# masterbuilt cold smoker kit



## julliette (Mar 28, 2013)

hello,

anyone on here that is familiar with the mes cold smoker?????  I am trying to attach my mes cold smoker kit on to my mes unit with dryer venting or stove pipe,  not sure how to do this or what i would need to do this, anyone here that has done this and willing tell me how to do it and how well it works???? could use some suggestion,

Thank you  Jullie


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## tjohnson (Mar 28, 2013)

Why are you using dryer venting?

It should attach right up to your MES

A length of pipe is going to cool the smoke, and cause condensation.  The condensation will pool up in the pipe, and if there's a hole, will leak out


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## julliette (Mar 28, 2013)

reason for not attaching directly to unit is... the rod and hook system they provide is a pain in the kester, if you move it you have to remove attachment,  also would like to figure out away to have complete cold smoking for cheese. I have seen pictures of it with a pipe extention, but no instructions on how or what they actually used.

so just asking if anyone has done it  and how well it worked out.


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## chef jimmyj (Mar 28, 2013)

If it's not too late...I would Return it and get the AMNPS Pellet Smoke Generator from Todd at... http://www.amazenproducts.com ...

It's simple to use, cheaper and will work in the MES Cold, Hot or anywhere between for up to 10 hours. I guarantee Mr. Johnson's Customer Service is better...Hell, " HE " is helping you with Masterbuilt's Box!...Did Macy help Bloomingdale's Customers? What did Masterbuilt tell you to do?...JJ


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## black (Mar 28, 2013)

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## black (Mar 28, 2013)

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## jkc64 (Mar 28, 2013)

There are a couple of pics here http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/125607/masterbuilt-cold-smoker-kit. This is how i've used mine. I do put a drip tray under it in case of condensation.

I also have the AMNPS and I use them both equally  The AMNPS works great once properly going with good air flow and the masterbuilt works well also, just have to shake the inside chimney after a couple of hours so the chips don't get stuck towards the top.


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## julliette (Mar 28, 2013)

yes I have notice that you have to shake/bang on side of it once in a while to tap down chips.  what are you using? 3" pipe?  can you tell me how you modified it to fit in smoker???

thanks


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## julliette (Mar 28, 2013)

Thanks for the advise, may just have to get me a AMNPS.  I have used the mes cold smoke with jerky, it did the job really well, temp stayed about 104 degrees, but for cheese it got to be colder than that or will it make cheese sauce. LOL. I am new at this smoking things, am having a ball trying out differents ways and recipes for smoking.


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## jkc64 (Mar 28, 2013)

I bought a 3 inch pipe @ Lowes it fit right in the chip loader hole on the smoker and flaired the other end a little and wedged it on the smoke unit


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## julliette (Mar 28, 2013)

Thank you, that is what I want to know. this will help me out. do you have much problem with condensation?


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## chef jimmyj (Mar 28, 2013)

Julliette said:


> Thanks for the advise, may just have to get me a AMNPS.  I have used the mes cold smoke with jerky, it did the job really well, temp stayed about 104 degrees, but for cheese it got to be colder than that or will it make cheese sauce. LOL. I am new at this smoking things, am having a ball trying out differents ways and recipes for smoking.


Julliette, If great Cheese is your goal you may wish to pick up some Q-MATZ with the AMNPS. My Bud Dave did some great testing with Cheese and proved that even if the temps get away from you, you can get a good result. I ran a Hot Test with Chinese Spare Ribs, Sticky, Burnt Sauce and nothing stuck! A great tool to save some aggravation...JJ

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/136032/amazen-matz-not-so-cold-smoke-cheese-test

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/...ed-rice-and-pork-egg-rolls-q-matz-tested-hard


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## julliette (Mar 28, 2013)

cold smoker.jpg



__ julliette
__ Mar 28, 2013





this is what the cold smoker looks like, inside is a chimney to put wood chips in, it hooks to unit with a rod that has a hook on one end and a wing nut on the other end. insert hook end into mes, hook on inside rim and tighten with wing nut inside cold smoke box.  cold smoker works great, just a real pain getting it attached every time I want to use it.  Since you can use it for hot smoke, it would be nice to just leave it attached. since i move from garage to deck each time  i use it, I have to take off smoke box and reattach it every time.













smoker.jpg



__ julliette
__ Mar 28, 2013


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## black (Mar 28, 2013)

z


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## black (Mar 28, 2013)

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## julliette (Mar 28, 2013)

ok JJ sold me on the Q-MATZ, just went to the site and order me about 4' of it, did not order the AMNPS  ( yet) will play around with my mes cold smoker a little more and see what i come up with. Thanks for  help.

