# Concerns on MES 130



## cnet24 (Feb 24, 2019)

Hello all,

New to the forum and have some questions regarding the MES 130. I was given this as a gift for Christmas and couldn't wait to use it. After my first use, I have some general questions and concerns and hoping others that have used the smoker for a while can help.

-I originally set the smoker to 225 to smoke a pork butt for my first cook. Using my Grilleye Pro, I noticed an ambient temp of only 190. After a few hours, I ended up cranking the temperature to 275 which gave me a 225 ambient temp. Have others experienced temp issues in this smoker?

-I also noticed there was hardly any smoke at 225. Once I set at 275 it produced smoke but not to my expectation. I've been contemplating picking up the cold smoke attachment but I have read multiple reviews regardings peeling paint and clogged smoke stacks. Does anyone have a positive experience regarding this item? I thought that this would fix my smoke issue, but the quality doesn't seem to be there for the price.

-Perhaps the most concerning seems to be the number of smokers that require part replacements after only a few smokes. Is this something that I need to be concerned with? Should I really expect to need to replace the heating element multiple times, among other parts?

I really want this smoker to work out but I am starting to have second thoughts... thanks!


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## Preacher Man (Feb 24, 2019)

I have a MES 30 and what you describe is my experience to a T. I've learned to work around them and actually thoroughly enjoy my masterbuilt even with the flaws.

The temperature discrepancy seems to exist for an unknown reason to me. Without meat, my MES therm and my Maverick ET-733 are almost identical. Add meat and I get a 25°-50° difference. Throughout the smoke, those temps seem to even out. I guess it has something to do with the meat being a heat sink, but that still doesn't satisfy why the MES therm reads higher. Oh well.

I just play with the temperatures however I need to in order to achieve the desired temp. Kind of annoying, but really not that big of a deal.

As for smoke: be done with letting the MES produce smoke and invest in an Amazen Pellet Smoker. There is a maze and there is a tube. Do your research and decide what you want to go with. I have both and prefer the 12" tube because I like a heavier smoke flavor. However, both will instantly fix your smoke problem.


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## smokerjim (Feb 24, 2019)

I have a mes 30, these are well known to not have accurate temps, get a good thermometer and test that in boiling water to make sure that's accurate and go by that, these smokers usually will not start producing smoke until 200 degrees so if your setting it for 225 and actual temp is 190 that could be why its not producing smoke until you crank it up, just make sure your chip tray is installed properly. you should look into the amnps pellet tray with the mailbox mod, that is all I use, there is tons of info on here about it, just use the search bar and punch in mailbox mod, don't give up on the mes 30 yet give it some time. they are really pretty good smokers when you learn the adjustments to make. good luck


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## Preacher Man (Feb 24, 2019)

smokerjim said:


> ...with the mailbox mod


I forgot to mention that. A lot of guys here use it, I don't. But I haven't found a need for the modification with what I do.


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## bdskelly (Feb 24, 2019)

I’ve owned a number of them. They are wonderful and reliable machines. But don’t trust the thermostat or thermometer. You’re doing the right thing by using an auxiliary. I always used my Maverick or Tapique. I trust those and adjust the smoker to the temp those instruments indicate


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## cnet24 (Feb 24, 2019)

Thanks to both of you for the feedback. 

 Preacher Man
 quick question- how do I use the amazen pellet smoker? Just fill it up with pellets and put it in the smoker? Maybe I just need to research this further to understand how it actually works.



 smokerjim
 I've been reading some about the mailbox mod, thanks for the answer.


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## Preacher Man (Feb 24, 2019)

cnet24 said:


> Preacher Man
> quick question- how do I use the amazen pellet smoker? Just fill it up with pellets and put it in the smoker? Maybe I just need to research this further to understand how it actually works.


There's lots of YouTube videos that'll help. Essentially you light it with a torch, get a coal base, then put it in the smoker and let it do its thing.

