dampner question?

[pitbullcrazy30]

hello i have queston on the dampner on my MES, i though i read on here somewhere that if it was open the temps would be warmer inside the unit? mabey i read that wrong, cause mine seems to only want to reach the 160 temp that i have it set on with it closed all the way,its only 20 degrees outside today. how long does it usally take to reach 160 in your MES on a cold day? just courious if mines working properly it took mine about a hour, and that with the meat in the unit if that makes ant diffrence, thanks for any imfo

 

[richtee]

Which damper? By the fire or the stack?

 

[pitbullcrazy30]

well mine just has the vent at the top right hand side, i dont think thier is one my the heat element? mine just has the wood chip load tray is that what you mean?

 

[richtee]

Ohh heh DOH... yeah. Well, hmm I'm an ECB guy so I don't know much about 'em. Seems you never want to completely close it tho, you'll build up alot of moisture and "old smoke". I'm sure someone here'll set ya right soon tho...sorry!

 

[pitbullcrazy30]

lol no problem, yeah mabey i better keep it open a little!!

 

[pitrow]

I can't comment on where the damper SHOULD be, but just for reference last weekend when I fired mine up with the damper fully open it took about half and hour or 45 minutes to go from 38 degrees to 160.

I have alway heard that you should keep the top damper wide open and do any adjusting with the lower dampers, but as ours doesn't have lower dampers, I'm curious about this too. I suppose for now I'll just run mine wide open and start playing around with the damper later.


After re-reading your post, maybe there is something wrong with your unit, if it won't hold 160 degrees? I was seasoning mine at 260 a couple weeks ago in 30 degree weather and it had no problem holding that. It did take over an hour to get there, but once there it stayed within 5 degrees the whole time.

 

[pitbullcrazy30]

thanks for the response, it did hit 160 degrees and hold it but it took about an hour to get it thier, but now i think it was because i had it full of almost ice cold meat? you think mabey thats why it took a while? yeah i fired mine up a few days ago at 7 above zero and it was empty but it went to a high temp very quickly!!

 

[pitrow]

That could definitely make a difference. did you have the water in the tray too? I let mine warm up without anything in it until it hit about 100 degrees, then threw the meat and wood in... for some reason I just can't bear to put the meat in until it has at least some heat in there.

 

[pitbullcrazy30]

acually so far i havent used water, ok next time ill wait till it warms up a bit, after i put this post up i went out and my meat was done, so just for the heck of it i set it up tpp 240 temp from the 160 i was at , and in just a few minutes it was thier. so i think its working fine

 

[bbq bubba]

Guy's, for what it's worth, DO NOT put meat in a cold smoker, for one it will take all day to warm up, secondly, that meat is sitting in the danger zone for too long, to risky........

Pre heat your unit's with the water or sand in the unit, you can close the top damper for this time to heat it up faster, and run it up about 50* higher than you wanna smoke, then add your meat and wood and open top damper fully, with a little practice she should settle in to smokin temp for ya pretty easy!!

 

[gooose53]

And if you use water, don't use cold water, heat your water up or get it from the tap but running on hot. It takes longer to get your cooker up to temp with cold water vs warm/hot water.