# MES custom SS model - mods & pic heavy



## dward51 (Jun 18, 2017)

Ok, I confess, Masterbuilt does not make a "SS" model, but they should.  SS stands for Sticks and Sausage. What I did was take their lowest entry level 30" analog smoker and turn it into a custom "SS" model.  This is a detailed story of how I went from MES 30 analog to MES custom SS....

I have a WSM and I'm perfectly happy with it for most normal smoking functions at the 200-250* range.  However I also love to make jerky, snack sticks, and sausage that requires lower temps.  To answer that need, I previously came up with a e-WSM mod where I took an extra door for my 18.5" WSM and mounted a 1,300 watt electric element in the door.  By simply switching doors I can either run as a normal WSM on charcoal or as a e-WSM on electricity for lower temp smokes.  I also added a Auber Instruments "all in one" pre-built PID controller in a box to the e-WSM and have excellent results.  But my one gripe is I need more rack space.  5 pounds of sticks maxes out my e-WSM with the two grates stacked on top of each other at the top grate level and separated by wooden spacer blocks.  With the dome shape tapering inward as it goes up, you can only add so many round Weber racks.

A while back I bought this awesome all stainless steel McCall proofer/warmer from a school auction.  It will eventually be my mega-uber smoker for sticks and sausage. But it's just too tall for where I want to put it (ok, the wife says it's too tall but it will actually fit).  So that project is tabled and the McCall remains in storage and that will be a story for another day.

So first I decided I would totally destroy a brand new, never used MES 30 analog.  No, I'm not crazy and I did get it at a  heavy discount from the local Gander Mountain that is going out of business.  But it was a new in the sealed box MES 30 analog.  The Gander Mountain and Cabela's version of the MES 30 analog is sold as the MES Elite 30 analog.  The rack holders are different than the standard MES 30 analog.  It comes with 3 racks, but the rack holder has spaces for a total of 5 racks and they sell a 2 rack optional upgrade kit.  Note:  it is less expensive to buy individual racks direct from MES than to buy the "kit".  The heating element is an analog, 1,500 watt element and the temp is set via an imprecise dial.  The thermometer is the typical inexpensive and less than accurate MES dial thermometer in the door.  The air inlet is a 5/8" hole in the bottom and the air/smoke vent is a single 5/8" hole in the top right corner of the back.  Simply put, air flow sucks in the stock design.  Smoke is from a stainless hardwood chip tray that sits right over the heating element.  There is a small water pan.

So this is the stock configuration of a MES Elite 30 Analog:













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Sort of underwelming isn't it.  The neat thing is this "meh" smoker has the potential of a phoenix to transform and rise into something spectacular!. 

A while back, I looked at one of these as a display model.  I found the door, side walls, and top are hollow dead air spaces.  There is no insulation in the stock version, but in looking at the design, it was basically riveted together and it appeared I could de-construct the unit to add insulation.  Then I saw another post where a mode was made to add 3 more racks to the MES for a total of 8 racks.  That's a lot of space for stick & sausage making.

So, time to start the deconstruction.....

The smoker has a top cap that is held in place by 6 aluminum rivets.  This covers the interior top section that is also held in place by aluminum rivets.  The inner body liner is held in place by rivets at the bottom (the same rivets for the interior top section hold the top in place), and also by the bolts that mount the heating element and the sheet metal screws that hold the rack holder in place on each side.  There is also a cross piece support  that appears to keep the heating element from sagging that is riveted to the inner liner, but not to any structure.  All rivets were 1/8" aluminum.  To remove, just drill out the head with a 1/8" drill bit. Photos of the above....

Top cap and rivets













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Left side view of heating element, rack holder and heating element cross support













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Right side view of rack holder and heating element cross support













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Heating element mounting bolts (pass through from outside of smoker to a bracket on the element that is threaded).













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Sheet metal screws holding rack holder against the inner body.  The screw goes through to a structural member under inner liner. Half of these screws were stripped a the top under the head of the screw.  When trying to back them out, they just spin.  I had to hold a screw driver blade under the head to put upward pressure until the threads caught.  These are not really meant to be taken out and reinstalled but I have a plan to deal with this.  Both the upper and lower rack screws are into interior structural members.













