Wide temperature swings in a Mes 30”

[55smoke]

My first long cook with my MES 30” was a nice 3# chuck roast. I was prepared for a 12 hour cook, added two hours for what ever might arise. Put the chuck in my fully preheated smoker at 4:30 am and proceeded to watch for awhile as I knew I’d not be able to get back to sleep. To much anticipation and excitement. As I watched my Thermo Works ThermoQ grate probe I noticed a 20 degree swing above my 245 degree setting, then as the temp came down it went 25 degrees below my 245 setting. I’ve read where this is normal for the first couple of hours and since the medium was about 240 I was pleased. As the day progressed this same scenario repeated itself the full 14 hours of cook time. In the first 12 hours the door was never opened, I added chips every hour for 10 hours then stopped. I pulled the chuck at 14 hours and ate it. It was probe tender in two thirds of it and a little tough the other third. The wife was hungry and not willing to wait another hour or two.


My question: is it normal to have 40 degree swings for that long (14 hours) with the Mes 30” blue tooth smoker.


Is it normal for a chuck roast to take that long to get to 195. I wanted 210. I did not Texas Crutch it as I didn’t want soggy bark.


Thanks
55smoke

 

[tallbm]

My first long cook with my MES 30” was a nice 3# chuck roast. I was prepared for a 12 hour cook, added two hours for what ever might arise. Put the chuck in my fully preheated smoker at 4:30 am and proceeded to watch for awhile as I knew I’d not be able to get back to sleep. To much anticipation and excitement. As I watched my Thermo Works ThermoQ grate probe I noticed a 20 degree swing above my 245 degree setting, then as the temp came down it went 25 degrees below my 245 setting. I’ve read where this is normal for the first couple of hours and since the medium was about 240 I was pleased. As the day progressed this same scenario repeated itself the full 14 hours of cook time. In the first 12 hours the door was never opened, I added chips every hour for 10 hours then stopped. I pulled the chuck at 14 hours and ate it. It was probe tender in two thirds of it and a little tough the other third. The wife was hungry and not willing to wait another hour or two.


My question: is it normal to have 40 degree swings for that long (14 hours) with the Mes 30” blue tooth smoker.


Is it normal for a chuck roast to take that long to get to 195. I wanted 210. I did not Texas Crutch it as I didn’t want soggy bark.


Thanks
55smoke

Hi there and welcome!

I have only had MES 40's, never a 30. With the 40's you can expect a temp swing. I believe I have read enough on here to say you can expect to have swings with the 30 as well.

You have discovered one of the few quirks of the MES units. The other major quirk is the the MES temp probes (smoker and meat probes) cannot be trusted. It seems you have your own 3rd party thermometer probes to fall back on so you are good to go there.

40 degree swings are a bit extreme, especially for the smaller 30" MES. The MES units were simply not designed to have perfect airflow and evenness of temps so depending on where you put your probe you may have been in one of the less efficient spots of the smoker. No matter though you would still likely get swings just maybe not as big as 40 degrees. My guess would be more like 15 degrees at best.

You will just have to get to know your unit a bit better. Temp swings should be smaller at the bottom rack as the heat is generated down there so you might get more consistent heat results stick to the bottom rack when you can.

Also with certain cuts of meat (chucks, brisket, pork butts, etc.) you can smoke at much higher temps like 275F without issues. This would cut down on your cooking time without having to wrap in these cases.

Keep learning the quirks of your smoker and feel free to reach out to Masterbuilt support if you have any big issues. If they can't solve your temp problems then there are some other routes that can be taken like a simple rewire of the MES and the use of an Auber plug and play PID controller that should hold temps within 2-3 degrees of your set temp.

FYI, I have felt the pain of an MES that didn't want to reach max temp and had 30-35F temp swings so I know how it can feel :)
I hope this info helps :)

 

[55smoke]

Thank tallbm
It would have been prudent of me to find and read this forum before my first smoke, alas hindsight and all of that.
I have purchased a maverick xr50 that comes with two grate probes. That with the thermoq I’ll have three probes.. so I’ll run several test trying to find the best spot and get a better grasp of my unit idiosyncrasies.

I’ve also just read bears post about how to stop the big swings in warm up. If I can start it small maybe they’ll stay small. If not a call to Masterbuilt will be in order.

Thanks for your help.

Happy smoking

 

[Bearcarver]

Hi 55 !!
Below is some info on MES Units.

The last one is about Temperature Swings, and how to control them:

Bear

Masterbuilt Smokers (Bear's Thoughts & Findings)
MES Generation Number Recognition Pictures & Pics (Digital Units)
Avoid Temp Swings in MES

 

[johnmeyer]

Bear has collected more great information on the various MES models than anyone else, so it's tough to improve on his information.

I do have one thing to add which has to do with mechanical ways to moderate the temperature swings. The MES has a water tray, but because the enclosure is so tight, almost everyone in these forums recommends not filling the tray with water because everything gets way too wet. However, the tray serves one other function besides providing additional humidity (which is needed with smokers that use combustion to provide the heat and which have massively larger "air turnover"). That other function is temperature moderation. Water has a large heat capacity, which means it takes a lot of energy to heat or cool it. Thus, it moderates the "coasting" that Bear describes in the post in his last link above.

