Speaking for myself, when spending a large amount of money such as this, one should not have any problems to begin with IMO. My husband works for the DOD and has been repairing airplanes for 30 years. I saw the pictures of corroded wires so I asked him what causes corrosion on wires and why heating elements fail. His response was that corrosion is caused by moisture and/or uncompatible metals being used. As for the heating element, poor quality. I live in the Deep South and the humidity is horrible for the majority of the year. If this item is kept outside on a covered porch, then the insides are going to corrode over time because I do not think the shell is air/water tight. One may say to cover it, but that won't help either because I have covered my vinyl patio furniture for the winter and still got black mold growing on it by springtime. I have brass and painted wrought iron stuff inside and outside our home and they have been affected by the humidity. Those items are either pitted or have become rusty.
I would like to know if MB customer service sends out replacement parts for free after the warranty has expired. It seems to me that a 90 day warranty is worthless if you smoke minimum 1x a month. If the thermometer probes are not accurate, then they are not worth using either. A lot of newbies, like my husband, purchased a Gen. 2 expecting the unit to work as advertised on QVC. It just blows my mind to read so many people having to repair smokers. I am not bad mouthing MB, just voicing my thoughts after reading so many posts about their products. People naturally remember the bad stuff more than the good.