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Top cap removed, you can see the upper inner liner cap and the rivets that hold it and the upper section of the main chamber inner liner in place.













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Upper inner liner removed.  The top section of the main body inner liner is now free.  The front edge of the inner liner is bent on a 90* angle and this slides in a channel of the frame.













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Exhaust port (small as it is) is basically a short length of pipe with a flange on the outside and threads and a nut on the inside. I could take the nut of with my hands and no tool was needed.













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All rack mounts, heating element, heating element support, and exhaust port removed. Only thing left to separate the inner liner, is to drill out the bottom rivets.













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Now we can see the outer shell and what was the hollow dead air space between the shell and the inner liner.  This is where the insulation will go.  You can also see the structural members the sheet metal screws for the rack holders screwed into.  They are u-channel that is tack welded to the outer shell (face up on the right side and down on the left side).  There is also a structural member that was not used to mount the inner liner but is pre-drilled with holes for the sheet metal screws.  I would take it that MES has one outer body for different models and the inner liner has the holes to match those structural members depending on what they are building.  The rivets in the back panel near the bottom third are the rivets that hold on the serial number and other ID plates. No need to mess with those in this mod.













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The latch is held on the outer body by screws into 2 rivet nuts.  I will also use rivet nuts on my mods.













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So now we have the MES Elite 30 analog completely disassembled and read for mods.













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I'll break this into multiple posts as each section will be long.  More to come in a few minutes (it takes a while to organize and upload the photos).


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## dward51 (Jun 18, 2017)

The mods.....

1) insulate that dead air space between the inner liner and main body shell with Roxul "rock wool" high temp insulation.

2) increase air inlet opening to 2 1/8" diameter

3) add new air exhaust exit in top center of smoker also 2 1/8" diameter

4) install stainless steel smoke stack with damper in top of smoker

5) plug the stock 5/8" exhaust port with a heat safe silicone plug. Plug will be center drilled and slit on one side to allow temp probe wires to go into smoke chamber

6) replace the stripped sheet metal screws with stainless steel 10-32 x 1/2" screws that mount into stainless steel rivet nuts installed in the main body structural members (use existing holes as pilot holes).

7) add more rack holders above existing rack holders, total of 8 racks can be installed.

8) use that upper structural member and rivet nuts to help hold the inner liner against main body and mount the lower portion of the new rack holders.

9) in stall a rivet nut in the inner liner to hold the top of the new rack holders (not in structural member, just inner liner).

If you have not used rivet nuts before, they are installed like a rivet, but they are threaded and you can insert and remove the screw over and over.  No real danger of stripping out the threads which is why I'm using them here - to replace the stripped holes from the factory (yes, you can just use larger screws but they will likely also strip. A rivet nut solves that).  I went with stainless rivet nuts and rivets for the rebuild.

Rivet nut, before and after compression with a rivet tool (normally mounted in sheet metal in actual use)













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Oh, I almost forgot. I had a buddy who is a retired airline mechanic loan me a industrial aviation grade hydraulic hand riveter.  Super nice tool.  Puts up to 5,000 pounds of pressure on rivets.  Super easy installation of stainless steel rivets and it also has adapters for the rivet nuts.  Stainless can be a pain to install with a home center type of rivet gun, but this type makes it a breeze.  Wish I could keep it but it's way to pricey for me to justify.













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Drilled out the factory sheet metal screw holes and installed the 10-32 rivet nuts.  I put a block of wood behind the structural member when drilling out the factory holes to fit the rivet nuts. I did not want to chance the drill breaking through and drilling into the outer body shell or denting the sheet metal.  You can see one 10-32 screw in an already installed rivet nut at the upper of this photo













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Roxul insulation comes if fairly ridged bats (fairly ridged as compared to household fiberglass insulation bats).  They will stand and hold their shape, but can be cut with a bread or other serrated knife.  I bought standard bats that came 3" thick by 15 1/4" wide by 47" tall.  There are two bats in this photo, but I only ended up using one of them.