Here's how mine is positioned:







And you can see how I have a tent over it during smokes:


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## Central PA Cowboy (Feb 24, 2019)

Yep, sounds about right. My MES 30 takes much longer to smoke something than what I have read. For instance, a 3 pound chuck took me around 9 hours. So, about 3 hours per pound of meat - assuming it's at 225° at the highest.


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## smokerjim (Feb 24, 2019)

cnet24 said:


> Thanks to both of you for the feedback.
> 
> Preacher Man
> quick question- how do I use the amazen pellet smoker? Just fill it up with pellets and put it in the smoker? Maybe I just need to research this further to understand how it actually works.
> ...


a lot of guy's including me microwave the pellets 2-3 minutes to make sure they're dry, then fill tray and light with torch and let burn about 15 minutes until you blow out the flame, i've tried using the tray in my mes 30 on the bars on bottom left, just never had much luck that's why I went to the mail box mod


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## Winterrider (Feb 24, 2019)

If You go with the tray you will be able to use either pellets or dust. Tube, only pellets.


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## cnet24 (Feb 24, 2019)

Appreciate everyone's feedback. I'll be placing my order tonight for the tube and maze.


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## Murray (Feb 24, 2019)

My MES has no problem getting to 225F, I have to set my controller to 210-220F(depending upon wind/temp) to achieve 225F. If you can’t get your temperature up to 225F without cranking your smoker to 275F I’d give Masterbuilt a call or email. Just converted to a Amazing Tube and love it.


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## weedeater (Feb 24, 2019)

Ditto Murray comments.  My MES has no trouble getting to 225F. 

Weedeater


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## Preacher Man (Feb 24, 2019)

Mine usually doesn't 90% of the time, but it has trouble depending on the ambient temperature and amount of meat I add.


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## uncle eddie (Feb 24, 2019)

I am on my second MES40 and don't have anything to add that wasn't mentioned earlier.

I do want to emphasize that the AMNPS works great and is so easy to use that I have never even considered the mailbox mod...but if I got into cold smoking, I would probably have to look into the mailbox mod.


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## chopsaw (Feb 24, 2019)

cnet24 said:


> I really want this smoker to work out but I am starting to have second thoughts... thanks!



When I first got mine , I was in your shoes . DON'T count it out . I have a gen 1 mes 30 . 5 years old . I have it set up with a mail box , and just put an Auber controller on it . It's a smokin machine . I use a 12" and a 6 " tube to generate the smoke . It's awesome .


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## river100 (Feb 25, 2019)

I have the cold smoke attachment and I love it. It can put out too much sometimes. I read a post somewhere, where a guy said to turn off the power to it after it starts smoking so I tried it.  Works great. You get from 4 to 6 hrs of smoke using dry wood chips.
No issues with the paint on it but I've had it for years and they might be different now.


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## Dale_Cheryl (May 10, 2019)

I am smoking a Boston Butt right now. Using an MES 30” SS electric smoker, Apple wood chips, and have an oven thermometer hanging on the rack. After a few hours, and increased temps at the control panel, the internal temperature STILL isn’t above 200 degrees. Also, the first batch of chips burned well, but the second batch has not. Vent is 100% open, and there is almost no smoke coming out or visible on the inside. Help!


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## Bearcarver (May 10, 2019)

Dale_Cheryl said:


> I am smoking a Boston Butt right now. Using an MES 30” SS electric smoker, Apple wood chips, and have an oven thermometer hanging on the rack. After a few hours, and increased temps at the control panel, the internal temperature STILL isn’t above 200 degrees. Also, the first batch of chips burned well, but the second batch has not. Vent is 100% open, and there is almost no smoke coming out or visible on the inside. Help!




I gave up using the built in chip burner 9 years ago.
If you're at below 2000' elevation, get an AMNPS for perfect smoke.

You said "Internal temp still isn't above 200°". "Internal temp" means "Temp of the meat", but apparently you mean "Smoker Temp". You don't say what you have your MES set for.
Dump the water out of your pan. We don't use any in an MES.
All kinds of MES information by clicking on my "Step by Steps" Index below: 

Bear


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## Dale_Cheryl (May 10, 2019)

MES temp setting started at 225. Now set for 235, readout says 237, but thermometer inside the smoker is at 200. I don’t know if there’s water in the pan; hubby set it up and went fishing.


