MES Temperature Variance

[outlaw44]

Hey yall. First smoke on my new MES 40 today..woot woot! So, being a converted charcoal guy, I have a couple questions.

1) I have seen some posts stating that the built in meat probe is off by quite a bit. Have you guys noticed that the MES itself seems off? I ran the unit at about 225 and it seems to not be cooking as quickly as what my charcoal vertical smoker did (maybe my vertical was hot or had hot spots). And the meat prob consistently said it was about 35 deg below what the smoker was saying it was. I'm cooking babybacks and country style pork (boneless). My plan is to throw a thermometer in there that I know is calibrated to check it out, but I thought I'd ask around. Do you normally cook ribs at 225 in the MES? I always shot for that in my vertical charcoal unit, but maybe I need to aim a little higher in the MES.

2) While I'm still using the stock chip holder (thought I'd at least give it a try before I purchased an AMNS), I'm getting some really good smoke, but there doesn't seem to be much of a bark developing. Does this change with the AMNS? Anything else I should do?

Thanks in advance!

I'll post some pics of the finished product in a little while.

 

[meateater]

I don't have a MES but congrats on the new smoker. 

 

[bigbob73]

I like to cook closer to 240 on my 30".  What size chip try did you get?  I did the retrofit and the bark is amazing now.

 

[outlaw44]

I like to cook closer to 240 on my 30".  What size chip try did you get?  I did the retrofit and the bark is amazing now.

Thanks! I'll have to give 240 a shot.

Haha. I just replied to your other thread...I still have the smaller chip tray.

 

[bigbob73]

working on my cold smoke mod now.

 

[SmokinAl]

Congrats on the new smoker!

 

[tjohnson]

Hey yall. First smoke on my new MES 40 today..woot woot! So, being a converted charcoal guy, I have a couple questions.

1) I have seen some posts stating that the built in meat probe is off by quite a bit. Have you guys noticed that the MES itself seems off? I ran the unit at about 225 and it seems to not be cooking as quickly as what my charcoal vertical smoker did (maybe my vertical was hot or had hot spots). And the meat prob consistently said it was about 35 deg below what the smoker was saying it was. I'm cooking babybacks and country style pork (boneless). My plan is to throw a thermometer in there that I know is calibrated to check it out, but I thought I'd ask around. Do you normally cook ribs at 225 in the MES? I always shot for that in my vertical charcoal unit, but maybe I need to aim a little higher in the MES.

You're gonna find that every rack will have a different temp, and the right rear corner of the unit has a hot spot.

I cook Ribs at 225° and Pork Shoulder at 250°

My MES runs a little hotter than what the digital control reads, so I set the MES at 211° to maintain 225° in the smoker.  You need to check it against a good external thermometer.  This way you will have an idea of the temp of each rack inside your MES.

2) While I'm still using the stock chip holder (thought I'd at least give it a try before I purchased an AMNS), I'm getting some really good smoke, but there doesn't seem to be much of a bark developing. Does this change with the AMNS? Anything else I should do?

Your bark is dependent on the inside the smoker and the rub you put on your meat, not the smoke.  If you are using water in the pan, or foiling, the bark will get soft.  All you have to do is cook for the last hour or so without the foil

Thanks in advance!

I'll post some pics of the finished product in a little while.

Welcome!
My answers in RED

Todd

 

[eman]

My MES 40" is just the oppiset , i set it at 250° and it cooks at 230°

 

[hiram]

On my MES 40 the internal temp is minus 10 degrees either using a probe or oven thermometer, the meat probe when compared to an external probe is also off by 10 degrees, but for some unknown reason as the internal temp of the meat gets around 175 the internal probe catches up with the external probe to read almost the same. If I want my butts to cook at 220 I usually run the unit at 230-235, don't even use the internal probe untill 3\4 of the way into the cook.  

 

[hkeiner]

The temp dislay on my MES40 typically shows 10 - 20 degrees hotter than the "actual" inside temperature (as measured with a Maverik ET-73). I would prefer it was wrong the other direction so I could smoke/bake at higher temperatures, but I live with it as it is by setting the controller 10-20 degrees higher.

I did seem to notice that the disparity was greater when smoking with a water pan inside than without a water pan. Perhaps the water pan affects the Maverick probe (which is more in the center of the box) than the MES sensor (which is located on the right side of the back wall). Just my thoughts...

 

[bluemoon07]

Well I decided to do a brisket for the wife for mothers day, and I wanted to check the temps in my MES40 so I could make sure I was running at 225. Mine seems to be running 30 degrees cooler than the set temp. At a set temp of 255, I've got an oven temp gauge and 2 probes all saying 225. Don't think I would ever have finished to 200 if I had relied on the MES set to 225 and actually cooking at 195.