What's With The Digital Beeping?

[daricksta]

I smoked my first brisket in my MES 30 last weekend and results were mixed. However, the smoker still mystifies me. The built-in digital thermos never got up to temp and with a minute to go on the built-in digital timer the thing started beeping. Does it start beeping early? And mine was taking forever to get up to temp. I had 215 degrees set and 90 minutes into cooking it was nowhere close. In fact, the heating light went out before it hit my target temp so I turned it back on and reset target temp to 220 degrees because the meat temp wasn't getting to where I needed it either. I had my meat thermos set for a target of 180 degrees but in 6 hours it only got up to 177.

I opened the door a few times to move the thermos probe and I had to refill the AMNPS once. Each door opening dropped the interior temp 20 degrees and after an hour it still wasn't up to where I wanted it. Why did the heating light still turn off? Does that mean the heating element shut off too? And what's with the beeping?

 

[nozzleman]

I have an older MES 30 and I can say that the built in temp sensor is not accurate. I think most recommend an external and seperate thermometer setup. Learn where your digital setting needs to be to reach the temp you want.  You can double check your portable thermometer by using iced water and boiling water.

Mine don't beep, can't help you there.  Light goes out, heating element is off.

Smoking a brisket usually takes between 12 to 14 hours to get it done and tender. I take mine to at least 190 up to 200 temp of the meat.

Opening and closing the door just causes you to lose temp and cost you more time. I never open the door once I start unless I am going to foil the meat at 165.  Using the water pan filled with boiling water helps to get the smoker up to temp initially. Preheat the unit before placing the meat in there. The water pan will also help it recover faster.

 

[daricksta]

Might have  been my Taylor therm beeping now that I think of it.

This is what's so confusing about starting out smoking: you use the water pan but Todd Johnson advises against it when using his AMNPS. He says you just get a steam bath. I'm going to try the water pan when I smoke ribs next week.

I tested my Taylor therm with boiling water but didn't think about the ice water. But if the MES 30 therm is off, how would you calibrate it? I know I can use a therm with two probes but I was hoping not to spend an additional $30-40 at this point, but I may need to.

I've been hearing that brisket takes at least twice as long as I gave it. I'll be trying it again later this summer. The meat temp never got anywhere close to 190 in that 6 hours. From now on, I'll put enough pellets in the AMNPS so that I don't have to open the door and if I run out of those, I'll switch to wood chips.

Do you wipe down the interior of your MES in between uses or do you leave it be for the "seasoning"?