- May 21, 2019
- 7
- 1
Hi All...
Newbie here from Northern Ohio, I’ve been lurking on here for a couple years and finally decided to post.
I bought an MES 130 back in November, it seemed to work fine thru the winter but the last couple of cooks it hasn’t seemed to be working great. Longer cook times and doesn’t seem to be burning thru the chips. I’ve read a lot on here, I know I probably need an A-Maze-n but I feel I have another issue.
It has a built in meat probe. I don’t usually use it, but I had hanging in the box while doing some ribs and I noticed it was showing 15-20 degrees lower than the control temp. I had never really tested it so I didn’t really trust it. The next day I tested it in ice water and boiling water and it was accurate. So I turned on the smoker to test the temp to 225 let it run for an hour or 2 and it consistently ran 7-8 degrees lower than control temp. I then set it to 275 and consistently ran 10-12 degrees lower. I’m still not sure I trust the probe, so I have an InkBird arriving today.
After this test I called Masterbuilt, they basically said 5-12 degrees difference is not uncommon. The rep said he didn’t think there was an issue with heating element, but they are gonna send me one anyway (but it’s on backorder). He also mentioned it could be the internal thermostat, but that’s not an exchangeable part on my model.
So this past weekend I did a pork butt I set the temp 10-15 degrees higher at 240, instead of 225 to compensate for the difference. It cooked fine, but it just didn’t seem to be getting any smoke. I know that’s a common problem on these, but it just doesn’t seem to be burning the chips at all. In 7 hours I only loaded chips once. Then I wrapped it. After 4-5 hours wrapped I still had chips in the tray. They were still pretty much intact and just blacken. Now that I look back that’s happened for the last 2-3 cooks. Any ideas??
I know there is tons of info on here about these smokers, but I haven’t really seen this problem, any help would be great!
Thanks!!
Newbie here from Northern Ohio, I’ve been lurking on here for a couple years and finally decided to post.
I bought an MES 130 back in November, it seemed to work fine thru the winter but the last couple of cooks it hasn’t seemed to be working great. Longer cook times and doesn’t seem to be burning thru the chips. I’ve read a lot on here, I know I probably need an A-Maze-n but I feel I have another issue.
It has a built in meat probe. I don’t usually use it, but I had hanging in the box while doing some ribs and I noticed it was showing 15-20 degrees lower than the control temp. I had never really tested it so I didn’t really trust it. The next day I tested it in ice water and boiling water and it was accurate. So I turned on the smoker to test the temp to 225 let it run for an hour or 2 and it consistently ran 7-8 degrees lower than control temp. I then set it to 275 and consistently ran 10-12 degrees lower. I’m still not sure I trust the probe, so I have an InkBird arriving today.
After this test I called Masterbuilt, they basically said 5-12 degrees difference is not uncommon. The rep said he didn’t think there was an issue with heating element, but they are gonna send me one anyway (but it’s on backorder). He also mentioned it could be the internal thermostat, but that’s not an exchangeable part on my model.
So this past weekend I did a pork butt I set the temp 10-15 degrees higher at 240, instead of 225 to compensate for the difference. It cooked fine, but it just didn’t seem to be getting any smoke. I know that’s a common problem on these, but it just doesn’t seem to be burning the chips at all. In 7 hours I only loaded chips once. Then I wrapped it. After 4-5 hours wrapped I still had chips in the tray. They were still pretty much intact and just blacken. Now that I look back that’s happened for the last 2-3 cooks. Any ideas??
I know there is tons of info on here about these smokers, but I haven’t really seen this problem, any help would be great!
Thanks!!