Jullie J (JJ)


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## chef jimmyj (Mar 28, 2013)

Great Choice...And one JJ to another...Welcome to the the SMF Family....JJ


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## jkc64 (Mar 28, 2013)

Julliette said:


> Thank you, that is what I want to know. this will help me out. do you have much problem with condensation?


It depends on the temps and wind. The few times I have used it the temps have not been cold so no condensation. I like the ease of the masterbuild cold smoker for shorter smoke times, no prep time like with the AMNPS but it will not smoke as long. For the long overnight smokes I use the AMNPS and it works great once I get it going properly.


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## old bones (Mar 28, 2013)

Had to smile at a few of JJ's comments..   Trust me!   He knows his smoking.   I ordered the Q-Matz for my son's smoke and enough for myself about four weeks ago.   Once I saw the posting from JJ, I knew I had to have that stuff .  It sure beats the frog mat.  Also have the AMNPS trays for both smokers.   I did some great cheese when it was -18 below.   Heated the smoker to 100 degrees, let it cool down a little and the AMNPS did the rest.   When I order the AMNPS, Todd sent along two bags of pellets so it was a Win -Win for me...     I just put some sausage in my smoker and the AMNPS is the only way to go with the light blue smoke for sevral hours.        


Julliette said:


> ok JJ sold me on the Q-MATZ, just went to the site and order me about 4' of it, did not order the AMNPS  ( yet) will play around with my mes cold smoker a little more and see what i come up with. Thanks for  help.
> 
> Jullie J (JJ)


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## unkerdas (Mar 29, 2013)

i bought a smoke daddy for my mes and it worked pretty good i thought and didnt raise temp


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## Bearcarver (Mar 29, 2013)

unkerdas said:


> i bought a smoke daddy for my mes and it worked pretty good i thought and didnt raise temp


Be careful, those Smoke Daddies get out of hand and put out much too much smoke (either none or too much).

I don't know what part of PA you're from, but those things are illegal if you live near the PA Tpk. Causing too many accidents.

Bear


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## fuzzyfishin (Mar 31, 2013)

With my mes kit I just shim it. Easy in and out. Very little loss of smoke at that point.

  Do you turn the kit off after smoke rolling? I have been with good results. I take the tray from the kit out and place foil on the bottom. Also if breezy I use the tray as a damper.

 I have mixed chips with wood dust seems to work better with not haveing to knock chips down.

 I just picked up wood shavings. Thinking that it might work better yet. Will post.


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## bhines79 (May 21, 2013)

Is it possible to use wood chips in the amzn smokers?


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## sctdg35 (Apr 1, 2014)

Stayhot what you said about the AMNPS is right on the money ,it is very unreliable as to whether it will stay lit. Did all the tricks to make it work,microwave pellets,chip drawer and loader pulled leaving it out of smoker longer after lighting and different placement in the MES. I found the answer . It is called a Masterbuilt electric cold smoker. People on this site are very hung up on the amnps and don't like the Masterbuilt cold smoker .I have no problems with it at all and burn all kinds of variations of wood and even broken up lump charcoal in it .Been using it for a year now and love it .I don't mess with the hook set up mentioned here ,all I do is slide it into the side of the MES ,load it and switch it on .Smoke in 10 minutes at most and lasts for about 6 hours on one load .All I can say is WORKS FOR ME !!


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## Bearcarver (Apr 2, 2014)

Stayhot said:


> For me the AMNPS is a crap shoot, sometimes it works beautifully and other times is a real struggle to keep it smoking. I've tried just about everything to make this work: chips drawer, chip feeder tube pulled out, added a stack, pre-dried the pellets in a stove, I just used it again this past weekend for ribs and I ended up going back to sawdust in the MES pan. *For those of you that are saying that this works so good what are you doing to get it to work?*


What are we doing?

I guess it depends on the individual smoker. Mine is a Gen #1:

All I do is light mine real good, getting a really big red cherry going in the bottom of the row. Then I put it in---That's it.

I keep my pellets & Dust dry in screw-capped jugs.

I never nuked any pellets, never pulled the chip drawer or the chip dumper out.

Just light it really good (Most important !!!), then put it in bottom, on the bars to left of chip burner assembly. Goes out about 11 hours later.

This is with Hickory Pellets.

