Morning Wes. Welcome to the forum.
I'm a MES 30 owner. I love it. But there a few things you should know about them. So here's a bit of advice.
--Except when preheating ALWAYS leave the top vent wide open to ensure good draft. Ignore any ideas or suggestions about 1/4 or 1/2 etc closed. You do not want stale smoke on your meat.
--DO NOT use the water bowl. Fill it with sand to use as a heat sink and foil it over or just foil it and use ut as a drip pan. A MES is so air tight that if you add water you'll get some bad condensation inside that will drip on your food. The MES will keep your food moist all by itself.
--DON'T trust any thermometer or temp guage that comes with your MES. They're notorious for inaccuracy. Get a good digital therm.
--I found the chip tray works fine but you constantly have to refill it. It also simply doesnt work well at low temps. Your best bet IMO is to get an
AMNPS (pellet tray) for smoke and add a Mailbox Mod. They're cheap and work extremely well for both hot and cold smoking. Lots of info on both of these--just use the search feature here. I still use the chip tray when I'm lucky enough to get some wood not available in pellets. BTW putting pellets in the chip tray will just cause them to burn up as fast as chips. If you do use pellets be sure to check the wood content. Todd at
Amazen (he's a member/sponsor here and invented the
AMNPS) sells pellets that contain 100% of the smoking wood rather that using cheap wood as a filler.
--once you start cooking, leave the door shut as much as possible. A MES cools off real fast when you open the door. "Lookin ain't cookin".
--if at all possible don't use an extension cord to plug the MES in. If you must then make sure it's heavy guage or you wont get enough power to run the heat element efficiently.
I'm pretty sure others can add to this list and will.
Final thought. IMO you bought a great smoker and will in all probability love it.
Gary
