Just finished putting together my second MES30, first one died after just over 2 years of faithful service. New one out of the box would barely char the chips in the tray even after fiddling with it and dealing with MB customer support, so it now has the cold smoker kit installed...along with a rear handle, wheel/leg kit, and I splurged for the Thermoworks Smoke X setup after dealing with app/bluetooth/probe issues on my iGrill2. Customer support's fix was sending me a whole new chip tray assembly, not sure if it came with a new element, never even opened the box because they took weeks to get to this point and I had already ordered and installed the cold smoke kit.
Anyway, first smoke was chicken breasts. The MES30 was set to 225f, but showing temp swings of 150-170 on the SmokeX. Bumped it to 250, started seeing 170-190 on the TW, chicken stalled around 120. This was early afternoon, outside temp in the mid 60s, low winds. After three and a half hours and dinner time looming, finally just moved the chicken breasts to the oven and got them up to 150 for a few mins before pulling. The SmokeX ambient probe is in the middle of the top rack towards the back. No water pan installed since I don't use it, foiled drip tray sits on the rack under the meat. The door latch is adjusted properly for the door to fully seal, vent is wide open at all times. Not sure what the problem is, but I can say that MB cold smoke kit works quite well.
I really, really don't want to deal with MB customer support again so I'm wondering if there are any known fixes or mods to address this, or if I'm doing something wrong here. If I can remember, tomorrow I'll boil the SmokeX ambient probe to make sure it's not lying to me.
Anyway, first smoke was chicken breasts. The MES30 was set to 225f, but showing temp swings of 150-170 on the SmokeX. Bumped it to 250, started seeing 170-190 on the TW, chicken stalled around 120. This was early afternoon, outside temp in the mid 60s, low winds. After three and a half hours and dinner time looming, finally just moved the chicken breasts to the oven and got them up to 150 for a few mins before pulling. The SmokeX ambient probe is in the middle of the top rack towards the back. No water pan installed since I don't use it, foiled drip tray sits on the rack under the meat. The door latch is adjusted properly for the door to fully seal, vent is wide open at all times. Not sure what the problem is, but I can say that MB cold smoke kit works quite well.
I really, really don't want to deal with MB customer support again so I'm wondering if there are any known fixes or mods to address this, or if I'm doing something wrong here. If I can remember, tomorrow I'll boil the SmokeX ambient probe to make sure it's not lying to me.
