I've been struggling trying to find the perfect smoker for sausage without breaking the bank. Did a mod on a Master Built Pro propane and it works well in perfect conditions. The problem is that if there is any wind it blows the burner out since the flame is so low to maintain low temps needed for sausage. Bought a new MES140B (the black one with no window or remote...didn't need those) last Thursday. I've spent 3 days trying to figure out the temp control and it's all over the charts. I know it's not going to be accurate but if it's consistently inaccurate I can work around that. It's not consistent though. I set the controller at 110* and it stabilizes at 132*. Next day I set the controller at 110* again to start running the temps up and take notes of what temp I actually get at what setting and it stabilized at 112*. That's a 20* variation on the same setting from one day to the next....and just one example of many problems I'm having with it. Another issue is that if I raise the temp by 5* at the controller, it'll go up by about 35* then comes back down over a period of 30 minutes or so before it stabilizes. This could be a HUGE problem if I'm trying to hit 160* or 170*. That's gonna put me over 200* before it starts coming back down. For the record, all of these temps were done with two Maverick 732's running inside the unit and both showing the same temps so I'm not relying on the factory therm. These are real numbers. My amazing, incredible, brilliant, and beautiful wife noticed my struggles yesterday and gave me a $1000 budget to get whatever I wanted for sausage smoking. I don't make large batches so don't need a big capacity unit and if I can get something of really good quality for less than the budget, I can spend that $$ elsewhere :-) I've looked at the 20# unit at Sausage Maker for $700 (on sale for $200 off) and several different sizes of Pit Boss pellet smokers on Amazon. They have one that looks to be the perfect size for right at $500 and it qualifies for Prime, which means no shipping cost. Can anybody provide any input on these smokers? They appear to be nice units but I'm tired of playing games with inexpensive smokers so some educated input would be greatly appreciated...on these or any other smokers you may recommend based on experience.
Sincere thanks,
Robert
Sincere thanks,
Robert