Bear


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## tabasco813 (Sep 2, 2014)

Hello.  I am fairly new to the Masterbuilt electric smoker (only had it since Christmas) and REALLY new to the cold smoking side of things.  I just bought the Masterbuilt cold smoker attachment.  I bought it so I could cold smoke cheese and add some additional smoke to my beef and pork.  First of all, here is how I set it up so that I don't have to detach it if I don't want to.  I had an extra furniture dolly in the attic, and I added some extra 1x4" pieces of wood and the cold smoker and the attachment sit on the furniture dolly.  I can easily roll the smoker out of the garage and back whenever I want to use them.  Even when I didn't have the cold smoker attachment, I still put the smoker on this dolly and it makes it very convenient to move around.  You can get the furniture dolly for about $20 at Lowe's, Home Depot etc.  

As for the cold smoking of the cheese...it was just eh.  I was pretty disappointed.  I smoked it with apple wood for about 4 hours watching the internal temperature and made sure it never got over 90 degrees F.  I smoked a 2" thick round of provolone on a hot humid 80 degree day.  The color of the cheese did not change dramatically and the flavor is smoky but not in a good way.  It kind of tastes like bitter, like "burning, wet rolled up newspapers."  I know that doesn't sound pleasant but I don't know how to describe it.  I don't know what I did wrong.  The only thing that I could think that might have gone wrong is that I had a couple of flare ups in the cold smoking chimney when I was refueling the attachment (putting more wood chips in the chimney).

Any suggestions to get the smokey flavor with out wet newspaper taste would be greatly appreciated.

.













smoker.jpg



__ tabasco813
__ Sep 2, 2014


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## catch-22 (Sep 2, 2014)

How long did you let the cheese mellow in the fridge after smoking?


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## tabasco813 (Sep 3, 2014)

Thanks.  The cheese was a little sweaty...I just thought that was how it was supposed to be.  I also put ice in the liquid pan to keep the temp inside down.  It sounds like I did several things wrong but I will try again on a much cooler day with room temp cheese etc.  How can I get that dramatically, beautiful brown color (and flavor) on the outside of the cheese?


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## catch-22 (Sep 3, 2014)

Also with the cold smoker it helps to run it for 30 min and then turn off for 30 min.  Then repeat for the full 2 hours.   

That puts out a lot of smoke.


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## tjohnson (Sep 3, 2014)

The MES is a pretty small cabinet

I found that closing the door and allowing it to catch on the latch, gives enough air flow thru the smoker

Remember, you're trying to pass a trickle of smoke past your cheese, not FOG it!

Also, I never smoke cheese for more than 2 hours

We can eat the smoked cheese the next day...no bitter taste


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## tabasco813 (Sep 10, 2014)

Initially overnight.  But it is still wrapped up sitting in the back of the fridge.  I will be brave and try it again and see if it mellowed out any.  Thanks.


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## catch-22 (Sep 10, 2014)

Give it a couple weeks to mellow out.    You may be pleasantly surprised.  

I like Todd's idea with the door latch.


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## smokinmate (Sep 10, 2014)

Julliette said:


> ok JJ sold me on the Q-MATZ, just went to the site and order me about 4' of it, did not order the AMNPS  ( yet) will play around with my mes cold smoker a little more and see what i come up with. Thanks for  help.
> 
> Jullie J (JJ)


I to use  the MB cold smoke unit. I am not sure why they call it a cold smoke unit as it really does not cold smoke per se. I do not use the attachment to hook the unit to the MES. I also move my MES in and out of the garage. I have marked the pavement where I sit the MES at. I have adjusted the legs on the smoke unit to the right height to match the MES. I just position the two units and shove them together. I have virtually no loss of smoke and can move the unit quite easily. I do not have any experience with the AMNPS unit but there are quite a number of people here that like it.


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## daricksta (Sep 11, 2014)

Bearcarver said:


> What are we doing?
> 
> I guess it depends on the individual smoker. Mine is a Gen #1:
> 
> ...


I've been talking to Chef Jimmy J about keeping the AMNPS lit. He suggests to hold the torch UNDER the AMNPS and light an inch or so behind the hole. He says it's the pellets burning underneath which keep the heat going and keep the pellets on top smoking. He says a 5 minute burn is all it takes for the pellets to stay lit.  I've done a hybrid of through the hole, over and under the AMNPS and I've had no problems keeping it lit the last three times I've used it. Number four will be tomorrow when I smoke my first chuckie.


