New member from Idaho with a couple questions!

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

oakleyguy89

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 15, 2015
13
10
Hi guys, I'm new here and new to smoking food. Yesterday I just bought the masterbuilt pro analog electric smoker.

I was originally planning on getting the brinkmann gourmet but HD was out of stock and they had the masterbuilt on sale for $135 so I went ahead and got it. It's my first smoker so hopefully it turns out great!

I read some reviews on the masterbuilt and most of the complaints I have read was about the wood chip holder and water holder are way too small. Is there a remedy for this problem? I just don't want to open it up every hour or so to fill up the trays and possibly lost heat and smoke..

I'm very peculiar about my electronics and toys, and take very good care of them which brings me to my next question.

Is there anything I can put under my meats to prevent them from dripping juices on the element and bottom? I know there's a drip tray on the bottom of the smoker house but I was curious if the drippings are bad for the element and affect the longevity of it?

Thanks guys, and I am looking forward to be a part of the community.
 
Masterbuilt are a pretty good smoker for the price. To avoid dripping on your element put your water pan under the meat and just let it drip into that. Makes cleanup easy when you are done.
 
Masterbuilt are a pretty good smoker for the price. To avoid dripping on your element put your water pan under the meat and just let it drip into that. Makes cleanup easy when you are done.

Thanks! but the water pan that comes with it is very small and probably won't catch much stuff. I'll grab a pic of the inside and show you what I'm meaning.
 
I am familiar with it. You will need to get one that covers most of the rack space. Original one won't work like you want it too. I have used 9x13 baking dishes before for ribs and it works great.
 
texas.gif
  Good afternoon and welcome to the forum, from a beautiful sunny and cool day here in East Texas. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about  everything.

Gary
 
texas.gif

  Good afternoon and welcome to the forum, from a beautiful sunny and cool day here in East Texas. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about  everything.


Gary
Thanks Gary!
 
Don't use water in the water pan. Fill it up with play sand or pea gravel and wrap in foil for easy clean up. Use a drip pan on the bottom rack to catch drippings. Do not soak wood chips, wet wood doesn't smoke until it dries out. Get yourself a good quality dual probe thermometer like the ET 732 or 733 or Igrill 2. The probes in your unit are known to be off and sometimes way off. There are a ton of brand new mes owners out there right now due to the great prices on those smokers. Keep your eye on the forums here as there are a lot of people asking the same questions you may have. welcome and happy smoking! Timber
 
Don't use water in the water pan. Fill it up with play sand or pea gravel and wrap in foil for easy clean up. Use a drip pan on the bottom rack to catch drippings. Do not soak wood chips, wet wood doesn't smoke until it dries out. Get yourself a good quality dual probe thermometer like the ET 732 or 733 or Igrill 2. The probes in your unit are known to be off and sometimes way off. There are a ton of brand new mes owners out there right now due to the great prices on those smokers. Keep your eye on the forums here as there are a lot of people asking the same questions you may have. welcome and happy smoking! Timber
Thanks for the info! So you don't even need to use water while smoking? Do you know what I can do about the wood chip tray?
 
Last edited:
At the top of the page, there is a category called "Groups". Go there and check out the MES owners group. There you will find answers to questions you didn't even know you had.
 
At the top of the page, there is a category called "Groups". Go there and check out the MES owners group. There you will find answers to questions you didn't even know you had.
Thanks grillmonkey, I'll go check it out.
 
A lot of the MES guys and gals get one of the amazen pellet smoker devices. Fully loaded with pellets and lit one well burn many hours rather than like one hour which is I think about what you get with a load of chips in that smoker. I think there is a cold smoke attatchment you can get for your smoker that is made for it that kind of works similarly.
 
A lot of the MES guys and gals get one of the amazen pellet smoker devices. Fully loaded with pellets and lit one well burn many hours rather than like one hour which is I think about what you get with a load of chips in that smoker. I think there is a cold smoke attatchment you can get for your smoker that is made for it that kind of works similarly.

Interesting, I've seen it mentioned a lot but I don't know how they work or what they look like
 
No. not on the burner. You fill it up with pellets and light one or both ends with a torch. It burns slowly toward the center. Works with or without the element on. This way you have the option to cold smoke as well so you can do cheese and butter and whatever else you would want to smoke without cooking it. I have heard 9 hours of smoke without tending. That pretty much makes your smoker set it and forget it so you can smoke a large pork shoulder or whatever all night and still get some sleep.
 
No. not on the burner. You fill it up with pellets and light one or both ends with a torch. It burns slowly toward the center. Works with or without the element on. This way you have the option to cold smoke as well so you can do cheese and butter and whatever else you would want to smoke without cooking it. I have heard 9 hours of smoke without tending. That pretty much makes your smoker set it and forget it so you can smoke a large pork shoulder or whatever all night and still get some sleep.

Oh nice! I was wanting to do cheese eventually. Is the one that you linked to me the size I need?
 
Glad you joined the group. The search bar at the top of any page is your best friend.
About anything you wanna know about smoking/grilling/curing/brining/cutting or slicing
and the list goes on has probably been posted. Remember to post a QVIEW of your smokes.
We are all smoke junkies here and we have to get our fix. If you have questions
Post it and you will probably get 10 replies with 11 different answers. That is
because their are so many different ways to make great Q...
Happy smoken.
David
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky