Another mod to my Auber-Masterbuilt hybrid

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johnnyb54

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Mar 16, 2015
252
81
As some of you may know I a few months ago I modded my Masterbuilt with a Auber controller and new smokestack. For those that would like to see this mod it can be found here.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/260975/its-alive-the-auber-masterbuilt-hybrid-the-frankenbuilt

Fast forward a few months and I got the modding itch that needed scratching. I never liked the offset heater element that Masterbuilt uses. While I understand they went that route so that wood chips can be added to the smoker while cooking I had no use for the chip loaded as I use pellets in a pellet tray. Since I wa going to flip the heater element I needed a new heat deflector/water pan. I was recently given a few baking pans and among them was an enamel pan that was the perfect size for my project. I flipped the element over afte having to drill out new holes for the mounting bolts. With the element flipped I disassembled the old chip load and mounted the chip loaded bracket to hold the old chip loader in place. This will let me open the loader in order to let air in to help dry out jerky and close it while doing sausages. I used the old chip/heat shield brackets to support the new water pan. Here are a few pics that show the mod.
With the mod complete I wanted to see what the temperature was on all 4 rackets. While the Auber controller maintains dead on heat in the smoker there were still variations between the racks in my old setup. I preheated the smoker for an hour at 170 deg. and rotated the racks every 30 min. to ensure stable temperatures All measurements were taken with a Thermoworks Smoke and ChefAlarm using 3 pit probes. Here are the results

Rack 1 left side 163 - middle 167 - right side 169 Bottom rack
Rack 2 left side 165 - middle 168 - right side 168
Rack 3 left side 165 - middle 169 - right side 169
Rack 1 left side 165 - middle 169 - right side 169. Top racks

As you can see the right side is a little hotter then the left side but the surprising thing is the bottom rack is slightly cooler then the top rack on the right and middle spots. I redid the test for the bottom rack and the results were the same. I'm very happy with this mod so next week another batch of jerky.
 
As some of you may know I a few months ago I modded my Masterbuilt with a Auber controller and new smokestack. For those that would like to see this mod it can be found here.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/260975/its-alive-the-auber-masterbuilt-hybrid-the-frankenbuilt

Fast forward a few months and I got the modding itch that needed scratching. I never liked the offset heater element that Masterbuilt uses. While I understand they went that route so that wood chips can be added to the smoker while cooking I had no use for the chip loaded as I use pellets in a pellet tray. Since I wa going to flip the heater element I needed a new heat deflector/water pan. I was recently given a few baking pans and among them was an enamel pan that was the perfect size for my project. I flipped the element over afte having to drill out new holes for the mounting bolts. With the element flipped I disassembled the old chip load and mounted the chip loaded bracket to hold the old chip loader in place. This will let me open the loader in order to let air in to help dry out jerky and close it while doing sausages. I used the old chip/heat shield brackets to support the new water pan. Here are a few pics that show the mod.
With the mod complete I wanted to see what the temperature was on all 4 rackets. While the Auber controller maintains dead on heat in the smoker there were still variations between the racks in my old setup. I preheated the smoker for an hour at 170 deg. and rotated the racks every 30 min. to ensure stable temperatures All measurements were taken with a Thermoworks Smoke and ChefAlarm using 3 pit probes. Here are the results

Rack 1 left side 163 - middle 167 - right side 169 Bottom rack
Rack 2 left side 165 - middle 168 - right side 168
Rack 3 left side 165 - middle 169 - right side 169
Rack 1 left side 165 - middle 169 - right side 169. Top racks

As you can see the right side is a little hotter then the left side but the surprising thing is the bottom rack is slightly cooler then the top rack on the right and middle spots. I redid the test for the bottom rack and the results were the same. I'm very happy with this mod so next week another batch of jerky.
That's pretty much my set up. Open design. So there's area for smokey air to rush over the exposed element and to mix freely under the water pan as it rises. Since I dont use my bottom rack I put my water pan on it and temps are great everyehere.
-Kurt
 
Cool mods there johnny.

I'm curious about what the temp levels look like at each rack level once you load them up with meat.

I don't have a pan setup like yours and don't use the stock water pan at all and it seems that when I load the bottom rack that it get's good temp but my other racks suffer like the bottom rack with the meat is blocking/trapping the heat from the higher racks so I have a temp discrepency between racks. 

The good news is that it seems the discrepency is just about consistent so I can at least kinda bank on what I'm getting at different rack levels.  Disclaimer, I haven't really checked beyond the use of 2 fully loaded racks with meat so there could be more discrepencies than I know of with 3 or 4 loaded racks vs 1 and 2 (two lowest racks).

I did come up with an idea to go buy an untreated 1/2 birch wood panel and use it in the next highest available rack position that I'm not using to "cut down" the excess space in the smoker when only using 2-3 racks.  My hope is that it will trap enough heat to keep lower racks closer to the desired temp.  I will of course cut a hole in the board for smoke to still travel out, I just want to try and hold up the heat as much as possible from rushing up to the unused space in the smoker.  So again, I'm basically shrinking the space in the smoker.

I look forward to your findings once you load things up and get some smokes going.  Best of luck! :)
 
Cool mods there johnny.

I'm curious about what the temp levels look like at each rack level once you load them up with meat.