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## Bearcarver (Sep 12, 2014)

daRicksta said:


> I've been talking to Chef Jimmy J about keeping the AMNPS lit. He suggests to hold the torch UNDER the AMNPS and light an inch or so behind the hole. He says it's the pellets burning underneath which keep the heat going and keep the pellets on top smoking. He says a 5 minute burn is all it takes for the pellets to stay lit.  I've done a hybrid of through the hole, over and under the AMNPS and I've had no problems keeping it lit the last three times I've used it. Number four will be tomorrow when I smoke my first chuckie.


Jimmy is right. That's why I blow down & in when I'm building that cigar-like cherry in the bottom. It's accomplishing the same thing, but I find it easier than getting the flame through the steel bottom.

The bottom is where you want the big cherry. I leave mine out longer than 5 minutes---more like 20 minutes, but I don't take chances on it going out---I needs me smoke fix!!!

Bear


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## daricksta (Sep 12, 2014)

Bearcarver said:


> Jimmy is right. That's why I blow down & in when I'm building that cigar-like cherry in the bottom. It's accomplishing the same thing, but I find it easier than getting the flame through the steel bottom.
> 
> The bottom is where you want the big cherry. I leave mine out longer than 5 minutes---more like 20 minutes, but I don't take chances on it going out---I needs me smoke fix!!!
> 
> Bear


Since I've been following your suggestions which you gave me about a month or so ago, I've had solid smoke the past three times I've used my MES. I'm going to try JImmy's method today as an experiment but I know that your method is no-fail. The important experiment will be how successfully these methods work when the weather turns cold and humid/rainy here.


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## kentuckycal (Sep 12, 2014)

I went ahead and bought the Masterbuilt cold smoker just now because I could get it for 'free' with reward points from my credit card (so it's not exactly free, but it's not like I had to directly pay for it).  Will post a review after some usage.


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## daricksta (Sep 12, 2014)

KentuckyCal said:


> I went ahead and bought the Masterbuilt cold smoker just now because I could get it for 'free' with reward points from my credit card (so it's not exactly free, but it's not like I had to directly pay for it).  Will post a review after some usage.


Cool. Will be very curious to see how you like it.


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## crazy smoker (Oct 10, 2014)

Bought the masterbuilt electric smoker 20072612 with the cold smoker sidekick.  Made mac and cheese, my first time ever smoking something and it didn't go well.  I cooked at 225 for an hour and smoked the whole time.  It was producing a lot of smoke, which is the problem because the food was too smokey.  

The cold smoker does not have a variable smoke option it's just on or off.  I believe I need to turn off the smoker part for a good part of the smoking, I'm guessing leave it smoke for about ten minutes then turn it off, that's a wild guess.  Btw I'm using cherry wood chip from  Home Depot.  

Any help would be great.


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## daricksta (Oct 11, 2014)

Crazy smoker said:


> Bought the masterbuilt electric smoker 20072612 with the cold smoker sidekick. Made mac and cheese, my first time ever smoking something and it didn't go well. I cooked at 225 for an hour and smoked the whole time. It was producing a lot of smoke, which is the problem because the food was too smokey.
> 
> The cold smoker does not have a variable smoke option it's just on or off. I believe I need to turn off the smoker part for a good part of the smoking, I'm guessing leave it smoke for about ten minutes then turn it off, that's a wild guess. Btw I'm using cherry wood chip from Home Depot.
> 
> Any help would be great.


Crazy smoker, what I can tell you in general advice is that the cold smoker is just that: a smoker used with little or no heat when smoking. You would use it with cheeses, salmon, things where smoking with heat would ruin the food, like melting the cheese. I've never smoked mac and cheese; did you make up the recipe or did you find one? Typically when you smoke it's a low and slow process. I just saw a smoked bacon mac and cheese recipe that called for smoking at 225 degrees for 2-3 hours. Beef brisket for example would be smoked at temps between 215* and 245* (VERY generally speaking) for anywhere from 6-12 hours or so. If you were using wood chips in both the MES and the cold smoker at the same time that would have produced way too much smoke. It needs to be one or the other.

You're also using wood chips, which is what the MES was designed for. To me, wood chips give off too much smoke and they burn out too quickly so that you're always adding more chips every 30 minutes or so, and of course the amount you add can vary so that also makes the smoke inconsistent. Many of here use pellet or dust smokers from A-MAZE-N Products, owned by Todd Johnson who's also a member of this forum. You've got a MES40 Gen 2 so the placement of a pellet smoker (which is what I use) would be different from where I place it in my smoker. A pellet smoker would give you even, thin blue smoke (TBS) up to 11 hours or so. You can get pellets in every wood type that you can get in wood chips.