So, the simplest thing to do is fill the pan at least halfway with water and then cover it with foil. Almost none of the water will evaporate, but you'll still get the temperature moderation. Other people fill their trays with sand and then cover it.

In that article he linked to, one member says that water or sand in the tray didn't help at all, but you should try it yourself and see what happens.

 

[Bearcarver]

Bear has collected more great information on the various MES models than anyone else, so it's tough to improve on his information.

I do have one thing to add which has to do with mechanical ways to moderate the temperature swings. The MES has a water tray, but because the enclosure is so tight, almost everyone in these forums recommends not filling the tray with water because everything gets way too wet. However, the tray serves one other function besides providing additional humidity (which is needed with smokers that use combustion to provide the heat and which have massively larger "air turnover"). That other function is temperature moderation. Water has a large heat capacity, which means it takes a lot of energy to heat or cool it. Thus, it moderates the "coasting" that Bear describes in the post in his last link above.

So, the simplest thing to do is fill the pan at least halfway with water and then cover it with foil. Almost none of the water will evaporate, but you'll still get the temperature moderation. Other people fill their trays with sand and then cover it.

In that article he linked to, one member says that water or sand in the tray didn't help at all, but you should try it yourself and see what happens.

I never tried that, but if that's true that hardly any water would evaporate, that would be a way to go, because I never cared for the sand or Brick in the water pan idea, because;
In the Winter in PA it would take a lot to warm up a Frozen solid pile of sand or a frozen brick.
And If people think I could store stinky smoky sand in Mrs Bear's house, or carry a big pan of it and heat it up in her oven in her kitchen, they're totally NUTS !!!
However it wouldn't take much to heat up some water to be put in the pan & covered with foil.

Bear

 

[55smoke]

Johnmeyer, thanks for the water tip.
Bear, man what can I say. What a wealth of information you’ve put out to help poor souls such as myself. Had I found this forum before my first cook I probably would not of had any problems.

Soon I’m going to run some non cooking test, which will include the water pan as suggested by John

Thanks again
55smoke

 

[55smoke]

As I stated above next week or so I should have 3 grate probes. For the test: mes probe vs true temperature where would be the best place to put the probes. I was thinking one as close to mes probe as possible, then one on each rack in center. Any comments or suggestion would be appreciated.

Thank
55smoke

 

[SonnyE]

My MES 30 JMSS ran hot with the digital temperature control. Set for 275° for break in, my probe thermometer as reading in the low 300's.
I've since done drastic changes because I'm more of a warm and cold smoker, and the MES wants to be too hot for my way of using a smoker. At 200°, it barely could smoke Salmon for me, and was cooking it. Not what I wanted.
So I've done modifications to let the heater be a heater, and my 'mailbox mod' do the smoke making. It also runs through 8 feet of 3" aluminum dryer vent tubing to cool the smoke. Important to me for cold smoking.

Because I was anticipating doing changes, and the disappointments chronicled of users with factory probes, I decided to save the cost and rely on external temperature monitoring, which has proven good for me.
But even with an external temperature control I use for cold smoking, my MES will exhibit a 9 degree swing at a 1° differential control setting. Or, about 3° coasting below set point before it turns around, then 6° coasting above the turn off.
Fine with me. It's close enough for my expectations.

I run my tray dry. I have it in the smoker to help dissipate the heat and smoke below the racks, and as a catch pan for drips. Drips hitting the heating element make some really unpleasant smoke. :p Nasty!

But considering the Chinese electronics, at the price point, I know from experience not to expect great temperature control. But it seems to be good enough using the supplied controller for most things.
There are tolerances with all temperature and timing devices. If you consider MES controls are probably 10% tolerance, you can see that swings are about what would be expected,
275° setting minus 10% - 247.5°
275° setting plus 10% - 302.5°
These are not industrial ovens with calibrated control systems.
But they can make good food!

 

[Bearcarver]

As I stated above next week or so I should have 3 grate probes. For the test: mes probe vs true temperature where would be the best place to put the probes. I was thinking one as close to mes probe as possible, then one on each rack in center. Any comments or suggestion would be appreciated.

Thank
55smoke

If you want to strictly test the Wireless probe vs your MES probe, put your wireless probe as close to the MES sensor on the back wall. That's the thing that looks like a toggle switch. I would forget about the MES meat probe. Mine's been in it's sheath for years, as was the one before it.

Later when you're smoking, just put your wireless probe about 3" from the meat, and adjust your MES control until the wireless temp reads what you want it to be, and don't worry about what temp the MES says it is.

Bear

 

[55smoke]

Will do bear.
Thanks.

 

[Nutshell]

Auber WSD 1500 HW is the way to go. WIFI enabled,3 probes and fully tunable PID. Cost more than the smoker but well worth it.