Arrrgh! My MES 40 burst aflame...

[daricksta]

Hi All!
Haven't been in touch with Masterbuilt, yet. I will tho. Been busy.
To answer somebof the questions, nothing in it to disturb air flow. I smoke right on the racks. No stones/tiles, etc... the unit is almost four years old. Fairly lightly used, overall. I keep it outside on my deck covered with a patio chair cover and a LG plastic bag under that. I did notice that there was a tear on the cover when I took it off. That may have had something to do with it, but that'd be weird 2.5 hours into the smoke, no? I only smoke when I'll be able to be home with it the whole time (or else someone else might drink my beers and smoke my cigars!!!).

Might just be "one of those things"- you've heard of Murphy's Law? I'm the Murphy they wrote it for!

Might just be "one of those things"- you've heard of Murphy's Law? I'm the Murphy they wrote it for!   But I thought your name was Brian...

 

[daricksta]

Hi All!
Haven't been in touch with Masterbuilt, yet. I will tho. Been busy.
To answer somebof the questions, nothing in it to disturb air flow. I smoke right on the racks. No stones/tiles, etc... the unit is almost four years old. Fairly lightly used, overall. I keep it outside on my deck covered with a patio chair cover and a LG plastic bag under that. I did notice that there was a tear on the cover when I took it off. That may have had something to do with it, but that'd be weird 2.5 hours into the smoke, no? I only smoke when I'll be able to be home with it the whole time (or else someone else might drink my beers and smoke my cigars!!!).

Might just be "one of those things"- you've heard of Murphy's Law? I'm the Murphy they wrote it for!

What concerns me is that my MES 30 Gen1 is about 3 years old and relatively lightly used (in comparison to how often members here use their smokers) so it's something I'll be watching out for. Of course no way to know at this point what happened with your particular MES 40.

 

[wbrian]

Since yours is a Gen #1 MES, you should put your AMNPS on the little support bars in the bottom, to the left of the chip burner assembly. The AMNPS was designed to fit perfectly there in an MES 30 Gen #1.


Bear

Yup. That's where it sits! Thx!!

 

[susieqz]

i saw those pics of burnt up smokers. i moved my mes 12' from the house n i got the maverick  set to wake me if it bursts into flame.

i do lots of overnight  smokes so i had no choice.

putting it on the deck would be more convenient but too scarey for me.

 i like the mes/amns combo because i can sleep thru the night but   the mes seems to burst into flame sometimes. i never heard of this happening  except with mes n traeger.

 

[daveomak]

I'm now thinking the heating element shorted out... it's in the back of the smoker.... No big deal.... easy to fix......

Dave

 

[wbrian]

I'm now thinking the heating element shorted out... it's in the back of the smoker.... No big deal.... easy to fix......

Dave

Hi Dave!
Can that be diagnosed by looking at it? What would I look for?
Thx!
Brian

 

[Bearcarver]

Hi Dave!
Can that be diagnosed by looking at it? What would I look for?
Thx!
Brian

The bottom right in the back is where the element wires are connected.

That's where the older models used to corrode & need connector repair.

Depending on your model (year), there may be a little plate you can remove to get to the wires.

Some (older) models need the whole back removed.

Bear

 

[daveomak]

In the back is where the element connects.... Pull the plug first.... pull the cover.... the wires will probably be burned... Clean the ends of the element with sand paper until bright... cut the wire ends until clean wire is found... strip wire and "tin" with solder... "tin" the element ends.... solder the wires to the element ends....
You then have eliminated the possibility of corrosion... Wrap exposed soldering with fiberglass electrical tape available from Home Depot or other big box stores, or online...

Me wiring in the dimmer switch to control heat output.... I should have soldered it... Check continuity of the neutral wire to make sure it didn't fail....

MES DimmerSwitchtempwiring.jpg

• daveomak
• Mar 11, 2015

MES heating element.jpg

• daveomak
• Mar 11, 2015

 

[cman55]

 I wouldn't be comfortable with a "hard wire" connection to the heating element. I used a spade connector after stripping .25" of old wire/insulation off the lead and using shrink tubing. After crimping, I reconnected the wires and was good to go. I did notice some melting on the original rubber gasket covering the ground plate. Not sure how that happened but I hope it doesn't happen again. Perhaps a function of the old heating element death throes. 

 

[Bearcarver]

 
 I wouldn't be comfortable with a "hard wire" connection to the heating element. I used a spade connector after stripping .25" of old wire/insulation off the lead and using shrink tubing. After crimping, I reconnected the wires and was good to go. I did notice some melting on the original rubber gasket covering the ground plate. Not sure how that happened but I hope it doesn't happen again. Perhaps a function of the old heating element death throes. 

I know very little about wiring.

However a few years ago there was a model of MES that had that element wiring problem.

It seemed the concensus of the guys in the know back then was that the stock wiring was undersized.

They were replacing with heavier wire & new connectors.

Bear

 

[daveomak]

 I wouldn't be comfortable with a "hard wire" connection to the heating element. I used a spade connector after stripping .25" of old wire/insulation off the lead and using shrink tubing. After crimping, I reconnected the wires and was good to go. I did notice some melting on the original rubber gasket covering the ground plate. Not sure how that happened but I hope it doesn't happen again. Perhaps a function of the old heating element death throes. 

