of the threads on re-wiring a MES but did not find the answers to my questions.
I have a MES 40 (M# 20070408 SS, No Window, 800 W Element) that the circuit board underneath went bad on. I got it really cheap used because it was not working and I am using it for a winter project. I want to get it up and running and increase my novice smoking skills.
I drilled out the rivets and took the back off to start a re-wire job using a SSR to replace the board. The heating element and the controller are still functioning, but the ground wire came loose on the board underneath and then shorted out the whole board. I have a couple of questions to those of you that have re-wired your smokers.
1) Is it possible to re-use the existing top mounted controller instead of using a PID controller? If I can re-use the controller I can get it working this weekend instead of ordering a controller and waiting. There are four wires to the controller now (red, black, green, white). I could not find a description of what each wire does and you cannot tell by taking apart the controller housing. I am guessing two are the hot and neutral to power the controller, green is ground for it, and red or black is the on/off switch for the heating element. If anyone has done this or failed at this I would be interested to hear about it. My biggest concern is how much power can I send to the controller. If I hook it up to the 110V that the SSR is using will that fry it?
2) After I got the back off I found there are two "probes" inside the smoker. From looking through all of the pictures of the backs of smokers the lower one is the thermostat (I believe), but I don't know what the upper one is and how it fits into the re-wiring. Below is a picture of the back showing the two "probes" and one of what the top probe looks like inside the smoker.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I have a MES 40 (M# 20070408 SS, No Window, 800 W Element) that the circuit board underneath went bad on. I got it really cheap used because it was not working and I am using it for a winter project. I want to get it up and running and increase my novice smoking skills.
I drilled out the rivets and took the back off to start a re-wire job using a SSR to replace the board. The heating element and the controller are still functioning, but the ground wire came loose on the board underneath and then shorted out the whole board. I have a couple of questions to those of you that have re-wired your smokers.
1) Is it possible to re-use the existing top mounted controller instead of using a PID controller? If I can re-use the controller I can get it working this weekend instead of ordering a controller and waiting. There are four wires to the controller now (red, black, green, white). I could not find a description of what each wire does and you cannot tell by taking apart the controller housing. I am guessing two are the hot and neutral to power the controller, green is ground for it, and red or black is the on/off switch for the heating element. If anyone has done this or failed at this I would be interested to hear about it. My biggest concern is how much power can I send to the controller. If I hook it up to the 110V that the SSR is using will that fry it?
2) After I got the back off I found there are two "probes" inside the smoker. From looking through all of the pictures of the backs of smokers the lower one is the thermostat (I believe), but I don't know what the upper one is and how it fits into the re-wiring. Below is a picture of the back showing the two "probes" and one of what the top probe looks like inside the smoker.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
