Toggle sidebar

Search results

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
  1. sigmo

    Has Anyone Fooled the MES Temp Sensor Before?

    That looks excellent. That fan is virtually identical to the one I got.  I think it should work very well. I'm torn between adjusting the speed of the fan versus cycling it on and off.  I could do either with the controller system I'm going to use depending on the type of output I choose.  On...
  2. sigmo

    Has Anyone Fooled the MES Temp Sensor Before?

    That's right. The way I am thinking about all of this is that the stirring/circulating of the air within the smoker is independent of the air flow through the smoker. So, as TallBM points out in a later post, what we want (for circulating the air within the smoker) is a draft inducer type fan...
  3. sigmo

    MES Temperature swings?

    The tube seems to be what's recommended for high elevation.  I'm just stubborn!  ;) Back when I first got the maze, they didn't make the tubes yet.  And the maze worked great all of the time.  It's only been recently that I've had a few failures, so the fact that it used to always work has...
  4. sigmo

    MES Temperature swings?

    I never use the water pan, either.  If I do, the moisture kills the the pellet burn.  Things gotta be really dry at this elevation. And I have to pre-dry the pellets here.  At 5300', the air is just too thin for reliable burning without taking every possible step.  If I dry them in my oven, I...
  5. sigmo

    MES Temperature swings?

    That's what I usually do with the smoker, too. I like having it pre heated so the inside walls and everything is up to temp before I put the meat in. Plus, I can have the pellets in the amnps during that pre heat, and that gets them nice and dry, which is important for me here. Once I set up...
  6. sigmo

    Must Do Mods for Materbuilt Electric Bullet Smoker

    I have never seen one if these smokers, but I looked it up on Masterbuilt's site and watched the video for it. It looks like it ought to work pretty well. I like the large ring shaped heating element because it seems like it would give fairly even heat. Reading some reviews on Amazon, it...
  7. sigmo

    MES Temperature swings?

    Yep. The human PID conroller. I do this myself, even with ovens that have a PID controller, if the "loading" or temperature is far off from the conditions that were present when we tuned the PID controller. You really can get things running well a lot faster if you set the temperature a bit...
  8. sigmo

    Cleaning masterbuilt electric smoker

    Hah!
  9. sigmo

    MES Wall Hanging / Flat / Rectangular / Square Mailbox Mod!!!

    Great project. I hadn't thought about the thermal effect on the magnets in this application. I did know that neodymium iron boron super magnets have a very low temperature tolerance and will be permanently damaged by temperatures above some fairly low limit. And I knew that various ferrous...
  10. sigmo

    Cleaning the glass door in a MES 30"

    Hah! Hmm.  Actually that doesn't sound like a completely bad idea at all. I read an article somewhere showing how "they" make liquid smoke.  It really wasn't all that different from what you propose! However, if you haven't tried it yet, I can highly recommend making some smoked butter.  It's...
  11. sigmo

    MES Temperature swings?

    I hope you get to feeling better soon, Rick. Bear, I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said that you more or less ignore the swings and just shoot to have the average temperature be what you want it to be.  And your procedure for minimizing the overshoot when first starting the...
  12. sigmo

    Has Anyone Fooled the MES Temp Sensor Before?

    I know this is long, so bear with me if you want to: It probably isn't a bad assumption to think that they'd use the same type of sensor element for both of these probes since it would simplify the design of the controller.  So they might both be thermistors of the same type. And it's not a...
  13. sigmo

    Cleaning masterbuilt electric smoker

    I do like muddydogs' idea to burn off the grates in a high temp oudoor grill if they need it. I guess you could also bring them inside and run them in a self-cleaning oven. I don't usually use the self clean feature of my oven, though, because the fumes stink really bad, so doing things in an...
  14. sigmo

    Smoke Hollow Smoke-Tronix

    I like the looks of that smoke hollow design! I can see why you chose it over the MES. With that separate heating element just for the chips, you could certainly use a PID controller for the main heating element and not have any effect on the smoke generation. The larger main heating element...
  15. sigmo

    Cleaning the glass door in a MES 30"

    There's another thread about this subject on here somewhere. And a lot of different ideas. What I've found to work well is a teaspoon or two of TSP in a cup of warm water on a rag. TSP is trisodium phosphate. You can usually find it in the paint department of a hardware or "home store". Do...
  16. sigmo

    New Use For Q-Mats

    I love it. Makes sense to me.
  17. sigmo

    Cleaning masterbuilt electric smoker

    I think it is good to keep in mind that everything you can touch, see, smell, etc., is a "chemical" or chemicals. Vinegar is a witches brew of chemicals. Wine, beer, a steak, etc., are all complex mixtures of chemicals. And the smoke we love so well is a dangerous mixture of hundreds or...
  18. sigmo

    Smoke Hollow Smoke-Tronix

    Don't ever put a data logger in most older home ovens! A plus and minus 10 degree F swing is actually quite good. How does this unit generate its smoke? The MES units have a chip tray that gets heated by the main heating element. Thus, they are designed to cycle the temperature up and...
  19. sigmo

    MES 30" Lost Power

    My guess would be that they're doing a "sanity check" on the temperature sensor system, and if the reported temperature is too low, they are afraid that the sensor or the wires to it are "open". And, if the sensor or its wiring are bad, they don't want to power the heater up since it would just...
  20. sigmo

    Has Anyone Fooled the MES Temp Sensor Before?

    I think the experimenting is half of the fun for me!  I suspect the same is true for a lot of us. The duct to collect the exhaust air over at the opposite corner from where the factory vent is located would be good for me, too.  The vent is directly above the heater in mine, too. I've put some...
Great deal on LEM Grinders!
Top Bottom
Back
Clicky