It is the slide on connectors that fail... once the connection becomes "loose" from heating and cooling, the loose connections creates more heat and subsequently more amperage draw, which in turn burns the connectors off....
Soldering is easier and more reliable than a slip on connector... and should last a lifetime.... it can also be "un done" with a soldering iron....

 

[daricksta]

 
I know very little about wiring.

However a few years ago there was a model of MES that had that element wiring problem.

It seemed the concensus of the guys in the know back then was that the stock wiring was undersized.

They were replacing with heavier wire & new connectors.

Bear

Do you remember when and which model this was?

 

[Bearcarver]

 
Do you remember when and which model this was?

No I don't. All I remember was it seemed like most, if not all of them came from Sams. Mine came from Cabelas, and never had the problem. I believe They were models bought around 2009 and 2010.

That's about all I remember.

Maybe if you do a search on repairing MES wiring, they might mention their model numbers?? 

These were also back in the day that they didn't have the little access door, because the whole back had to be removed to get there.

They had to drill out the rivets, then replace them with self tappers.

Bear

 

[daricksta]

 
No I don't. All I remember was it seemed like most, if not all of them came from Sams. Mine came from Cabelas, and never had the problem. I believe They were models bought around 2009 and 2010.

That's about all I remember.

Maybe if you do a search on repairing MES wiring, they might mention their model numbers?? 

These were also back in the day that they didn't have the little access door, because the whole back had to be removed to get there.

They had to drill out the rivets, then replace them with self tappers.

Bear

I did a quick search and came across consumersaffairs.com which has a whole bunch of people complaining that MES digitals and Butterball Electric Turkey Fryers were popping GCFI circuits after a couple of uses or after a year of use, or during this same period they were bursting into flames. The MES compllaints seemed to center around the 40-inch models (# 20072612 and #20070407 were specified in two reports) bought from Sam's Club. Most of the complainants stated they had bought "high end models" costing over $300. The few photos showed stainless steel models with windows. Some said they had owned previous MES models with no problems but these newer ones were dangerous junk.

All I can say is that with my basic black 3-year-old MES 30 model #20070910, so far so good...

 

[bmaddox]

 
I did a quick search and came across consumersaffairs.com which has a whole bunch of people complaining that MES digitals and Butterball Electric Turkey Fryers were popping GCFI circuits after a couple of uses or after a year of use, or during this same period they were bursting into flames. The MES compllaints seemed to center around the 40-inch models (# 20072612 and #20070407 were specified in two reports) bought from Sam's Club. Most of the complainants stated they had bought "high end models" costing over $300. The few photos showed stainless steel models with windows. Some said they had owned previous MES models with no problems but these newer ones were dangerous junk.

All I can say is that with my basic black 3-year-old MES 30 model #20070910, so far so good...

I hadn't given much thought to GFCI outlets until I saw your comment. Making sure you plug into a protected outlet is probably a good fail safe for these units. They will trip a lot sooner than a breaker and could prevent the unit having a serious enough short to catch it on fire.

 

[daricksta]

 
I hadn't given much thought to GFCI outlets until I saw your comment. Making sure you plug into a protected outlet is probably a good fail safe for these units. They will trip a lot sooner than a breaker and could prevent the unit having a serious enough short to catch it on fire.

I hadn't thought about them either but GFCI outlets are not an option where I plug in my MES. We have to outside electrical outlets that I suppose are directly wired to our circuit breaker box. For one outlet I plug the MES directly into it. For the other I use an extension cord rated to work with the MES. Haven't had any problems so far but I use my smoker far less often than many people here. I bought mine off Amazon and not from a big box store.

 

[tropics]

 
I hadn't thought about them either but GFCI outlets are not an option where I plug in my MES. We have to outside electrical outlets that I suppose are directly wired to our circuit breaker box. For one outlet I plug the MES directly into it. For the other I use an extension cord rated to work with the MES. Haven't had any problems so far but I use my smoker far less often than many people here. I bought mine off Amazon and not from a big box store.

My outside outlet has a GFCI it makes sense to have it,working with any kind of blower,mower or any power tool.

 

[Bearcarver]

 
My outside outlet has a GFCI it makes sense to have it,working with any kind of blower,mower or any power tool.

Around here, you couldn't build, buy, or sell a house without GFCIs where needed.

Bear

 

[bmaddox]

 
I hadn't thought about them either but GFCI outlets are not an option where I plug in my MES. We have to outside electrical outlets that I suppose are directly wired to our circuit breaker box. For one outlet I plug the MES directly into it. For the other I use an extension cord rated to work with the MES. Haven't had any problems so far but I use my smoker far less often than many people here. I bought mine off Amazon and not from a big box store.

GFI outlets are pretty cheap if you know how to swap one out yourself. It is good protection to have as that style outlet trips when the amp draw starts to vary between the two wires as opposed to a traditional breaker that doesn't trip until you exceed the overall amp draw. I think I will be switching out the outlet that I use prior to my next smoke.

 

[daricksta]

 
GFI outlets are pretty cheap if you know how to swap one out yourself. It is good protection to have as that style outlet trips when the amp draw starts to vary between the two wires as opposed to a traditional breaker that doesn't trip until you exceed the overall amp draw. I think I will be switching out the outlet that I use prior to my next smoke.

I've swapped out regular outlets inside my house and I've also replaced an interior GFI outlet but I've never swapped a regular outlet for a GFI. If I choose to do this I'd really have to read up on the proper way to wire the new outlet.