Hope this helps.


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## brayhaven (Oct 11, 2014)

OK now I'm really confused. Are u saying the external  smoke generator shouldn't be used when you are using any heat in the smoker??  I thought you could use it in lieu of the chip tray mes ?? I had the same e problem with way too much smoke taste. Jerky + fish tasted like an ash tray. 2hrs smoking out of 6. Never had that using the tray. But couldn't get reliable smoke at lower temps so I got the smoke unit (mes) for fish, jerky etc. Was planning to try just running it for 30 min or so. But the smoke is very strong, pungent, acrid etc that I never got with the tray using the same chip . Any help appreciated
Greg


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## crazy smoker (Oct 12, 2014)

The recipe that I used is from http://www.mrfood.com/Pastas/Four-Cheese-Smoked-Mac-n-Cheese.   It calls for smoking for an hour which I did with the cold smoker unit and i smoked the whole hour.  I've read that the cold smoker unit should smoke for 7+ hours on a hopper filled with chips and still have a little left maybe 1/2 cup.  Mine started half full and was empty in an hour, so large amount of smoke and a lot of chips used, I must be doing something wrong.

Note I had the vent full open near the top of the master built smoker unit and it was pouring out smoke, not thin blue smoke but thick white smoke like a car on a cold day.  The smell near the smoker was not good, very strong or possible ash smell.  Note the smoker unit didn't have any noticeable smoke coming out the top, the videos i saw on using it did have smoke leaking out the top of the cold smoker unit.  If I knew what I was doing, I believe looking at the smoke volume and color was a problem. During the seasoning of cold smoker unit I had the unit attached to the master build unit.  So I assembled the master built unit and cold smoker, set the master built unit to run for 3 hours at 275.  During the lady hour I turned on the cold smoker unit with Apple chips and it smoked a lot then too.  My goal is to call master built to see if they have a suggestion to limit the volume of smoke.

I wonder if I should have close the vent on the master built unit.

 It appears the pellet smoker that people from A-MAZE-N Products, owned by Todd Johnson maybe in my future.  I assume you need to use only the pellets from a-maze-n products.


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## daricksta (Oct 12, 2014)

brayhaven said:


> OK now I'm really confused. Are u saying the external smoke generator shouldn't be used when you are using any heat in the smoker?? I thought you could use it in lieu of the chip tray mes ?? I had the same e problem with way too much smoke taste. Jerky + fish tasted like an ash tray. 2hrs smoking out of 6. Never had that using the tray. But couldn't get reliable smoke at lower temps so I got the smoke unit (mes) for fish, jerky etc. Was planning to try just running it for 30 min or so. But the smoke is very strong, pungent, acrid etc that I never got with the tray using the same chip . Any help appreciated
> Greg


What I'm saying is that you wouldn't want to use the cold smoker AND another smoke source because that causes oversmoking. I don't own the MB cold smoker but it looks like it's a moot point since the cold smoker attaches to the wood chip feeder and provides continuous wood chip feed over 6 hours.

Like a lot of guys here, I use the A-MAZE-N Pellet Smoker for both hot and cold smoking. A fully tray can provide smoke for up to around 11 hours and I prefer wood pellets to wood chips. I never get too much smoke and harsh flavors anymore.


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## brayhaven (Oct 12, 2014)

Smokin Raf apparently has the oversmoking problem fixed and made the unit much more versatile.  I  like having it electric.  Look at his solution: http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129890/mes-cold-smoker-kit/20

I'm making one of those this week and will report on it.  Pellets aren't available here and I also have acces to plenty of chips free (pecan, hickory etc) I also never had much luck or  consistency with lighting things and hoping they simmered as they're supposed to 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






Greg


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## brayhaven (Oct 12, 2014)

I can see how pellets would be pretty consistent.  What's in them for a binder?  The heat control unit described above that Raf made. looks like it might make things work well.  I like smoke that simmers and not that harsh bonfire stuff. Thanks for your help!

