Need help fast!
I read just about every MES thread there is, and have seen this problem before, but I never saw the final "What-to-do". I'll try to explain:
Since I love my MES 30, I bought my son an MES 30 for Christmas. He finally took it out of the box yesterday, set it up, and did the 3 hours at 275* break-in.
It worked good, but then he turned it down to 225*, put some wood chips in it, and 4 chicken breasts.
No Smoke!
He ran the temp up to 250*----No Smoke.
He opened the door, bringing the Smoker temp to 150*, and let it go back up to 250*----No Smoke.
He called me, and I went down there.
His is a newer model than mine. His has the near part of the chip loader blocked off, and the chip drawer is smaller. After checking his smoker out, I found that there is a metal floor under the chip drawer. Mine does not have this. My chip drawer has nothing between it & the element.
His has the bottom of the box below the drawer, and the side rails of that box are folded below the flat bottom. Then the drawer slides into that box. So we removed the drawer, and put some small chips directly on that metal plate, and ran it from 160* to 250*----No Smoke!
It appears to me that the side rails of the box that the chip drawer slides into are either against or nearly against the element, causing the bottom of that box to "NOT" be against the element. Then the drawer slides into that, which puts another piece of metal between the chips & the wood, but the chips wouldn't even smoke with the second piece of metal (the drawer bottom) removed.
What to do???????
Bend the middle of that plate down to be against the element (bend the drawer down too?)???
Or could it be an air problem? We had the Exhaust Vent open all the way, the whole time. Are there intake holes in this unit???
There was nothing wrong with the chips---Same ones I use in my MES 30.
Please help, before he takes it back!
Bearcarver
I read just about every MES thread there is, and have seen this problem before, but I never saw the final "What-to-do". I'll try to explain:
Since I love my MES 30, I bought my son an MES 30 for Christmas. He finally took it out of the box yesterday, set it up, and did the 3 hours at 275* break-in.
It worked good, but then he turned it down to 225*, put some wood chips in it, and 4 chicken breasts.
No Smoke!
He ran the temp up to 250*----No Smoke.
He opened the door, bringing the Smoker temp to 150*, and let it go back up to 250*----No Smoke.
He called me, and I went down there.
His is a newer model than mine. His has the near part of the chip loader blocked off, and the chip drawer is smaller. After checking his smoker out, I found that there is a metal floor under the chip drawer. Mine does not have this. My chip drawer has nothing between it & the element.
His has the bottom of the box below the drawer, and the side rails of that box are folded below the flat bottom. Then the drawer slides into that box. So we removed the drawer, and put some small chips directly on that metal plate, and ran it from 160* to 250*----No Smoke!
It appears to me that the side rails of the box that the chip drawer slides into are either against or nearly against the element, causing the bottom of that box to "NOT" be against the element. Then the drawer slides into that, which puts another piece of metal between the chips & the wood, but the chips wouldn't even smoke with the second piece of metal (the drawer bottom) removed.
What to do???????
Bend the middle of that plate down to be against the element (bend the drawer down too?)???
Or could it be an air problem? We had the Exhaust Vent open all the way, the whole time. Are there intake holes in this unit???
There was nothing wrong with the chips---Same ones I use in my MES 30.
Please help, before he takes it back!
Bearcarver