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## Bearcarver (May 10, 2019)

Dale_Cheryl said:


> MES temp setting started at 225. Now set for 235, readout says 237, but thermometer inside the smoker is at 200. I don’t know if there’s water in the pan; hubby set it up and went fishing.




OK---The Temp inside a smoker varies from one area to another.
The important thing is what the Temp is at the place your Meat is.


Bear


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## sigmo (May 15, 2019)

Keep in mind that the temperature probe for the MES (at least my gen 1 MES 40) is located right above the heating element.  So it "sees" a higher temperature than a probe placed elsewhere in the box will see.

Without a fan to stir the air in the smoker, you will see large differences depending on where a thermometer or probe is positioned.

Years ago, when I mounted a small thermocouple directly to my MES's temperature probe, I found that there were still errors in the MES readout.  But they weren't as great as what I observed when I measured temperatures with a sensor placed far from the MES's sensor.

This is especially true when you have a big piece of moist, cold meat in the chamber.   At that time, I speculated that there may well be a method to Masterbuilt's madness.

Despite the lack of apparent accuracy, I still have not modified my MES's temperature control system, and I get good results, with cooking times to meat internal temperatures that match well with other people's on the forum.

I do, however, use an Amazin pellet maze for my smoke source.  The chip burner of the original MES never did give me consistent or adequate smoke.

The meat probe of my MES tested to be surprisingly accurate, and I always use it with confidence.

I tested the MES meat probe with the dry block temperature calibrator that I built years ago to calibrate laboratory thermometers and data acquisition system probes.  This relies on using a NIST certified reference thermometer.

I tested the MES's chamber sensor with a thermocouple and readout that I had calibrated in that temperature calibrator.

Testing temperature probes and readout systems should be done carefully, realizing that just having them in the same oven or smoker is not enough to keep them at the same temperature.  We routinely observe differences of 15 degrees C (27 degrees F) between locations only a few inches apart in expensive laboratory ovens.

Unless an oven or incubator is vigorously stirred, that's to be expected.  And even well-stirred ovens will show surprising variations from place to place.

Also consider the speeds of response between different probes and displays.


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## Jonok (May 15, 2019)

Another thing to consider is that the energy in an empty smoker with a single radiant heat source is largely IR "trying to find something to heat up".
If you just have a little bitty probe floating around in the air, it's going to be different than a probe that's sitting just right on a grate and being heated by conduction.  I fabricated a bunch of small aluminum blocks to stick my temp probes in to measure chamber temperature.  They're big enough to absorb IR and sit on a rack reliably, but small enough that the aluminum will rapidly equilibrate with its surroundings and help the probe provide meaningful data.


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## sigmo (May 15, 2019)

That's a good point and a good idea.

When I built temperature probes for refrigerators, incubators, and the like for some laboratories, I had a friend machine special aluminum housings for the sensors.

These were then anodized blue for corrosion resistance, looks, and to achieve a consistent thermal emissivity.

The resulting probes were usually mounted to a relatively non-conductive surface, or separated from a conductive surface by an insulator.

The surface area to mass ratio (and taking into account the specific heat of aluminum versus water) was designed to simulate the thermal time constant (in air) of a 40ml VOA vial full of water.  Since this was a typical container for samples, we wanted the data acquisition systems to plot temperature swings that approximated the temperature swings the actual samples experienced as refrigerator compressors or heaters cycled.

The thermal emissivity and the surface area to mass ratio as well as the specific heat of a probe housing all affect the thermal time constant and susceptibility to IR influences.  It's really non-trivial, and sometimes counterintuitive.

If your heating element can "shine" directly onto a temperature sensor, you will really see the effect of that radiation!


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## Jonok (May 15, 2019)

Well, the drops of 1x2 6061 that I get at my local Alro for $3.00 a pound end up doing pretty well after I glass blast them and run them through a couple smoking cycles.  It really is amazing how much less noise there is with 50 gm of "black body" thermal mass...


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