MES 30 Frustrations

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littlej2455

Newbie
Original poster
Jun 10, 2017
9
10
Hey,

I have a MES 30" with the round controller box. So far I have enjoyed what it has produced but I have some things with the smoker that I cannot seem to get right. When I do not have any meat in the smoker, and I set the temperature to 240 on the smoker, my digital thermometer will read the same temperature as the smoker. When I put the meat in the smoker, my temperature on my digital thermometer drops well below to somewhere near 210. I then have to crank the temperature up on the smoker to 265 to reach about 230 for my digital thermometer. Does anyone else have this problem? The smoker temperature seems to read accurate until meat (something cold) is in the smoker and then the two different temperatures are off. Any easy fixes for this?

Due to the temperature differences this then makes my cooking times A LOT longer than expected. For example a 4lb Boston butt at 10 hours, I have to put in the oven, because the meat temperature is only 180. I really want to finish the meat in the smoker.

Any suggestion? Does anyone else have this problem where it seems like you always have to finish in the oven? Thank you for the help.
 
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The drop is caused by adding a mass of cold meat.  The heating element has to both overcome the new mass (which being cold, is trying to suck the energy out of the air in the smoker), and then bring the whole thing back up to the set temp.   More meat is more cold mass (that is also why thick cuts like pork butts take so long to cook). 

As to the butt taking more than 10 hours, they do tend to stall in that 160* ish range.  I can't vouch for the 10 hours, as I run my butts (four 7-8 pounders at a time) in a 18.5" WSM for 18-22 hours (depending on stall) and not in my WSM (I use it for jerky & sticks and it was modded heavily for that task).  I think you just need to plan on more time as the heating element can only do so much.  If I recall correctly that 30" model only has a 800 watt element where the 40" has a 1200.  So everything else being equal, a 30" is going to take longer to recover from the addition of meat.  But it should eventually get back up to the set temps.  Cranking up the temp will not make the element any hotter or heat any faster.  It is "on" full until it hits the original set point and cranking it higher just makes it overshoot.
 
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I have the same issues.  Somethings to try to help:

Take meat out of the fridge and let it warm up some before putting it in.  Maybe an hour outside the fridge.

If you're using an extension cord, use as short a one as possible, like 25' max and use one that's 12/3 gauge.

Get the door shut ASAP.

Crank the temperature all the way to 275 to start with. 

I assume the digital thermometer is on a rack with a clip where the meat is.  The MES thermometer is on the back wall.  The one on the rack by the meat is giving you the temp you want to know.  There is a tendency for the two to get closer to one another after the meat heats up.
 
Thank you so much for the help. Yeah this past Boston butt started to steal at 154. It stayed there for 2 hours and then I put it in foil. Once it hit the 10 mark I had to put it in the oven for time.
 
Keep your Digital Probe at least 3" from the meat---Far enough so it doesn't measure the cold meat, but close enough to measure the smoker temp in that area.

Here's a Pulled Boston Butt in an MES:

Pulled Boston Pork Butt  

Bear
 
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That was very helpful Bear! Thank you for the tutorial.

I think my largest challenge is just figuring out what to set the temperature of the smoker to. If I start at the temperature reading 240 on the smoker and then it drops because of the addition of the meat, do you recommend adjusting the temperature setting? Or do you prefer to let it catch up? Does adding hot water to water pan help?

At the end of the smoke I turned the controller all the way up to 275, and my internal temp was reading 235. So I'm not sure how to help increase the internal temp in the smoker.

Thanks again for your help!
 
That was very helpful Bear! Thank you for the tutorial.

I think my largest challenge is just figuring out what to set the temperature of the smoker to. If I start at the temperature reading 240 on the smoker and then it drops because of the addition of the meat, do you recommend adjusting the temperature setting? Or do you prefer to let it catch up? Does adding hot water to water pan help?

At the end of the smoke I turned the controller all the way up to 275, and my internal temp was reading 235. So I'm not sure how to help increase the internal temp in the smoker.

Thanks again for your help!
Just for Info for me---When Empty, If you set it for 275° on your MES, at what temp is your digital when the MES shuts off at 275°?

I'm not exactly sure what's happening to you, but here's the way it should go:

Set your MES control to whatever you have to, so that your digital therm reads what you want it to read.

If that is 240° on your digital & that's what you want, with your probe about 3" from the meat, just leave it alone.

If it drops down when you put the cold meat in, just leave it where you have it set. It should eventually rise in temp until it hits your set point, and then it should cycle on & off, from there on. It would shut off at 240°, and come back on when it drops to about 238°.

It should do something close to that until your IT gets to where you want it---I like 203°, and the bone should pull out easily.

I would never add water to an MES 30 or MES 40. It does nothing good---Only Bad.

I have not put anything in my MES water pans for the last 7 years.

Bear
 
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When I set the smoker to 275, it will usually shut off at 277 and I have seen the temp get as high as 281. And it will turn on again at 274. Thank you so much for the advice! I want to try a smaller piece of meat like a steak or something to see if that helps.
 
When I set the smoker to 275, it will usually shut off at 277 and I have seen the temp get as high as 281. And it will turn on again at 274. Thank you so much for the advice! I want to try a smaller piece of meat like a steak or something to see if that helps.
That is actually a lot tighter band that some other folks see.  You should be very happy with a 274-281 band for a 275* setting.  Just use a separate and known good reading thermometer to verify that the display is the correct temp and you are good to go.
 
When I set the smoker to 275, it will usually shut off at 277 and I have seen the temp get as high as 281. And it will turn on again at 274. Thank you so much for the advice! I want to try a smaller piece of meat like a steak or something to see if that helps.
Like Dave said, that's a very small temp spread on that cycle.

I'd be happy with that.

Now that also shows that any wild swings in that smoker would probably be from something like a bad Temp probe, bad placement of the probe, or too much food or pans on one shelf, blocking the air flow.

Keep her going & give a yell if any more problems arise!!

Bear
 
Thanks again for the replies. That is very helpful! I'm going to try to smoke something this weekend to give it a try. I will be sure to keep you posted with what I get. I also contacted masterbuilt with regards to the problem to see if it was common and they stated they thought it could be a problem with the heating element. I'm not sure if that's the case because I do have no problem getting to temp with no meat in the smoker. I think it's more user error than a heating element error. Thanks again!
 
There could still be an issue with the heater. When it's empty, it doesn't need to work as hard to reach a given temperature. But add a bunch of cold meat, and it takes more energy to reach/maintain that temperature.

Even my old Corolla could reach highway speeds (empty smoker). But add going up a mountain with 4 people (added cold meat), and it would struggle.

So if the heater was having some sort of problem, or your supply voltage was too low (long extension cord, etc), that could reduce the heating power you have available.
 
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