I don't have a pan setup like yours and don't use the stock water pan at all and it seems that when I load the bottom rack that it get's good temp but my other racks suffer like the bottom rack with the meat is blocking/trapping the heat from the higher racks so I have a temp discrepency between racks. 
The good news is that it seems the discrepency is just about consistent so I can at least kinda bank on what I'm getting at different rack levels.  Disclaimer, I haven't really checked beyond the use of 2 fully loaded racks with meat so there could be more discrepencies than I know of with 3 or 4 loaded racks vs 1 and 2 (two lowest racks).

I did come up with an idea to go buy an untreated 1/2 birch wood panel and use it in the next highest available rack position that I'm not using to "cut down" the excess space in the smoker when only using 2-3 racks.  My hope is that it will trap enough heat to keep lower racks closer to the desired temp.  I will of course cut a hole in the board for smoke to still travel out, I just want to try and hold up the heat as much as possible from rushing up to the unused space in the smoker.  So again, I'm basically shrinking the space in the smoker.

I look forward to your findings once you load things up and get some smokes going.  Best of luck! :)

TallBM, I plan on doing a full load of jerky shortly. I'll post the temp reading on the racks when it's done.
 
Cool mods there johnny.

I'm curious about what the temp levels look like at each rack level once you load them up with meat.

I don't have a pan setup like yours and don't use the stock water pan at all and it seems that when I load the bottom rack that it get's good temp but my other racks suffer like the bottom rack with the meat is blocking/trapping the heat from the higher racks so I have a temp discrepency between racks. 
The good news is that it seems the discrepency is just about consistent so I can at least kinda bank on what I'm getting at different rack levels.  Disclaimer, I haven't really checked beyond the use of 2 fully loaded racks with meat so there could be more discrepencies than I know of with 3 or 4 loaded racks vs 1 and 2 (two lowest racks).

I did come up with an idea to go buy an untreated 1/2 birch wood panel and use it in the next highest available rack position that I'm not using to "cut down" the excess space in the smoker when only using 2-3 racks.  My hope is that it will trap enough heat to keep lower racks closer to the desired temp.  I will of course cut a hole in the board for smoke to still travel out, I just want to try and hold up the heat as much as possible from rushing up to the unused space in the smoker.  So again, I'm basically shrinking the space in the smoker.

I look forward to your findings once you load things up and get some smokes going.  Best of luck! :)
TallBM, just finished 3 racks of jerky and the temps on the racks were pretty consistent.
Cool mods there johnny.

I'm curious about what the temp levels look like at each rack level once you load them up with meat.

I don't have a pan setup like yours and don't use the stock water pan at all and it seems that when I load the bottom rack that it get's good temp but my other racks suffer like the bottom rack with the meat is blocking/trapping the heat from the higher racks so I have a temp discrepency between racks. 
The good news is that it seems the discrepency is just about consistent so I can at least kinda bank on what I'm getting at different rack levels.  Disclaimer, I haven't really checked beyond the use of 2 fully loaded racks with meat so there could be more discrepencies than I know of with 3 or 4 loaded racks vs 1 and 2 (two lowest racks).

I did come up with an idea to go buy an untreated 1/2 birch wood panel and use it in the next highest available rack position that I'm not using to "cut down" the excess space in the smoker when only using 2-3 racks.  My hope is that it will trap enough heat to keep lower racks closer to the desired temp.  I will of course cut a hole in the board for smoke to still travel out, I just want to try and hold up the heat as much as possible from rushing up to the unused space in the smoker.  So again, I'm basically shrinking the space in the smoker.

I look forward to your findings once you load things up and get some smokes going.  Best of luck! :)
TallBM, I just finished 3 racks of jerky. As you can see the temps were fairly consistent between the racks. The one probe that shows 169 was always 3 degrees higher then the rest even when I rotated the racks. I may have do to a calibration check on that probe. The temp that shows 86 was just the food probe that I left hanging outside the smoker. I rotated the racks of jerky every hour and that's just because that's how I always did it. With the temps being so consistent my next batch of jerky that I'm doing tomorrow I'm going to leave and not rotate.
 
That's great to hear!  Some day I'll try the the birch wood panel to cut down space and trap some heat but that is in the future for now :)

Be sure to report back on the next jerky run!
 
That's great to hear!  Some day I'll try the the birch wood panel to cut down space and trap some heat but that is in the future for now :)

Be sure to report back on the next jerky run!

TallBM, I did the second batch of jerky yesterday. This time I did not rotate the racks between levels. The temp between the racks stayed consistent and the all 3 racks of jerky were done at the same time. Other then smoking some sausages within the next week or two my next large smoke will be a few slabs of bacon that I'll be making shortly. I'll let you know how larger pieces of meat work out.
 
TallBM, I did the second batch of jerky yesterday. This time I did not rotate the racks between levels. The temp between the racks stayed consistent and the all 3 racks of jerky were done at the same time. Other then smoking some sausages within the next week or two my next large smoke will be a few slabs of bacon that I'll be making shortly. I'll let you know how larger pieces of meat work out.
That's good to hear.  Sounds like a trend.

On my end I started putting the MES water pan back into my MES so it can act like a drip guard for the heating element.  

So far I've only smoked some ABT's and some Pork Franks so no real test to see if I have eliminated dripping directly onto the heating element which makes the the smoker temp take forever to reach higher temps.  Everything passes the eyeball test but I see some chicken being smoked in the future for the real test :)

Additionally I think the water pan absorbs heat and then helps keep the heat more consistent in the smoker which seems to be in line with what others say when they add rocks or sand to the heating pan.  Once it heats up it will not lose heat so quickly and help keep heat in the smoker.

More testing to come soon :)
 
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