mummel
Master of the Pit
Lol same outcome, zero difference!
So why not turn it down??? I only ever turn mine off when I'm quitting.
Bear
Lol same outcome, zero difference!
So why not turn it down??? I only ever turn mine off when I'm quitting.
Bear
It looks like your button sensor has creosote. You may need to clean it.
So where is this toggle switch sensor? I don't see anything else in the smoker that could be a sensor. I have the new gen 2.5 Bluetooth model from Sam's.That won't work too good----I believe that button in your picture is the safety heat sensor.
The one that looks like a toggle switch is the one that is used for the heat regulation.
Bear
I clean the glass in mine before each smoke too, instead of after.Yes, that is from one smoke. I can never seem to find the fine to clean the smoker after a smoke, so. I do it the night before the next smoke after I've prepped the meat.
So where is this toggle switch sensor? I don't see anything else in the smoker that could be a sensor. I have the new gen 2.5 Bluetooth model from Sam's.
I'm not a watt burner, so I don't have any experience with MES, But I think what Bear is trying to do is let people know who have these units is how they can maintain their temp and get that perfect smoke. Seems pretty self explanatory.
Temp control must be the #1 critical factor for a successful smoke. It makes sense that Masterbuilt should perfect this. Taking ~2 hours to reach stable temps seems ridiculous. Still love my MES BT. Just staying.......
Exactly. I thought that was a given, which is why we don't even consider what the meat probe says when it's in its holder, and why we never let any measuring part of a probe lay against any metal in our smokers, and expect any accuracy in measuring the air temp.So. Here are the results of my testing. Of course this could all moot of Bear is right and I'm testing the wrong sensor, but I don't think I am.
If you look closely at this picture...
You will see the 2 meat probes dangling in front of the button sensor, about a half inch in front of it. But since I couldn't find the clippy things that holds the Maveric's smoker sensor in place, I had to wedge it between the grill and the back wall of the sensor. This turned out to be a good thing.
When I started the unit and set the temp at 225, the two meat probes rose very quickly, compared to the MES and Maveric smoker temp displays. In fact, the two meat probes reached 300 degrees before the heater shut off when the MES display reached 225. The two meat probes read very close to each other as did the two smoker temp readings.
I was only able to watch this through a couple of cycles, but the differences between the two smoker temp read outs and the two food temp read outs started at about 80 degrees and settled at about 60 degrees by 1 hour.
I then opened the door and removed all there probes from the bottom grill. I bound them together and set them on the center of the second rack. By the time I got this done, the smoker had cooled off considerably, according to the 3probes, but not so much according to the MES sensor. Once I closed the door, it recovered quickly. I was impressed that the three probes all read within three degrees of each other. I was also impressed that the temp swings were all about the same and from about 215-230. This would be after about 1.5 hours of operation.
So here is my theory.... If you look back at the picture, you will see that the sensor button is attacked to the back wall, which acts like a heat sink. By wedging the Maveric smoker probe between the grill and back wall, that also acted as a heat sink, hence those two reading similarly. With the water pan in place the heat from the element is diverted to the four sides of the box as it rises up where it hits the top them curls down the center. That upward draft on the back edge is why the meat prob temps read so high. It also explains why if you leave the MES meat probe in its holder why it reads so high.
My next step will be to place the three probes on the center of the three top racks and replete the test.
I Thank You Sir !!
Bearcarver, I want to thank you for taking so much time to explain the temperature swings and how to help control them. I have a 40 inch stainless steel Masterbuilt that I bought from Sams club probably 6 years ago. Just yesterday, I took it out of the box and followed the seasoning procedure in the instructions. I also ran the anmps smoker while seasoning and it worked great. I used the Mavrick ready Check temp guage with two probes to watch the temperatures during seasoning. The Mavrick probes showed about a 15 degree higher temperature than the readout on the smoker. I wasn't concerned about this. This morning, I put a 9 pound pork butt on the Masterbuilt about 9 am and have observed the temperature swings you detailed. I set the temperature at 240 degrees and started smoking. The pork butt was on sale for 99 cents a pound so I thought it would make a good first attempt on the smoker. One thing I have always heard about was the stall, since I this is the first time I have used a temperature prove, I really didn't know what to expect. Well, the pork put steadily, but slowely climbed in temperature until it hit 163 degrees and then it dropped to 161 degrees and stayed there for about 2.5 hours. It finally started slowly climbing again and finally the pork butt is at 203 degrees. I am going to take it out and wrap it in foil and go to bed. This has been a long day.
Thanks Again Sir for you expertise!
I clean the glass in mine before each smoke too, instead of after.
The thing you're putting your probe next to is the heat safety sensor in mine, and it looks just like yours (behind the left hanging probe).
The toggle switch looking sensor that measures the heat for the controls on mine is in the clean spot just below the probe on the right in this picture.
Exactly. I thought that was a given, which is why we don't even consider what the meat probe says when it's in its holder, and why we never let any measuring part of a probe lay against any metal in our smokers, and expect any accuracy in measuring the air temp.
Hmmmm, That could be what they did---Funny you're the first to mention that----Good to know!!I only have the one sensor, the one on the right side where your toggle sensor is, only higher, just below grate 3. There is nothing on the left side. They must have combined them on gen 2.5???
My local Kroger had them on sale. I think the sale was due to another Texas based grocer, HEB, opening a new store close to Kroger. I am hoping there will be some good meat sales coming in this Wednesdays add for the 4th of July.Wow great price on that butt! Where did you get it??
Looks like your Gen #2.5 still has the two sensors separate, like our older models, although in slightly different positions.
Here's a pic of my probe & sensor (the cleaned parts)