Hello everyone,
I have a
Masterbuilt Electric Smoker that my family has had for a few years now. It uses a wood pellet system. The smoker overall is in pretty bad condition. It works but it's not clean. What can I do to restore it/prevent this from happening in the future? I have put it inside my garage and hope to start cleaning it very soon. I have only smoked some stuff before with family but other than that I do not know much about it.
Thank you.
Hi there and welcome!
I'll answer your question 1st and then provide maybe a less expensive and sensible alternative.
- Remove the internal stuff here and leave and exposed element
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- Sand down the rust all over so its knocked down as thin as possible and hope there are no exposed holes to insulation on the inside. The outside you can maybe live with and patch over but I don't think there is anything you can really do about rusted hole on the inside that is exposing the insulation.
- Get some rust converter to convert the rust to to iron tannate but don't do this on the cooking racks only to rusted areas that is not in constant direct contact with food. I believe this product is a straight converter. The spray can ones are usually a converter and paint primer combined and you don't want a paint primer on the inside of the smoker $18.42:
- Paint over the exterior converted rust areas with a paint like this $6.98:
- Run a few hours of chip/pellet smoke to season/cover the interior converted rust with creosote and smoke film. This stuff will seal over those spots after a few smoke runs like a paint
- Chances are that this level of rust means you may get power to the controller on top but I would bet money the wire connectors that lead to the heating element are corroded away and you won't get heat. I would have these on hand to begin doing fixes replacing those rusted/corroded connectors. Masterbuilt is known for using horrible connectors that corrode/rust way in the best of conditions so I can't see how they would have held up through this much weathering $6:34:
You will want to check the heating element connectors and the saftey limit switch connectors for sure. You might have to cut a panel in the back to access the safety limit switch.
If you got to this point and it is working then you are doing pretty well for under $35.
If you did all this work and the controller on top is not working or is dead then you would need to do a simple rewire and get a PID controller to make it work. The good news is that it would be like a WHOLE different and way BETTER smoker than it ever was brand new. It will perform like a $1,000 electric smoker if you do this.
The bad news, it will run you like $150 for a PID controller whether you buy or build one (if you've never built one before).
So there are the answers to your question.
****Now an alternative approach.
For $40-50 you might be able to find a used MES unit in better condition or at least with way less work needed on Facebook marketplace or on Craigslist.
You can get it and go. Or if it needs a rewire and a PID conversion you can take it to a carwash and wash out and then do the simple rewire once it dries.
At this point you are at the same PID controller scenario but with less time and effort put in and a smoker in much better shape.
I hope this info helps :D