I had lots of problems with the taste of smoke in my MES 30. I started a post about it and chronicled my search for solutions to the problem (
thinking of selling my MES). This led me to the
AMNPS and, eventually, to building my own version of the mailbox mod using a popcorn can (
popcorn mailbox mod).
So is the mailbox mod needed or useful when doing a hot smoke, rather than cold smoke? My answer is most definitely yes.
No matter whether you are smoking hot or cold, the externally-generated smoke is always going to give you the same smoke. The only difference is that a hot smoking chamber sucks a little more air, so you may need to adjust the airflow a little (using holes in the mod, not the vent in the MES, which should always be full open).
But the big reason for why I never put the
AMNPS inside the MES any more is that the external smoking mod causes a lot of the creosote to condense on the inside of the can, on the filter I added, and on the inside of the conduit. As a result, the smoke which reaches the food is MUCH, much better tasting than if the smoke is generated inside the MES itself.
Simply put: the food tastes better.
There are lots of little reasons I like the
AMNPS inside the mod. For instance, after I separate most of the unburned pellets so I can re-use them, I can let the remaining pellets burn out (which takes several hours until they are dead cold), while cleaning out the smoker to get it ready for the next use. I can't let the
AMNPS burn outside because of our massive wildfire problem here in California, as you all have seen on the news the past week.