MES newbie

On a cool day, the temp will drop pretty quickly after its turned off, especially if you don't have a heat sink (sand in the water pan). All electrics cycle above and below the set temp, it's the average that your looking for. That being said, 299 is pretty high. Was it going that high consistently or just once or twice? Which smoker do you have? 30 or 40? Gen1 or gen2? Easiest way to tell this is which side of the door are the hinges on? The Gen2 has the hinges on the left side and is a problematic smoker.

zzrguy said:

Well I got one of those ACE Hardware Specials and I'm seasoning it as we speak. The truth is I bought two one for me and one for work.
I season the one at work and had no problem but of causes mine would give me a issue I set it at 275 and let it run for the 330 hrs and when I got home 30 mins after it shut of it was showing only 75° would this cool that fast it 47°and a lite breeze.

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You seasoned it for 330 hours?  That's over 13 days.

What smoker did you get?   Do you have a link to it?

Bear has a great post here about temperature swings.  There are a few factors.  If you have a Gen 1 smoker (I do), then the heating element and the top vent are both on the right, so the right side tends to heat up more than the left.  Over time, the temperature will stabilize (it does this in your oven, too, but I know I never even checked my oven, so this was new to me as well), but it's very likely that your right side will remain hotter.

Also, here's an interesting thing.  Say your smoker starts out around 60 degrees F and you set it to 230.  The heating element will remain on until the sensor detects 230 degrees and then shut off, but the temperature will continue to climb up to some point - it could be another 15 degrees or another 50, hard to say.  At that point, the temperatures in the smoker are more evenly distributed (not perfectly, but more so) and it'll start cooling.  Once it cools to maybe 228 or so, the element will turn back on - but the temp will continue to drop.  You get into a wild swing.

Bear talks more about this (sorry, I don't have the direct link) and has a great solution that works for me.  Set your initial temperature lower than your desired temperature.  Then as your smoker goes past the set temperature, you can then bump the set temperature to your desired temperature.

Another thing people do is put a small deflector on the bottom shelf (on the right side) to help the left and right sides be more even.  Search for "defelector" on these forums.

Good luck!

BTW, if your smoker runs hotter than the MES readings, that's fine, just set it to a lower temperature and be happy you have extra head room.  :-)

If it was set at 275 & it was 47 degrees out, it may have coasted the last 20 minutes it was even "on" & really only been about 250 or so when it did go off. I know mine doesn't take to long to cool down once the element stops cycling. I know when mine says it's 275 it can be a few different temps, depending where inside the smoker you want to take a measurement from. It can be 10-15 hotter or cooler, depending on the location.

TW