amazin

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Hey no offense rexlan, not bashing you by any means. Just a company that's selling products that don't work the way they are advertised to do so out of the box.

Glad you had good experiences with your masterbuilt smokers. I really would have liked to as well. Gotta play the cards your dealt I guess.

Once I figure out how to fix the latch, I'm going to do the mailbox mod and then try to determine exactly how far off in temp my mes thermo is. Then after that's done I'll try a smoke with the mailbox mod and post how it worked out for me. If it works well great, if not I'll attempt a few more smoked and hopefully have it all figured out with no more problems arising.

However if it gets any worse you'll see a video posted with me taking a sledge hammer to it. Shouldn't have to go through all these problems. Masterbuilt should be selling products that work as advertised outta the box. Lord knows they charge enough.

Good luck to all you other mes users, and sorry that your mes almost burnt your house to the ground stayhot. Your problems are clearly worse than mine. But I am on the same page as you with not wanting to support masterbuilt ever again.
 
Hey no offense rexlan, not bashing you by any means. Just a company that's selling products that don't work the way they are advertised to do so out of the box.

Glad you had good experiences with your masterbuilt smokers. I really would have liked to as well. Gotta play the cards your dealt I guess.

Once I figure out how to fix the latch, I'm going to do the mailbox mod and then try to determine exactly how far off in temp my mes thermo is. Then after that's done I'll try a smoke with the mailbox mod and post how it worked out for me. If it works well great, if not I'll attempt a few more smoked and hopefully have it all figured out with no more problems arising.

However if it gets any worse you'll see a video posted with me taking a sledge hammer to it. Shouldn't have to go through all these problems. Masterbuilt should be selling products that work as advertised outta the box. Lord knows they charge enough.

Good luck to all you other mes users, and sorry that your mes almost burnt your house to the ground stayhot. Your problems are clearly worse than mine. But I am on the same page as you with not wanting to support masterbuilt ever again.
No offense taken; however, I don't think you are trying very hard.  Your mind seems to be made up so you need to do what you need to do.  From what I have heard the "mail box mod" works great so that should satisfy you needs.  Sort of a "not working out of the box" pellet smoker tray needing a mod too ... ???

BTW ... I don't have a dog in the fight, just an opinion like others and trying to be helpful looking for a solution..

Personally I found Mastercraft folks more than receptive to my complaints and they corrected every issue immediately and to my satisfaction.  Of course if you don't communicate with them then you will never get a correction and consequently remain unhappy.

The latch is a simple item and other than the screws coming out or the latch being incorrectly adjusted there isn't much to it.  I too would like to see something a bit simpler and more positive in the future.  It lookel like they wanted an air tight door and to guarantee it would not open.

If you place a test thermometer on the center shelf and set the unit I suspect you will see that the display and the thermometer will be within 5-10° which is quite acceptable.    I did exactly that and it was.  Certainly you don't expect the entire box to be equalized since the OEM sensing probe is in one specific location.  That isn't reasonable.  The fan will fix most of that; however, the meat probe is another issue.

In Stayhot's situation it sure looks like he had a fire started on top of the heating element.  That could be chips in direct contact, which is a known and reported issue, but he said not grease.  You also notice that his was a Gen 1 unit and those have great reviews.  The Gen 2 unit is what we were discussing.

I found the fit and finish on the Gen 2 unit better than average.  They used a nice silicone seal on the door, all of the back plates are gasketed and sealed, the rack holders are also removable for cleaning and they provide a removable drip pan for cleaning.

The recall was for the Gen 2 units due to an oversize chip pan and large chip loader that was causing a fire because teh chips were spilling out of the pan and directly on to the electric element.  A simple phone call got you an instant fix ... new pan and new loader of proper size.

I will admit that I still like my old gasser ... but the pellet tray is a total bust in it so I went to the electric.
 
The latch broke off because it has a pin for lack of a better word that's on the top and one on the bottom. They hold the whole latch assembly to the piece that's mounted on the actual smoker. The pins on each side go through holes on the other part of the assembly that's connected to the smoker. The pins are welded right to the assembly and one of them broke right off. So I'm kinda outta luck on this one. I could have just used a screw but it'd have to be longer and then it would go through the rest of the latch assembly.

I'm not even sure what to do with that thing. Any suggestions would certainly be appreciated.
 
The latch broke off because it has a pin for lack of a better word that's on the top and one on the bottom. They hold the whole latch assembly to the piece that's mounted on the actual smoker. The pins on each side go through holes on the other part of the assembly that's connected to the smoker. The pins are welded right to the assembly and one of them broke right off. So I'm kinda outta luck on this one. I could have just used a screw but it'd have to be longer and then it would go through the rest of the latch assembly.

I'm not even sure what to do with that thing. Any suggestions would certainly be appreciated.
If you can bring it here with you the 6th then I can fix it.

Stan
 
The latch broke off because it has a pin for lack of a better word that's on the top and one on the bottom. They hold the whole latch assembly to the piece that's mounted on the actual smoker. The pins on each side go through holes on the other part of the assembly that's connected to the smoker. The pins are welded right to the assembly and one of them broke right off. So I'm kinda outta luck on this one. I could have just used a screw but it'd have to be longer and then it would go through the rest of the latch assembly.

I'm not even sure what to do with that thing. Any suggestions would certainly be appreciated.
Call Masterbuilt and ask them for a new one ... They do not make that part either and it is a commonly used item.

@Stayhot..... might want to check you house wiring to find out why your breaker did not trip.  Outside plugs should have GFI protection and it damn sure would have tripped if it was an electrical issue.  But then if it was inside or something then you may just have a regular breaker.  Just because someone does not use their smoker to you level does not preclude them from having an opinion much less make them a "clown" for trying to help you ... pretty rough.  Sounds like you are not MES inclined
biggrin.gif
 
I will bring it over Stan. Can't hurt to let someone else look at it.

And rexlan I will attempt to call the masterbuilt customer service and see what they are willing to do. I'll let you know what they say.

Finally:

Funny how? Like a clown? What I'm here to amuse you or something?

Sorry... Tension breaker! Had to be done. Lol
 
I will bring it over Stan. Can't hurt to let someone else look at it.

And rexlan I will attempt to call the masterbuilt customer service and see what they are willing to do. I'll let you know what they say.

Finally:

Funny how? Like a clown? What I'm here to amuse you or something?

Sorry... Tension breaker! Had to be done. Lol
LOL...another Goodfellows fan, I see !! 
 
My new chip tray, and new latch arrived last week from masterbuilt. I just had to give them my serial # and they sent me the new stuff with no issues. Hopefully the new tray will help it not catch fire. I'll report back after I fix it up with the new parts and test it a few times.
 
Well I already use an amazn and it's been spotty. I will do the mailbox mod soon.

As far as masterbuilt I had a good experience with they're customer service, and now I have new parts. Zero complaints with that end of it. Now we will see if the new chip tray catches fire. If it does then I will not change my mind on the mes 40 gen 2 as a product.

Guess only more smoking will tell!
 
Well I already use an amazn and it's been spotty. I will do the mailbox mod soon.

As far as masterbuilt I had a good experience with they're customer service, and now I have new parts. Zero complaints with that end of it. Now we will see if the new chip tray catches fire. If it does then I will not change my mind on the mes 40 gen 2 as a product.

Guess only more smoking will tell!


If you are using the AMNPS, you don't need the chip tray in the MES......
 
Yeah I'm aware of that but I'd like to be able to have the smoker work the way it was intended to work. I doubt I'll use it that way much, but it'd be nice to know if I throw chips in it they won't start ablaze in case I'm outta pellets
 
 
You will never get consistent smoke with the MES no matter what type or kind of chip pan they send you. This problem will always be there until you add the Amazin smoker or do a mailbox mod. You will still need to open the smoker releasing all the heat to empty the chip pan during the longer smokes. 
X2 ... agree.

Their system is very bad for anything actually requiring a decent smoke.  Unfortunately the Amazen isn't the right answer either without some work.  The holes in it are too small for the Gen 2 air flow to work properly.  The tube does a better job (larger holes) but it is too big for the box - too much smoke.
 
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