2012 MES 40 Temps

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roadkill cafe

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Jan 28, 2012
766
40
South Florida
Just seasoned my new 2012 MES 40. Seems like it went ok except for the temps. I know to expect differences between the unit probe and my Mav. 732 but wow, they seem to be all over the place. When I began the heat up I set it to 275* for 3 hrs. Heated up real fast and in less than 30 min.temp just kept rising until unit read 295* and Mav. read 306*!! MB remote said 275* Heating. At 30 min. unit read 285* and Mav. read 282*. Unit stopped heating for a while until unit would hit 271*, Mav. 268* and element would turn on until unit would read about 277*, Mav. 284*. Element would shut off but heat would still increase to about 288*. Sometimes the Mav. would read higher than unit, sometimes lower. Mav. probe placement was 2nd rack down, slightly left of middle. Mav. probe was ok when I tested with boiling water. Also, seems like the chip pan works pretty well in this unit (at least at high temps). Started with just 4-5 dry chips and gave very light TBS within a couple min. 15 min. later I added a palmful of soaked chips and it wasn't long before I had beautiful TBS coming out which lasted almost an hour. I'll still be using my AMNPS though.

I guess my question is...is it normal on initial heat up to get that high and then fall back? The only thing I could think of why it would do that is to compensate for initial door opening to place meat inside. Sorry if I'm rambling....
 
RC, evening...  those temp swings are normal and not a problem.... Season some meat and take plenty of Q-view...  Dave
 
This is completely normal. I have the same smoker and with an empty smoke 25-30* over shoots are typical. Once you load her up you can still expect 10* over or under set point as the smoker heating coil cycles. You can narrow the swings with Sand in the water pan as this works as a heat sink and stabilizes the temp faster...JJ
 
Thanks a bunch Dave & JJ. I appreciate the information. Looking forward to less babysitting like I have with the gasser.
 
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