# Need Help With my Smoker Please



## Beso (Jun 5, 2019)

So I have the Masterbuilt Electric 135S Smoker and was wondering when I'm smoking my meat for a long time, am I suppose to let the woodchips turn into ashes and then empty them out or do I put more in and change them in a later time like 2-3 hours in?


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## SmokinVOLfan (Jun 5, 2019)

You can keep dumping them until the chip drawer gets full of ash. If I were you I would ditch the chips and get an AMNPS. Burns for 11-12 hours and you don't have to babysit that ridiculous chip loader every 20-30 minutes adding more chips to get 10 minutes of smoke.


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## jokensmoken (Jun 5, 2019)

Beso said:


> So I have the Masterbuilt Electric 135S Smoker and was wondering when I'm smoking my meat for a long time, am I suppose to let the woodchips turn into ashes and then empty them out or do I put more in and change them in a later time like 2-3 hours in?


I would think you would just add more until you're done cooking then clean the ash...
Unless of course it's overflowing. 
FYI in case you were unaware meat quits taking on more smoke flavor once it reaches an internal temp of 140°F...once the meat gets to that temp no more smoke is required and adding chips is simply a waste of fuel.


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## bregent (Jun 5, 2019)

jokensmoken said:


> FYI in case you were unaware meat quits taking on more smoke flavor once it reaches an internal temp of 140°F...once the meat gets to that temp no more smoke is required and adding chips is simply a waste of fuel.



Once the food has reached 140, it's probably been in smoke long enough to get enough smoke flavor. But that doesn't mean food that's been cooked to 140 doesn't absorb much smoke. I sous vide pork loin and tri-tip to 140 all the time, and then smoke and it gets plenty of smoke flavor. Maybe you're thinking about smoke ring? That won't form once the meat reaches a certain temp.


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## tallbm (Jun 5, 2019)

Beso said:


> So I have the Masterbuilt Electric 135S Smoker and was wondering when I'm smoking my meat for a long time, am I suppose to let the woodchips turn into ashes and then empty them out or do I put more in and change them in a later time like 2-3 hours in?



Hi there and welcome.

I think the guy shave given you good advice on the tray, chips, and ash.

I second the fact that the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (AMNPS) tray is a much better option to go with and you won't have to worry about chips anymore.

The AMNPS is this thing:
You fill it up with wood pellets (or put as little or as much as you want) and light one end of the pellets and let them burn with a flame for 10 min.  Blow out the flame and the pellets will smolder and produce PERFECT smoke known as Thin Blue Smoke (TBS).
A full tray will burn around 12 hours without having to touch it.

Most MES owners use this by either putting it directly into the MES or building what is known a Mailbox Modification (Mod).
Remove the chip loader and attach the Mailbox Mod attaches to the chip loader hole and put the AMNPS inside the mailbox mod.  The smoke then goes into the MES without ever having to open the MES!

Here is an example of my MES and mailbox mod setup.












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__ tallbm
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## smokerjim (Jun 5, 2019)

I have the mes30, when I used the chip tray I would only  clean out the tray at the end of smoking, but I switched the amnps with the mailbox mod and never looked back, chips work fine in the loader but need to be replenished every 30 minutes or so, and only will burn when the smoker is set at 200 or above, so if you plan on doing cold smoking or longer smokes amnps is the way to go.


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## TomKnollRFV (Jun 5, 2019)

Honestly if you manage to fill the chip tray with ash when running a MES for a single cook my hat is off to you sir.

I use the AMNPS or wood chips, depending on what I feel like doing. But you need not worry about emptying the wood chips any time soon during a smoke. Run one and add wood chips every 45 mins, you'll notice at the end, there's about still nothing in there. It does a very good job of atomizing the wood like it is meant to. It burns it to a fine ash.

Still with an electric, if you don't want to babysit, get an AMNPS. Personally I still notice a huge difference in one way; the AMNPS pellets never smell as good as wood chips.


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## jokensmoken (Jun 5, 2019)

TomKnollRFV said:


> Honestly if you manage to fill the chip tray with ash when running a MES for a single cook my hat is off to you sir.
> 
> I use the AMNPS or wood chips, depending on what I feel like doing. But you need not worry about emptying the wood chips any time soon during a smoke. Run one and add wood chips every 45 mins, you'll notice at the end, there's about still nothing in there. It does a very good job of atomizing the wood like it is meant to. It burns it to a fine ash.
> 
> Still with an electric, if you don't want to babysit, get an AMNPS. Personally I still notice a huge difference in one way; the AMNPS pellets never smell as good as wood chips.


I mix chips in with the pellets in my propane when I cold smoke...it definetly helped improve the smoke flavor.
Walt


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## jokensmoken (Jun 5, 2019)

bregent said:


> Once the food has reached 140, it's probably been in smoke long enough to get enough smoke flavor. But that doesn't mean food that's been cooked to 140 doesn't absorb much smoke. I sous vide pork loin and tri-tip to 140 all the time, and then smoke and it gets plenty of smoke flavor. Maybe you're thinking about smoke ring? That won't form once the meat reaches a certain temp.


Ok...thanks for the correction
Meat only takes smoke for about 4-5 hours...my observation has been that the IT of the meat is usually at or just beyond 140° IT.


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## Dolejh76 (Jun 7, 2019)

I have the masterbuilt cold smoking attachment.  Works pretty good although the chip get plugged up occasionally and it will stop smoking after an hour and I have to go out and smack it on something to free the blockage.   When it does smoke though - it’s great smoke!  Works great for cold smoking cheese etc as well.

Masterbuilt 20070112 Cold Smoking Kit for Masterbuilt Digital Smokers


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## Pilot Bird (Jun 9, 2019)

That’s what’s left from a 14 hour run
	

		
			
		

		
	











	

		
			
		

		
	
 I received a smoke generator. Works great


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