I have the MES130P. I think it is the airflow as mentioned above. It just seems to get choked out and not enough oxygen to keep going. I will try the chip tube halfway out to see if it makes a difference. Mailbox mod seems like a must have for cold smokes, so might just head that direction eventually. Thanks for the help guys.
I never dealt with the 130P before, so I found a few Pics, and I'll give you my best I can think of.
I would put the bottom rack in & put the
AMNPS on the far right, just above the chip dumper. Then I would pull the dumper out about 3", and rotate it 180°. Since you have two top vents, I would try both wide opened, and if that doesn't work, I'd try closing the right one, and opening the left one all the way.
Lighting:
Fill your
AMNPS to about 1/4" to 3/8" from the top of the walls.
Light it with a torch through the hole in the end of a row.
Hold the torch there until a flame stays there.
When the flame goes out, light it again until it stays.
When it goes out again, just blow on the Cigar-like Cherry until the flame comes back.
Repeat this again & again, until you have a good solid Cigar-like cherry built up in the bottom.
You can do other things, while you're doing this, as long as you keep coming back to repeat what's
in red above.
I usually take at least 20 minutes to 1/2 hour to do this. It's worth it when it stays lit up to 11 hours.
Keep your Pellets Dry. I put mine in screw-top Jugs as soon as I remove them from the plastic bags they came it. I keep the jugs in a Cabinet in my garage, without heat, and some are in there for 8 years, and they still work fine.
You don't say where you live in your profile, so I don't know what your altitude is, but if you're over 2000' ASL, you should get the Tube instead of the Tray. At my low altitude the tube puts out too much smoke, but the Tray AMNPS is Perfect. I never needed a Mailbox, which is good, because it's just another PITA POS to deal with.
Bear