Doing the break in on my MES 40 now!

[myershp]

Running the initial burn according to the directions. Added the wood chips with about 50 minutes to go and after about 3 minutes they burst into flames. Is that common with the MES? Scared me that it would burn up the smoker before I could ever put meat in it.

Pretty cool to. Be able to see what is happening inside.

 

[torontoguy]

I think from what I've heard is that when the chips catch fire it's because too many were added. The manual for my MES 30 says that no more than half a cup should be added at a time. I feel that's way too much and literally an 8th of a cup is just fine. An 8th of a cup of chips is about 15 woodchips, so yeah, not a lot. 

What I do is the very first chips I add during a smoke is just a few, maybe like 7 or 8 chips. Let those go for about 5 minutes then add a bit more. Every time I add chips I increase the amount until I get the amount of smoke I like, then just add that much throughout the smoke.

Hope that helps 

 

[tjohnson]

MES has a recall on their new model smokers

If the chip pan is not pushed all the way in, chips can fall onto the heating element

I would call Masterbuilt on Monday, just to have it on record, that your unit caught fire

They have a fix for the chip pan housing

There's an older thread, that shows the updated chip pan housing

I'll see if I can find it

 

[myershp]

It's entirely possible that I added too many chips at once. I will definitely call them just in case though.

 

[myershp]

Thanks for the tip tjohnson! I called them today and my model was part of their recall. They are sending me a new chip box to replace the current one and will cover any other parts that may not work.

So far gotta give master built an a+ on customer service

 

[smokingrk]

My MES 40 also flares up, model 20072612 was not in the recall according to models listed on the Cabela's site.

I occasionally use the MES chip tray/ loader since early on when it actually backdrafted and almost took my eybrows off.

Now I mostly use A-MAZE-N-PELLET-SMOKER http://www.amazenproducts.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AMNPS5X8

It privides smoke for quite a long while using pellets; also available at that site.

 

[myershp]

That's on my list. I've been reading a little on here about them.