BTW, I'm going to be getting a new smoker. I've been using this cheap kettle smoker. I'm looking at the
Masterbuilt electric smoker. Yay or nay?
Nice looking cut of meat!
As for the
Masterbuilt electric are you talking the analogue or the digital (MES).
If doing the digital I would recommend you get the 40 inch version so you can fit a whole brisket in it. It never hurts to have a little more space where you are stuck if you don't have enough space.
Know that the MES are notorious for smoker temp and meat temp probes that are just off and pretty much unreliable. So when you buy an MES you will also want to get a good wireless dual probe (or more probes) thermometer. I always recommend the ThermoPro Tp-20 but there are a number of Thermometers out there that will do the job well. 2 probes or more are needed so you can use 1 probe at rack/meat level to get a correct smoker temp reading and the other probe will be put into the meat to measure the Internal Temp (IT) of the meat.
Other things to know about the MES is that it has a top temp of 275F which is usually not an issue but very often causes a problem with chicken skin texture. There are simple ways to work around the issue but just keep that in mind if you are always smoking chicken or turkey with the skin on, if not then no issue.
Also, the MES can have some issues producing smoke at lower temps for sure and you may get varying results in smoke at different temps. You just have to see what it does. Most of the MES owners here move on to using the A-Maze-N Pellet Smoker (tray) and wood pellets for perfect Thin Blue Smoke (TBS) that is pretty much hassle free for a max of about 12 hours. It is basically a no brainer to move to using the MES and you can produce smoke at any temp. After 1-3 uses of the
AMNPS people usually have it sorted out and never look back.
Bluetooth basically has never worked with the MES models so please don't let that be a major deciding factor.
In fact I recommend you go with an MES40 that is the least expensive due to having the fewest amount of "features".
-Bluetooth doesn't really work and goes crazy for people
-The probes are unreliable so no need to be sold on the meat probe addition
-I personally don't care for the window as a selling point. Some people like it, others do not. I don't like cleaning it so now it is just a black window I can't see through. I also could not see much with the smoke going and where I've had the MES positioned so again it didn't do much for me. You'll have to decide if it's a selling point for you.
So that pretty much outlines the pros and cons. I like the MES and if I bought another one I would go with the cheapest featureless MES 40" I could find with expectations that I MUST buy BOTH a wireless dual probe thermometer ($40-$65 in cost) and the
AMNPS ($20-$25 in cost). You see I would save the money on the front end purchase and use it on the back ind purchases of the additional items to make MES smoking a carefree set and forget experience :)
