MES 40 Bluetooth Heating Issues

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smokinginsf

Newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2015
12
10
Hi Folks,

I've been a lurker on this forum for a good while now and have learned a great deal. Please excuse any etiquette faux pas I will make with this post as I'm a complete newbie to the scene.

I recently purchased a MES40 Bluetooth unit from Amazon not too long ago.  I've completed all of the steps to season and purchased an AMNPS and some digital probe thermometers (Thermoprobe and iGrill).  For my first smoke, I was a little ambitious and smoked a brisket.  I set the thermostat to 225 and placed two probes on the second shelf on the left and right side.  I let it preheat for a good hour or so and the the readings stayed pretty steady at 225 on external thermometer.  I proceeded to load my AMNPS and brisket into the smoker.  As soon as I put the meat in, the temperature seemed to drop, which I know is normal because of the door opening.  However, throughout the smoke, the temperature never seemed to climb back up to above 205 with the meat in.  After several hours, I decided to bump the temperature controller up to about 245, where then the thermometer would finally read a steady 225.

Is this normal or do I have a faulty smoker? 
 
 
Hi Folks,

I've been a lurker on this forum for a good while now and have learned a great deal. Please excuse any etiquette faux pas I will make with this post as I'm a complete newbie to the scene.

I recently purchased a MES40 Bluetooth unit from Amazon not too long ago.  I've completed all of the steps to season and purchased an AMNPS and some digital probe thermometers (Thermoprobe and iGrill).  For my first smoke, I was a little ambitious and smoked a brisket.  I set the thermostat to 225 and placed two probes on the second shelf on the left and right side.  I let it preheat for a good hour or so and the the readings stayed pretty steady at 225 on external thermometer.  I proceeded to load my AMNPS and brisket into the smoker.  As soon as I put the meat in, the temperature seemed to drop, which I know is normal because of the door opening.  However, throughout the smoke, the temperature never seemed to climb back up to above 205 with the meat in.  After several hours, I decided to bump the temperature controller up to about 245, where then the thermometer would finally read a steady 225.

Is this normal or do I have a faulty smoker? 
I have a 40" BT also and I have to set the Smoker temp at 240-245 to get 225 shelf temp. 

On my old former 40" 2.0 it was the opposite in that I would have to set the Smoker at 195-200 to get 225-235 degrees shelf temperature..
 
 
I have a 40" BT also and I have to set the Smoker temp at 240-245 to get 225 shelf temp. 

On my old former 40" 2.0 it was the opposite in that I would have to set the Smoker at 195-200 to get 225-235 degrees shelf temperature..
I guess my question is whether or not it's normal for the smoker to drop so much in temperature when meat is loaded?  It seems to be very accurate when when the smoker is empty.
 
 
Hi Folks,

I've been a lurker on this forum for a good while now and have learned a great deal. Please excuse any etiquette faux pas I will make with this post as I'm a complete newbie to the scene.

I recently purchased a MES40 Bluetooth unit from Amazon not too long ago.  I've completed all of the steps to season and purchased an AMNPS and some digital probe thermometers (Thermoprobe and iGrill).  For my first smoke, I was a little ambitious and smoked a brisket.  I set the thermostat to 225 and placed two probes on the second shelf on the left and right side.  I let it preheat for a good hour or so and the the readings stayed pretty steady at 225 on external thermometer.  I proceeded to load my AMNPS and brisket into the smoker.  As soon as I put the meat in, the temperature seemed to drop, which I know is normal because of the door opening.  However, throughout the smoke, the temperature never seemed to climb back up to above 205 with the meat in.  After several hours, I decided to bump the temperature controller up to about 245, where then the thermometer would finally read a steady 225.

Is this normal or do I have a faulty smoker? 
When it wouldn't come up to 205° on your external therm, was your MES read-out up to the set temp?? If it was & it wouldn't go up to what you want your external to read, you just have to raise your setting, like you did.

The cold meat will drop it & opening the door will drop it, but it can only come back up to what your setting is.

I'm testing a new MES out & to get 220° real temp on my Mavericks, I have to set my MES at 205°. 

That kind of thing is normal, and you just have to adjust your MES setting to get your real temp on your tested external therm.

Bear
 
 
When it wouldn't come up to 205° on your external therm, was your MES read-out up to the set temp?? If it was & it wouldn't go up to what you want your external to read, you just have to raise your setting, like you did.

The cold meat will drop it & opening the door will drop it, but it can only come back up to what your setting is.

I'm testing a new MES out & to get 220° real temp on my Mavericks, I have to set my MES at 205°. 

That kind of thing is normal, and you just have to adjust your MES setting to get your real temp on your tested external therm.

Bear
Is it normal to have to change the controller numerous times during the smoke? 
 
Yes, just be thankful you dont have the 40 inch 2ND GEN unit. i have  a 40 incher in my living room that's the BT model....  About to season it tonight! For a double barelled 80 inches of smoking thursday morning.

So now i'm up to 40 inch models, this is masterbuilts last chance of keeping me as a customer.
 
 
Is it normal to have to change the controller numerous times during the smoke? 
Can you explain that a little better?

Like it was set at------

Then it went to--------

And I had to reset it to--------

Then it went to--------

So I had to reset it to-------

Then I'll be able to give you a better answer.

