# Smoker turned off



## diver165 (Mar 10, 2012)

OK, I know you see a lot of these type threads but here's my questions.

My smoker (MES 40") some how got turned off at the beginning of my smoke.  I think my nephew turned the smoker off on accident.  I put 2 butts and a brisket on at 9:30pm and left for work.  I come home at 7:00 AM and the smoker is off.  COLD.  The ambient temp was 28F last night.  The internal thermo says the meat was 39F.

What do I do?  I turned the smoker back on and we'll see how  well it heats through.   I don't think I got very far into the smoke.  There weren't a lot of drippings in the pan like a normal smoke of 2 butts and a brisket.  I'm just absolutely sick about this.  This was supposed to be a nice quiet birthday (my own) weekend.  And now I have 30lbs of half smoked meat.


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## ob 1 (Mar 10, 2012)

Ouch - I'm sorry to hear about that.  Happy Birthday though....
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






This is truly a gamble as you've raised the temp in into the danger zone and then back into refrig temps.  I just did a search on temps and came up with a lot of hits and suggest you do this search.  I'm also sure some of the pro's will chime in here.  

I'm doing some butts and ribs this morning and hope I don't run into the same.

Good luck and let us know you're results should you want to continue with a smoke.


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## daveomak (Mar 10, 2012)

Diver, morning.....  Happy B-Day....  Now on to the meat....  The surface and some of the interior of the meat got to a high enough temp to cause juices to flow into the drip pan then cooled of to 39....  That took a long time....  especially in a warm smoker....  not to mention it sounds like you inserted the therm into the meat while it was cold...  Anyway, I would put them in the trash....

Meat sitting in a warm smoker and cooling down for say 10 hours, who knows, is not a good thing...

Your insurance deductable is probably more than the meat costs....   At least you found out about it instead of eating it....

Now to come up with a safety device for the smoker... Maybe there was a power bump during the night that turned it off...

Sorry for the things that happened.... Glad you'll be here tomorrow...   Dave


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## billdawg (Mar 10, 2012)

Happy Birthday! So sorry about the meat...I know that it is not much of a consolation, but the upside is, if you have the weekend off, you still have tonight and tomorrow to try again!


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## diver165 (Mar 10, 2012)

Yeah I actually fired it back up with the intentions of just seeing what happend but the smoker shut off again.  I said enough is enough.  The meat spent way too long in the danger zone, so I pitched everything.  I even cleaned the smoker grates just to be sure. 

I'm pretty sure I have it traced down to the remote on the MES 40.  I don't know if the remote is messed up or what but if you touch any button on it, the smoker shuts down.  It runs fine so long as the remote doesn't go into sleep mode.  When it does, and you touch a button it shuts it down.  I have been testing it out (empty for now) and its doing OK.  I went to wally world and picked up another nice butt.  I'll rub it down and try again tonight.


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## bama bbq (Mar 10, 2012)

I think your decision to pitch everything was a good one.  You could have risked it and it been fine...or you could have food poisoning. ...worse yet your family could have food poisoning from your cooking.  I hope your second attempt is met with a better end result.  Happy Birthday!


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## SmokinAl (Mar 11, 2012)

Sorry about that, but better to be safe than sorry!


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## diver165 (Mar 11, 2012)

Just to let everyone know, my 2nd attempt turned out great.  The problem is with the MES 40 remote.  I don't know why, but if you touch any button, it turns it off.  Between the test and the actual smoke the MES ran for 18hrs straight w/o hiccup.

Sorry no Qview.  The family hit it like a pack of wild dogs!  After 30 min it was GONE!  Then a lot of stuffed sleepy people afterwards.LOL


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