Crisis Averted !

[mosparky]

Started my 14 # turkey this morning on the MES 30. Set temp to 275, started the pellet tray about 9 a.m. Temp was climbing and at 164. About 10 o'clock. I looked at the inkbird and temp was down to 127 and kept falling. So I took the cover off of the limit switch (power on) and used insulated needle nose pliers to jump across the limit switch. (NOT RECOMMENDED !!) Temp continued to fall. Next open the element cover and found both wires burnt off at the connectors.
This surprized me, as I replaced them a few years ago with the SUPRO Hi-Temp ones everyone recommends. Thankfully I still had the rest of the package AND knew where they were (at my age, no small feat). Shut down power, replace connectors and button it up. Cruising along great now, only a couple hrs behind original schedule.
Starting to wonder if they shipped me the wrong connectors. Anybody ever have to replace the hi-temp connectors? Out of curiosity I checked mine with a magnet and they are highly magnetic. Not what I expected. For some reason I thought they were stainless steel but few of the cheaper stainless steels are magnetic and the usually only mildy so.

Now if I can just figure out why it randomly shuts off. Might be the remote. I had issues setting the time and they cleared up when I put in a new battery. Will have to wait and see if it stays on now.

Really wish I had installed the PID now. Wouldn't help with element issues but the rest would be a done deal. Maybe Saturday.

I was a little surprised the element wires were only about 18 ga. Might forego the rewire and solder a cord directly to the element and call it done.

 

[912smoker]

Glad you caught it in time and knew the fix !

 

[chopsaw]

Yeah , good thing to know what to look for . I was wondering how many that will happen to today , because of all the " I'm doing 40 lbs. of turkey in my MES 30 " cooks . No cycle at higher temps .

I had mine cycling on the limit last year . Set to 275 with 2 breast in it . It confused the Auber I think and caused it to keep throwing power the the element .
That's how I found out the 1510 has a high limit alarm .
" Dad . what's that noise "

 

[mosparky]

May have found the random off problem. I don't have outdoor outlets yet, so I use a light socket adaptor. I recently had the house re-sided and changed out the porch lights. This new adaptor doesn't hold the plug very tight and the darn thing un-plugged itself for the third time. Dammit, I'm smoking this turkey one way or another. I rigged it. I took about 2 foot of string and taped it to the cord then ran it up and over the light housing and tied it off. This should take the weight off the connection and keep power on. I hope !!

 

[cmayna]

When you switch over to a Auber PID, you'll never look back. I bypassed my MES's wiring by connecting a power cord directly to the element which plugs into the Auber.

 

[MJB05615]

I did the same thing with an Auber on my MES 40 Gen 1, almost 2 years ago now, and never looked back. dr k talked me through it back then, and it really changed everything. I can't imagine having any other smoker as my main one since the Auber came along. Haven't had 1 problem with it since.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Glad ya got it figured out! And yes you would love the auber pid!

Ryan

 

[mosparky]

Man, I got so many issues going on with this set up it's not funny. Still had connection issues with the power cord. For the longest time It never got over 210 deg. Finally after 3 hrs of relatively cold smoke I threw in the towel and moved to the oven. Still had alot of unburnt pellets, so I threw the half ham on and let'r ride. Now the temps rose to 275. Maybe having the turkey on the bottom shelf was causing probs maybe the connection was finally good enough.
Tasted great when finally done.
Gotta install a real outlet and the PID.

 

[cmayna]

How close to you have a good outdoor outlet? If not too far away and if you have a heavy duty extention cord....... This is what I have/do.

 

[tallbm]

Man, I got so many issues going on with this set up it's not funny. Still had connection issues with the power cord. For the longest time It never got over 210 deg. Finally after 3 hrs of relatively cold smoke I threw in the towel and moved to the oven. Still had alot of unburnt pellets, so I threw the half ham on and let'r ride. Now the temps rose to 275. Maybe having the turkey on the bottom shelf was causing probs maybe the connection was finally good enough.
Tasted great when finally done.
Gotta install a real outlet and the PID.

Wow I'm glad you made it through. Looks like you were well prepared to handle a lot of the issues, it just sucks they all came at once hahaha.

I find with Turkey that my MES40 struggles to hit max temp quickly.
I believe it is all the moisture in the bird that gets into the smoker and fights the element.
I know for a fact when I did 2 parted out turkeys at once last weekend that all of the excess liquid made it to my foil covered drip pan and just created a steam environment.
I think that significantly hampered my heating element from getting to 325F which it didnt hit until near the end of the whole damn smoke haha.

Normally, I do 1 bird in a vertical roasting rack sitting in a foil pan and it still struggles with less dripping down to the foiled over drip pan. It gets to 325F but can take a while.

With all of this behavior I honestly believe it's all the moisture in the bird.
Briskets and pork butts give me no problem just turkeys which I always brine or inject.

I'll keep an eye on this more with my 19 pounder that will get smoked this next week. Going to defrost it for a total of 7 days then brine + cure it for 3 days and give it a go.

 

[mosparky]

That's comforting to know. I almost unbagged the bird the day before to start draining and drying out a bit. Maybe I should have.

How close to you have a good outdoor outlet? If not too far away and if you have a heavy duty extention cord....... This is what I have/do.

My nearest outdoor outlet is on the neighbors house and we don't see eye to eye ( to put it politely)