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It took one bat to complete this modification.  I ended up carefully splitting the 3" thick bat into three 1" thick bats by carefully using a long bread knife.  The Roxul was then cut to fit in the various sections of the side and back.  I did tuck the insulation into the u-channel and cut it a little oversized so it was held in by compression. Also the side and back hollow area was roughly 3/4" thick so the bat I installed was a little thick and compressed when the liner was reinstalled. Roxul is a little itchy on skin, but no where near as bad as fiberglass would be.  I did not have any problems with the Roxul getting stuck in my skin, just could be itchy until washed off with a little soapy water on my arms (and it does like to stick to clothing, so figure on changing your shirt as well).

Note:  I had cut the Roxul before putting in the rivet nuts.  I ended up pulling the Roxul out to install the rivet nuts and the re-installing it. That's why you don't see them in this photo.













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Re-installing the inner liner over the now insulated shell was the biggest pain of the whole process.  The overly thick insulation made it hard to slide the liner into place.  I had to line up all the rivet holes and also get that shallow bend at the front edge back into it's channel.  It seemed like when I moved one area into place, the front bend kept jumping out of the channel.  I finally got it in place though.

Note:  It was 90'ish and about 115% humidity that day so I moved the smoker inside for A/C while completing the rest of the mod.













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After riveting the inner liner back in, I reinstalled the heating element, heating element support, and the two factory rack mounts in their original locations.  I had bought a extra set of rack mounts from Masterbuilt when I ordered the 5 racks I'm adding.  These were then cut with a cut-off wheel on a Dremel tool so I'm only using the top three rack positions of these extra rack mounts.  I will be using the screw flange that is welded to the top edge and using a stainless screw with a wide washer to hold the lower section of these additional rack mounts in place.  This is another place the rivet nuts came in handy. I can torque the screws with that washer down tight.  A sheet metal screw would have stripped out.  This extra set of rivet nuts for the washer screws is into that previously unused upper structural member.  This also helps hold the upper section of the inner liner down against the insulation.  The top screws are into a rivet nut just installed in the inner liner only.













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Next the inner top liner was reinstalled.  This holds the inner liner against the main body frame when it is riveted into place.  I placed the top cap back on (but did not attach it yet). I then measured and found the center point of the top cap and drilled a pilot hole through the top cap and down to the top inner liner. I then took a 2 1/8" bi-metal hole saw and drilled through the top cap, and then with the top cap still in place and acting as a guide for the body of the hole saw (in addition to the pilot hole in the inner liner), I drilled through the inner liner.  I then aligned my smoke stack over the exhaust hole and marked for the 3 mounting bolt holes.  I drilled through both the top cap and upper inner liner for the bolts.  I also reinstalled the original 5/8" smoke outlet that will be a portal for my temp probe wires.

I then cut Roxul to fit the inner liner.  I cut out the center exhaust hole, and also inserted three 3/4" steel spacers over each of the chimney bolt holes.  I cut a 8" long strip of 26 gauge sheet aluminum to 3/4" wide. I bent this into a circle and drilled a hole for a single rivet to close the circle.  This is the exhaust liner to funnel the heat & smoke up and serve as a liner against the cut edge of the Roxul.  This circle was a little wider than the exhaust hole.













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I set the top cap back in place and prepared to mount the exhaust chimney.













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With the steel spacers aligned with the bolt holes, it was fairy easy to install the chimney bolts.  After the chimney was bolted down, I riveted the top cap to the main body frame.  The body of the smoker is done.

Note: I used a pencil to mark the top cap.  The pencil lines wipe right off with a little alcohol on a paper towel.













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You can also see the 2 1/8" enlarged air inlet in the bottom of the smoker body.  It is a little forward of center as that way I can still use the stock drip pan.  The air gap around the top of the drip pan is plenty wide to allow air to flow in this enlarged opening.













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With the racks installed - we now have an 8 rack insulated smoker.













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End of part 2, uploading the door mods and initial testing next.


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## dward51 (Jun 18, 2017)

Ok, now for the door.  I thought it would be pretty straight forward, and it mostly was.

First I drilled took off the handle and removed the thermometer.  Then I drilled out the rivets that hold the inner liner to the door frame.













