See if this thread that I started a couple of years ago sounds familiar:
Thinking of selling my MES 30
If you read through the posts, you'll see that I eventually realized that the MES electric is flawed because it uses the same heating element to heat and to produce smoke. Thus, the when you set it to cook at lower temperature, it produces less smoke. Also, the quality of the smoke gets worse as you smoke at lower temps because the chips don't get going very well. Finally, if you use water in the pan or close the vent, things get downright awful. The idea of soaking chips comes from putting chips onto hot charcoal coals. In that application you have to stop the chips from simply burning up in a minute or two. In this application, they are heated up on a hot electric plate. It is nowhere near as hot as a lit piece of charcoal.
The solution is to either buy an external smoke generator (
Masterbuilt makes one for "cold smoking" but it can be used for hot smoking also); or buy the
AMNPS tray. Even better build a "mailbox mod" (I used a popcorn can, which is easier and cheaper). You put the
AMNPS into that. and a lot of the bad stuff in the smoke condenses inside the external can before it gets into the smoker.
The external mod also increase the smoke turnover in the box (i.e., you get a large volume of smoke moving through the box). The quicker the smoke gets through the box, the better.
The pros all seem to use offset smokers, at least that's what I see on TV when I watch BBQ competitions. So if you eventually get hooked on this and want to get a better result, that's the direction you might want to go. In the meantime, for a modest investment in an external smoke generator, or at least the
AMNPS, you'll be able to dramatically improve your results.