Greg


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## daricksta (Oct 12, 2014)

Crazy smoker said:


> The recipe that I used is from http://www.mrfood.com/Pastas/Four-Cheese-Smoked-Mac-n-Cheese. It calls for smoking for an hour which I did with the cold smoker unit and i smoked the whole hour. I've read that the cold smoker unit should smoke for 7+ hours on a hopper filled with chips and still have a little left maybe 1/2 cup. Mine started half full and was empty in an hour, so large amount of smoke and a lot of chips used, I must be doing something wrong.
> 
> Note I had the vent full open near the top of the master built smoker unit and it was pouring out smoke, not thin blue smoke but thick white smoke like a car on a cold day. The smell near the smoker was not good, very strong or possible ash smell. Note the smoker unit didn't have any noticeable smoke coming out the top, the videos i saw on using it did have smoke leaking out the top of the cold smoker unit. If I knew what I was doing, I believe looking at the smoke volume and color was a problem. During the seasoning of cold smoker unit I had the unit attached to the master build unit. So I assembled the master built unit and cold smoker, set the master built unit to run for 3 hours at 275. During the lady hour I turned on the cold smoker unit with Apple chips and it smoked a lot then too. My goal is to call master built to see if they have a suggestion to limit the volume of smoke.
> 
> ...


This is a John McLemore recipe and he's the guy behind the Masterbuilt smokers so he knows what he's doing. I don't own the MB Cold Smoker as I wrote previously, I use the AMNPS. I've noticed that I get too much smoke if the cooking temp is too high over 250 for my MES. I also had a problem with thick white smoke flowing out of the top vent but I figured out the problem, fixed it and now I'm back to getting nice TBS with the pellet smoker and my MES 30, and it's less smoke than when using wood chips. I keep my top vent wide open. I always see some smoke coming out of the top vent even before putting wood chips or pellets in because of the grease and other deposits left from previous smokes. I clean off the racks but only give the interior a partial rub down with a damp paper towel to clean up bits of dried meat or sauce. Many guys never clean the insides of their smokers; it's a personal choice.

So, I don't know why your Cold Smoker is burning the chips at such a high rate; perhaps you don't want the top vent open all the way. But I recommend you seek out MBTechguy, who actually works for Masterbuilt. You can private message him with a question and he's great at getting back with an answer. I've gotten some great help from him. For the pellet smoker, you can also PM Todd Johnson (TJohnson) in these forums and he's also great about providing help and info. You can also email him thru his website http://www.amazenproducts.com/.


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## daricksta (Oct 12, 2014)

brayhaven said:


> I can see how pellets would be pretty consistent.  What's in them for a binder?  The heat control unit described above that Raf made. looks like it might make things work well.  I like smoke that simmers and not that harsh bonfire stuff. Thanks for your help!
> 
> Greg


I get my wood pellets from Todd Johnson. Many guys here say his are top quality and I agree. I don't know if he makes the pellets himself or sources them so I don't know what the binder is but my understanding is his wood pellets don't have the artificial crap many commercial wood pellets have. He also sells them at a great price for 2 lb. or 5 lb. bags and he offers a huge variety of woods. His pellets are all I use.


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## brayhaven (Oct 18, 2014)

I put a rheostat dimmer together per "Raf's" instructions for the mes cold smoke generator. Works perfectly total control of smoke volume & quality.  Smoked my best brisket ever last night. Looking forward to some low temp stuff this week jerky fish et . 
Thank RAF!!
Greg


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## crazy smoker (Nov 21, 2014)

I did call Master built about the issue that I was over smoking.  They clearly told me to wet the chips in the external smoker to reduce the rate of smoking.  They also said that tell people not to do this because it may cause an issue that not enough smoke is created.  After talking to them and reading the post http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/129890/mes-cold-smoker-kit/20   I have to admit that I liked that idea of variable smoke control via dimmer switch. 

I followed the directions in the post to reduce the voltage and I personally used a Kill a watt EZ from Home depot to tell what the current voltage is (about 119) and reduced it to about 80.  I believe that 80 volts personally maybe a little high but smoke was reduced a lot.  I was able to smoke for 6 hours at 80 volts and only used about 1/3 of the hopper of dry chips.

I have purchased some volt measuring devices to install on the external smoker(hope it not too hot) and a dimmer also.  Therefore I can reduce the foot print.  When parts get in I will post details. Note that I had trouble finding installable voltage measure device that would measure below 80 volts without the need for a third wire.

One other idea was to measure the density of smoke inside the smoker unit and adjust the voltage based on that information.


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## nkoenig (Jan 22, 2016)

It takes a whopping 2 minutes to detach/reattach this unit.  What's the big deal?


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