MES big load temps & recovery discussion

[deltadude]

DaveNH the 40" has a higher watt element 750 Watt. The problem with a 40" for me only shows up with big loads. As I said above I did 8.5lb pork/butt one only, last monday. Preheated 1 hour at 270, loaded the boiling water, loaded the meat, and 20 minutes later was at 225. As for recovery, after 3 or 4 hours I have very little problems unless I fail to manage the door well, usually recovery with a big load is 30 minutes, and with smallish load 15 to 20 minutes. I stress, manage the door open/close is critical, I usually have someone else open and close the door, and usually try to pull the whole MES rack out, rather than pickup meat, plus I try to make sure the element is ON during this period.

 

[pantherfan83]

Are you sure the heating element is hotter when you set it to 270 than when you set it to 225? I got the impression the heating element was either on or off and the controller turned the element off and on as the temp raised above or fell below the set point.

 

[deltadude]

Your right, the 270 thing is from a couple of episodes with the controller (in initial ramp phase) going off or taking a long time to come up to temp when set to 225, to solve the issue I did a couple of hard resets, and the controller starts acting normally. This has been mentioned a couple of times by others. So now I just do 270. Of course at 270 and if the readout is saying 180, and I come out of the house after 30 or 45 min. I expect to see the little lite showing the element is ON, and at 270 I expect it to be lit everytime I come out, no guess work. (I do reset the temp to 225 when the read out gets to 215.)

However after the PitRow post, I'm rethinking my procedure. A setting of 270 or 225 the element is going to stay on till the controller sensor gets to 225.

I have also discovered after a grilling last night that my out door outlet circuit which is only 15a, has a faulty circuit breaker. I have two electric hot plates for doing side dishes, and used both hotplates last night and the breaker tripped off. I haven't had a problem so far with the MES and the breaker to my knowledge. Except on all night smokes or early AM smokes I have a portable Light I plug in with the MES and maybe that had something to do with the controller not keeping the element on during ramp phase, (sort of like using a extension cord).