Hi there and welcome!
I'm positive we can get you up and running.
The 2 biggest failure points on the MES will be:
- The electrical connectors at the safety rollout limit switch & heating element
- The controller
You posted that the controller comes on and works so that tells me the controller is good.
You switched the heating element (hope you kept the old one it probably still works) so that means the electrical connectors at the heating element are good or you replaced them with good ones while switching the element.
Sooooo, it is likely that the safety rollout limit switch connectors trash or the switch itself is burned up and either case will keep power from going to the heating element.
Halfway up the back of the smoker, on the right hand side, there might be a panel if you are lucky and looks like this (image i pulled off the web is flipped):
View attachment 520311View attachment 520312
If there is no panel then you cut a hole in the back (my suggestion), or you pull the back off and you will see it like this. See the safety rollout limit switch in the upper right corner:
View attachment 520313
Notice how the safety switch (upper right hand corner) is in the circuit going to the heating element. If the switch or it's connectors are trash then guess what, no power to the heating element.
If the switch is trash then you can cut the connectors off the wires and wirenut them together and you will be back in business without the switch.
You can replace the switch and connectors if you like to ensure you have the safety switch in the mix but know that the switch is a piece that is cheap and fails... often haha.
If the connectors are bad you just switch the connectors .
No matter what, if you don't have a panel to this area on the back of your smoker then you will definitely want to cut one so u can easily access the area.
Check this section out as I would bet money this is your issue.
If it isn't the issue there is a very very very slim chance that the lower circuit board is failing you BUT if it is failing then you likely wouldn't be getting power to your controller.
If it is this rare failure at the circuit board then we will talk about rewiring to bypass all the electronics and running a PID controller.
Honestly, the rewire and a PID controller makes the smoker 100x better than it ever was new BUT will run you at least $150. This is my personal preference but you can likely get your smoker going with what I suggest above AND you would have to do it anyway even if you wanted to do the rewire and use a PID.
Let me know if this info helps :)