Bear
 
 
Can you explain that a little better?

Like it was set at------

Then it went to--------

And I had to reset it to--------

Then it went to--------

So I had to reset it to-------

Then I'll be able to give you a better answer.

Bear
I will do my best to recall what I did.  I'll have to keep a log book next time if I wanna get serious.

Temp was set to 225. External thermometer read 225 for 1 hour.

Load meat in. Temp on external thermometer drops and slowly climbs back up to 205. Stays at 205.

I reset controller to 235. External thermometer reads 215.
 
 
I will do my best to recall what I did.  I'll have to keep a log book next time if I wanna get serious.

Temp was set to 225. External thermometer read 225 for 1 hour.

Load meat in. Temp on external thermometer drops and slowly climbs back up to 205. Stays at 205.

I reset controller to 235. External thermometer reads 215.
That's not good if that's the way it happened. Maybe your external therm is too close to the cold meat???? If it's too close to the cold meat, it will not be reading the smoker temp.

If the external read 225° for an hour when it was set at 225°, it should be able to get back to 225° on the external eventually. It will take longer to get there because of the cold meat, but it should get there.

However, once your set temp is reached on your MES, the element shuts off & nothing goes up until it starts again.

In other words, If you set your MES for 225°, when it gets to 225° and the elements shuts off, wherever the External says then, that's where it stops too, except for a little coasting.

Bear

PS: I'm sorry---I have to go now. I'll be back tomorrow. Or somebody else will pick up on this. Sorry---I'm getting the "Look"!!
 
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That's not good if that's the way it happened. Maybe your external therm is too close to the cold meat???? If it's too close to the cold meat, it will not be reading the smoker temp.

If the external read 225° for an hour when it was set at 225°, it should be able to get back to 225° on the external eventually. It will take longer to get there because of the cold meat, but it should get there.

However, once your set temp is reached on your MES, the element shuts off & nothing goes up until it starts again.

In other words, If you set your MES for 225°, when it gets to 225° and the elements shuts off, wherever the External says then, that's where it stops too, except for a little coasting.

Bear
How far away should the probe be from the meat?  I had it about 4 inches away from the meat.  Also, how long do you think it should take to recover temperature? 20 minutes? An hour? 

Sorry for the questions. 
 
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How far away should the probe be from the meat?  I had it about 4 inches away from the meat.  Also, how long do you think it should take to recover temperature? 20 minutes? An hour? 

Sorry for the questions. 
I get colder temperatures with probe close to the meat than I do if I set the probe on a different shelf.
 
 
How far away should the probe be from the meat?  I had it about 4 inches away from the meat.  Also, how long do you think it should take to recover temperature? 20 minutes? An hour? 

Sorry for the questions. 
4" should be far enough to get relatively accurate temp readings.

As for how long---It would depend on how much cold meat you put in, but with a 1200watt MES 40, it shouldn't take a real long time.

Next time take more accurate notes to see what actually happened:

What you set the temp at.

What temp did the MES say when it shut off.

what the external therm said when the element shut off.

Where your external probe was.

Times for these things would help too.

I take notes like these almost all the time for my "Step by Steps".

You don't have to do that all the time, but it would help to get things squared away for you.

Bear
 
 
4" should be far enough to get relatively accurate temp readings.

As for how long---It would depend on how much cold meat you put in, but with a 1200watt MES 40, it shouldn't take a real long time.

Next time take more accurate notes to see what actually happened:

What you set the temp at.

What temp did the MES say when it shut off.

what the external therm said when the element shut off.

Where your external probe was.

Times for these things would help too.

I take notes like these almost all the time for my "Step by Steps".

You don't have to do that all the time, but it would help to get things squared away for you.

Bear
Thank you.  Will do.  

I plan on smoking some jerky this weekend.  I've never made jerky before.  Does anyone have any recipes?
 
Is there any mods recommended for the 40 inch vent on top left for better AMNPS air flow? Haven't tried it yet.. But tomorrow is the big day.  It's out there seasoning now  . My old 40 incher 2nd gen has the ghetto side vent. so annoying
 
my mes 40 BT does just fine stock, running an amps with it with no problems either. Chip loader pulled out half way and in the dump position
 
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Is there any mods recommended for the 40 inch vent on top left for better AMNPS air flow? Haven't tried it yet.. But tomorrow is the big day.  It's out there seasoning now  . My old 40 incher 2nd gen has the ghetto side vent. so annoying
I run my 40" BT with the Chip Loader pulled out approx 2" and dump side turned down. This was recommended to me by Todd, the person that makes these Pellets.
 
I'm smoking some jerky today.  I'm using my iGrill probe to measure the chamber.  Ideally I want to smoke at 160.  I ended up setting the controller at 150.

Here's a chart of the smoke:


It never really stays stable at 160 but seems to run up and down for maybe an average of 160.  Does this seem normal?
 
 
I'm smoking some jerky today.  I'm using my iGrill probe to measure the chamber.  Ideally I want to smoke at 160.  I ended up setting the controller at 150.

Here's a chart of the smoke:


It never really stays stable at 160 but seems to run up and down for maybe an average of 160.  Does this seem normal?
It's an oven so it's normal. 

-Kurt
 
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