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The edges of the frame have recessed channels and there are several supports that are also hollow.  There is also a center support bar that I will be drilling to add a center rivet to hold the inner liner to the door frame after the insulation is installed (again keeping the insulation thick).  Stuffed insulation into the edges and supports and then cut insulation to fill the main chambers.













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Reinstalled the inner door liner, adding that center support bar rivet and a center rivet at the top and bottom.  Took a drill bit and twisted it by hand to hollow out the channel in the insulation for the thermometer and door handle screws to mount.  Door is done and ready to reattach to the smoker body.













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The completed mod........  Look like it was factory done.













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I had originally thought about adding a flat plate spaced about 1" below the exhaust opening.  This would make the heat and smoke flow spread out more instead of going straight up from the air inlet at the bottom.  Of course the food and a drip pan would also tend to do the same thing.  So for now I have not installed this plate.  If I do, I will just change out the chimney screws for slightly longer ones and use nuts to hold that plat on the same screws.

Now I just have to figure out how to handle the pellet tray.  It just barely fits under the heating element support bar.  I have to wiggle it to get it in under that bar.  I'm thinking about taking the water pan and chip pan rack out and moving one of the meat racks to that level. Then I can sit the pellet tray on top of that rack.  There is an open area to the left side where the heating element does not curve back in and only running snack sticks and sausage, the element is not going to be that hot anyway.  I only run a chamber at 175-180* to finish sticks if I'm in a hurry.  So I'm thinking the pellet tray will be fine at that level.  I can also take some sheet aluminum and make a box chimney to set in that opening inside the heating element to help funnel cool air directly to the base of the pellet tray on that level if needed.   And plan "C" is to move the heating element up by cutting a new hole and moving the support bar up.  I loose the ability to run the MES custom SS in stock configuration for a high temp smoke if I do that though.  And there is a mailbox mod option.

I ran the chamber for about 45 minutes at 225* and the temp was very stable even with just the analog dial controlling the element.  The insulation made a difference.  At 225* the outer body only got up to 105 to 114* and could still be touched. I did the 225* run with the top vent 100% open.  I then tried a 1 hour "full on" heat cycle with the top vent closed.  It only closes down to about 10% and not all the way.  Interior temp was up to 375* and the outer body did hit 130-135*.  Insulation only can do so much to slow down the transfer of heat, it does not stop it forever.

Tomorrow I will install the door gasket and run a smoke trial using the Auber PID controller.  I will post the results of that.  I expect the smoker to hold smooth and steady temps with the insulation and PID controller.  Then a seasoning smoke and time to crank out some sticks!!!!!!


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## GaryHibbert (Jun 18, 2017)

VERY interesting project.

I'll be watching for more.

Gary


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## SmokinAl (Jun 19, 2017)

About all I can say is WOW!

Very nicely done!!!

Al


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## dward51 (Jun 19, 2017)

I installed the nomex door gasket (ok, it's probably Chinese "nomex"), drilled and slit the silicone plug for the temp probe wires, and figured out the first place I'm going to try running the pellet tray.

Silicone plug in the factory exhaust port where the temp probe wires will go (silicone plug will act as a grommet to seal the smoker chamber and keep wires from chaffing.













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"Nomex" gasket installed around door opening perimeter.  I wiped the area down with alcohol to prep for the pressure sensitive adhesive on the back of the gasket to bond.  Seems to have a pretty tenacious grip.  The gasket I used is 1/8" thick by 3/4" wide and is the OnlyFire brand carried on Amazon.













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Out of the box there was a fairly substantial gap between the door and smoker body on the hinge side.  This 1/8" thick gasket has closed this off perfectly.  I did have to adjust the door latch out a little to accommodate the gasket on the latch side as it was jam tight to start with before I installed the gasket.  All said, this gasket looks to have done the job.  Closing the door now has that solid feel and a quiet thud between the gasket and with the shell insulated.  It sounds like a solid smoker.  I'm thinking slam latch but that would be overkill..... 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			


















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The heating element has multiple re-curve "squiggles" on the right side where the chip box sits.  I presume this is to provide maximum heat to the chips to get them smoldering.  The left side is basically open in the center with the heating element along the front and back edges.  The stock water pan is elevated higher than the top of the chip tray.  It looks like the design was made to pump as much heat as possible into the bottom of the chip tray, and they flow to the left and up towards the water pan, and then back to the right into the main smoker body.  I suspect this was found to help even the heat when MES designed the unit.













