Been lurking on this forum for a couple years and have learned alot but never signed up and contributed to the community.
Received a MES40 Gen 2 about two years ago as a present from my father in law. We were watching BBQ pitmasters on TV one weekend and both commenting on how good it all looked and next thing I know he bought me a smoker and told me it was an early chrismas present and expected me to make a turkey in it for Thanksgiving.
My first couple smoks were terrible, way too much smoke, not patient enough, temps were all wrong.... I bought a few books and found this forum and was able to dial in the proper way to smoke meat.
About a month ago i was smoking a brisket and my smoker stopped working on me, it kept tripping the ground fault. I started to look over all the wiring, found the connections to the heating element rusted up, cleaned them up and put new connectors on the end of wires. Ran it empty for about 30 minutes and it stopped again. I decided to order some good high temp 12G wire and staineless steel connectors and i completely rewired it. now everytime i turn it on it powers on and does fine until i set the time and temp, then it pops the ground fault. yesterday I ran the line inside and it ran for about 30 minutes and then stopped working. Didnt trip the breaker or anything, wont power on at all
I think I am ready to strip all the parts, wiring, racks off this thing and throw it on the curb and go and get me a new MES40 2.5 BT and get the three year warranty from SAM's. any problems in the three years, i will just get a new one under warranty and keep repeating the process.
Curt
Received a MES40 Gen 2 about two years ago as a present from my father in law. We were watching BBQ pitmasters on TV one weekend and both commenting on how good it all looked and next thing I know he bought me a smoker and told me it was an early chrismas present and expected me to make a turkey in it for Thanksgiving.
My first couple smoks were terrible, way too much smoke, not patient enough, temps were all wrong.... I bought a few books and found this forum and was able to dial in the proper way to smoke meat.
About a month ago i was smoking a brisket and my smoker stopped working on me, it kept tripping the ground fault. I started to look over all the wiring, found the connections to the heating element rusted up, cleaned them up and put new connectors on the end of wires. Ran it empty for about 30 minutes and it stopped again. I decided to order some good high temp 12G wire and staineless steel connectors and i completely rewired it. now everytime i turn it on it powers on and does fine until i set the time and temp, then it pops the ground fault. yesterday I ran the line inside and it ran for about 30 minutes and then stopped working. Didnt trip the breaker or anything, wont power on at all
I think I am ready to strip all the parts, wiring, racks off this thing and throw it on the curb and go and get me a new MES40 2.5 BT and get the three year warranty from SAM's. any problems in the three years, i will just get a new one under warranty and keep repeating the process.
Curt