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The 5x8" pellet tray will sit on top of the chip box just fine.  Another option was to take the chip box/water pan rack out and replace it with one of the regular food racks as that would be about 3" above the heating element and I could set the tray in that area on the left side that is above the open area where there is no heating element.  Then I thought, why not just turn the chip box/water pan rack around backwards.  It has a down turning  angle at the front so I can't slide it in the rack mount, but I can flip it around and sit it on top of the rack mount where it normally slides in.  This gives me the option of putting the pellet tray on the rack supports where the chip box normally sits or leaving the chip box as sort of a heat shield and sitting the pellet tray on top of that.  I figured I would also leave the water pan in to act as a baffle and channel the bulk of the heat from that right side back towards the center of the smoker body.  It makes sense when you look at the photo.













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So, I ran an auto-tune cycle on the Auber Instruments PID controller and loaded up one strip of the pellet tray with hickory pellets.  I put the pellets on the right side where it would be in the highest heat area for the trial as a "worst case" run.  Then set the PID for 225* and let her run. 

Holds temps like a charm (yes I know, no cold meat load, but I know the PID can handle that from my use with the e-WSM).   Smoking just fine.  It was hard to get a photo as it's a little breezy today and the smoke thinned out quickly.  Out of the box, the smoker leaked smoke like a sieve around the door, especially on the hinge side.  The gasket has sealed it up 100% with the only smoke coming out the smoke stack like it should. So if it works this well at 225*, it should be a champ at the temps for jerky, snack sticks, and sausage smoking!  I'm very happy now.  Just have to go to the store and snag some meat and run a test smoke for real.

Oh, I also made a custom cord for this.  I've been running with a 14 gauge extension cord about 18' long. It's white and looks odd on the deck.  I wanted a 12 gauge cord, but the shortest I could find was 25' and they were all bright yellow in 12 gauge.  So I bought 15' of SJ outdoor rated 12/3 and made my own cord.  The SJ is also a lot more supple than the vinyl sheathed extension cords you get at the big box stores.  I used a outlet end with a LED as a pilot light.













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## tallbm (Jun 19, 2017)

Awesome!!!

I love it when people create something amazing or fix something to reach it's max potential!  You my friend have done the community a great service should they want to build a rock solid electric smoker.  I have seen a number of the MES analogues for sale on Craigslist in my area over the past 6 months and getting one for like $25-$40 and then doing this would turn out a rock solid smoker.

No it wouldn't be cheap to do but that is the cost of quality and quality is the goal not price :)

I can't wait to see what you turn out :)


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## dward51 (Jun 20, 2017)

I've been running some temp tests to see how even the heat is.  Well, it's not even at all.  That element is heavy loaded on the right side under the chip pan area.  I may pull the element out of the e-WSM I made and see if it gives more even readings as it looks to be more balanced with the cal rod more evenly distributed.  This is that element. I think I can make it fit and if I decide to mount it, I'll just put in two more rivet nuts on either side to screw into.  It was pretty even in the e-WSM.

This is the existing element in the MES right side view













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This is the left side, see how much more it's weighted to the right side.













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This is the element I used for my e-WSM mod.  I can unbolt it from the extra WSM door and I think it will fit for a trial run in the MES custom SS.  The MES was to give me a lot rack room than the e-WSM so if I have to donate the element, I'm ok with that.













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## crankybuzzard (Jun 20, 2017)

This was a great read, a great build, and I'm certain we shall soon see a great cook in it!

Looking forward to more!


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## dward51 (Jun 20, 2017)

So I'm curious, what would you call a mod of a mod?

As I previously indicated, I found the MES SS was running hot on one side.  Well, Duh!!! It has 2.5 times the heating element concentration on the right side.  So here is a mod to see if I can even out the heat more.  Last night, I ran a small batch of smoked hot dogs and the ones on the right side were much more done than the left even with the empty pans in place to try and divert heat (sort of like a semi-tuning plate).  Time to tinker again.....

I previously added an electric element to an extra WSM door in my e-WSM mod.  Today I measured and found that heating element will fit in the factory cutout of the MES SS and the element shape looks like it would put out heat more evenly in the smoking chamber.  I had not experienced any problems with uneven heating in the e-WSM and I have run it with a dry pan and no pan with excellent results both times.

Here is the stock MES 30 heating element.  It is pretty obvious why it runs hotter on one side.













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Here is the element from my e-WSM mod installed in the MES SS.  It's a little larger than I would like, but I think it will work.  The heating element surface is much more evenly distributed than that of the stock MES element.  Note, the air inlet is off center towards the front of the smoker.  I wanted to make sure it would fully drain into the stock grease catch pan that mounts underneath the smoker body.













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Comparison of the two elements













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I'm running another auto tune cycle on the Auber PID controller now.  I took the disposable top to a disposable foil pan and used it as a heat deflector over the element and a "drip pan" as stick and smoked sausage rarely drip unless they fat out.  I moved the top rack to the position the water pan & chip pan rack normally sits in to put the "drip pan" on. In actual use I will line the bottom of the smoker body with foil as well. I've run the e-WSM without a drip pan and had no problems with sticks and sausage before, so I can probably do the same here as the temps are not going to be above 180* and it's more about time and smoke than heat.













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I will run some meat in the smoker later today to see if this element works better.  I will also have a better idea of how evenly the heat and smoke are distributed to the different rack levels on an actual smoke, but I can rotate racks if needed.  It's still an learning process as I'm completely changing the way the stock MES functions and the intended temperature band it will smoke in.

I'm about 99% sure I'm also going to move that e-WSM element up about an inch or so.  I can take out the element support rack as this element has little stands on the far end and I can rivet an extension to that to hold it level.  If I loose the stock element support rack and move the element up, I can put the pellet tray directly over the 2 1/8" air inlet and also have room to put a drip and heat shield over the pellet tray.  The cutting to the MES body will be minimal as I will just need to cut the opening for the element housing upwards an inch and fill in the inner and outer holes with a sheet metal plate.  I will probably use rivet nuts for the element to screw into in the inner liner as it has wide "ears" where the screw holes are located.  A dremel with a ziz wheel will make short work of this mod of the mod.  I just want to make sure this is the element I'm sticking with before I cut the body of the smoker.

So, the testing and tinkering continue, but I'm well on the path to my goal.


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## tallbm (Jun 20, 2017)

Yeah that squiggle design on the element makes for more heat on that side.

I experience that with my MES40, even though I've flipped the element so the squiggle side is more towards the center.  That side with the squiggle gets about 10 degrees hotter at the back of the lowest rack on that side.  

I think my convection fan mod helps distribute that out that a quite a bit or else I would get an eve greater temp difference there.

It's just the nature of the design.  You may also run into what I see, and that is that at higher racks you just can't get even heat temp with lower racks.  I think the Vent at the top of the smoker is the biggest culprit.  Heat is generated at the bottom making it hottest at the smoker in the bottom and then travels up and out the top.  All of the meat and racks and space on the way to the vent at the top absorb heat out of the air as it travels up and then the air is sucked out.  It is just the nature of the design.  

Get rid of a top vent hole and I bet temps get more even like an oven, but then you lose smoke venting and no longer have a smoker.  I think it is simply just what it is going to be, but any/ever little bit of control helps.  That is why I have a fan mod, flipped heating element, mailbox mod, and HeaterMeter PID controller mod :)

I can't wait to see how the new element works, I bet it helps keep things more even temps across a rack :)


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## dward51 (Jun 24, 2017)

New element worked great.  Temps across the rack side to side and back to back seemed very even.  The lower racks are still cooking/drying faster than the upper racks.  But, I don't know if there is a fix for that without going to a full convection system as the racks are sucking heat out of the air column as it rises and by the time it goes through the stack, the top racks just have less heat to deal with in the first place.   As long as it's even on the rack, I can rotate them throughout a smoke.

I did decide that I'm also going to loose the stock element support and raise the element at least 1".  I may even cut the rack support and move that bottom rack mount up some as well.  It's not like I really intend on using this as a stock MES any more.  Moving the element up will give me room to put in the pellet tray with no obstructions and also have a heat/drip shield that the tray can sit under.  I will probably use it "as is" with the new element a few times before moving the element up.

All in all.... I'm pleased with the results.













20170621_001137.jpg



__ dward51
__ Jun 24, 2017


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## tallbm (Jun 24, 2017)

dward51 said:


> New element worked great.  Temps across the rack side to side and back to back seemed very even.  The lower racks are still cooking/drying faster than the upper racks.  But, I don't know if there is a fix for that without going to a full convection system as the racks are sucking heat out of the air column as it rises and by the time it goes through the stack, the top racks just have less heat to deal with in the first place.   As long as it's even on the rack, I can rotate them throughout a smoke.
> 
> I did decide that I'm also going to loose the stock element support and raise the element at least 1".  I may even cut the rack support and move that bottom rack mount up some as well.  It's not like I really intend on using this as a stock MES any more.  Moving the element up will give me room to put in the pellet tray with no obstructions and also have a heat/drip shield that the tray can sit under.  I will probably use it "as is" with the new element a few times before moving the element up.
> 
> ...


Dave your findings about upper racks not being the same temp as lower racks but having even temps across racks are the same findings I have discovered in my heavily mod'ed MES setup.  I agree that is simply just the nature of the beast since the top vents out the air/smoke/heat.

I also am happy living with different temps at different rack levels especially since my temps across any single rack are pretty level and are always consistent.  So if my left back corner is 10 degrees hotter, it is ALWAYS 10 degrees hotter on that rack.

I have found excellent results cooking everything on the bottom rack since it has the best performance and can get to any temp I want without issue.  

I seldom have 2 racks worth of food to cook but I find if I do I just put the faster cooking items on the next highest rack.  I never have used 3 racks and I too believe I will just simply rotate racks as needed in a case where I do a 3 racks or more of jerky, sausage, etc.

Good work, I look forward to seeing your new mods and I agree with raising the element to fit the AMNPS :)


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## Quickerthanu (Sep 11, 2018)

dward51 said:


> New element worked great.  Temps across the rack side to side and back to back seemed very even.  The lower racks are still cooking/drying faster than the upper racks.  But, I don't know if there is a fix for that without going to a full convection system as the racks are sucking heat out of the air column as it rises and by the time it goes through the stack, the top racks just have less heat to deal with in the first place.   As long as it's even on the rack, I can rotate them throughout a smoke.
> 
> I did decide that I'm also going to loose the stock element support and raise the element at least 1".  I may even cut the rack support and move that bottom rack mount up some as well.  It's not like I really intend on using this as a stock MES any more.  Moving the element up will give me room to put in the pellet tray with no obstructions and also have a heat/drip shield that the tray can sit under.  I will probably use it "as is" with the new element a few times before moving the element up.
> 
> ...




Hi Dave,
  Where did you order the chimney stack with vent regulator in the pic above?  (would prefer black if they have it) I'm looking to raise my current one on my MES 30.

Thanks in advance,
Andy


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## dward51 (Mar 5, 2019)

Andy,

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I must have missed your question.  I bought it from Lowe's.  It was a replacement for one of their store brand made grills.  However I've seen in another thread where they have discontinued that model and all back stock is gone.  My advise would be to search grill and smoker images in Google and find one with an adjustable stack you like.  Then order it as a replacement part.  They wanted to know when I bought mine and I just told them it was not a warranty part that a friend gave me the grill and I damaged the original in moving it in the truck (since I never actually bought the grill and just wanted the replacement part).  Once I told them that it was like $15 shipped. 

Also be aware you want to find a stack with a flat base.  There are lot of them out there with curved bases.  The flat ones are a little harder to find (at least the nicer ones were).  Next time you are in the big box store just look around and if you find one that would work, get the grill model number and call about replacing one you damaged after "a friend gave you the smoker/grill".


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