I've made up my mind, but....

[Winterrider]

I don' know if this does you any good or maybe you have reviewed already.
Electrical is frustrating to me. Sure hope you find the culprit.

MES Rewire Simple Guide - No Back Removal Needed!!!

Lately I've seen a number of posts about guys wanting to rewire their MES. I had wanted to post a quick and simple guide for those out there that are curious or those that simply need to rewire but need a little assistance. Well here goes. Disclaimer: When messing with electrical equipment...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[tanglefoot]

I would say you need to check the resistance of the heating element . Should be around 18 ohms .
You'll need an ohm meter to do this .
if you weren't having this trouble before you did the re wire , I'd re trace your steps again , and look at everything you changed .
But you will need to check the element .

Thanks chopsaw, I did check it when I rewired it. It was at 17.5 ohms, but i'm still thinking it's a problem with the element as it doesn't trip the circuit right away, only after it starts heating. I've dbl checked the wiring and it's just as tallbm instructions read.

 

[tanglefoot]

I don' know if this does you any good or maybe you have reviewed already.
Electrical is frustrating to me. Sure hope you find the culprit.

MES Rewire Simple Guide - No Back Removal Needed!!!

Lately I've seen a number of posts about guys wanting to rewire their MES. I had wanted to post a quick and simple guide for those out there that are curious or those that simply need to rewire but need a little assistance. Well here goes. Disclaimer: When messing with electrical equipment...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Thanks Winter. That's what I used as my guide!!

 

[chopsaw]

Thanks chopsaw, I did check it when I rewired it. It was at 17.5 ohms, but i'm still thinking it's a problem with the element

That's a good number . So if you haven't already . Unplug the smoker . Take the wires off the element . Check one side of the element and back to the case . Then check the other side back to the case should be open , 0 ohms .

 

[tanglefoot]

That's a good number . So if you haven't already . Unplug the smoker . Take the wires off the element . Check one side of the element and back to the case . Then check the other side back to the case should be open , 0 ohms .

yep...did that as well. no reading

 

[chopsaw]

It's either moisture , a bad element , or a wire rubbing ground .
Look and see if the element is touching ground somewhere / resting on the lower rods
Maybe when you put the inspection covers back on , something is touching / screw to long ?
Whats the smoker setting on ?
Just thinking out loud here .
If it was me , at this point I would connect the heating element directly to the pid with a short piece of extension cord , cut off and add female ends and plug those to the element .
If it stills trips after heating for a bit , I would say the element is bad , but if you didn't have this before
then I'm not sure , unless the element was getting ready to fail , and moving it around helped it along .

 

[Bearcarver]

My MES30 has been pretty kind to me over the years when it comes to the temp swings.Compared to many others mine have not been too radical.Once it settles it holds temp well enough.

When the stock controller finally goes,and it will,I'll be stepping up to the Auber for sure,And then I'll probably be thinking to myself "why didn't I do this sooner!"

I couldn't have said my thoughts any better than Norm did!!

Bear

 

[chopsaw]

I couldn't have said my thoughts any better than Norm did!!

Yup . Here's the Smoker temp graph from a brisket I did last Sunday .

 

[tanglefoot]

It's either moisture , a bad element , or a wire rubbing ground .
Look and see if the element is touching ground somewhere / resting on the lower rods
Maybe when you put the inspection covers back on , something is touching / screw to long ?
Whats the smoker setting on ?
Just thinking out loud here .
If it was me , at this point I would connect the heating element directly to the pid with a short piece of extension cord , cut off and add female ends and plug those to the element .
If it stills trips after heating for a bit , I would say the element is bad , but if you didn't have this before
then I'm not sure , unless the element was getting ready to fail , and moving it around helped it along .

Upon closer inspection, the element is touching the bottom of the housing piece that holds the chip tray. Could that be causing my headaches?

 

[chopsaw]

Mine was doing the same thing . Touching and tripping the gfci . Moved it from touching and it stopped .

 

[tanglefoot]

Mine was doing the same thing . Touching and tripping the gfci . Moved it from touching and it stopped .

I removed the entire housing from above the element, so the element is there by its lonesome. Plugged it in to the wall and tripped the circuit in about two minutes. Lopped off one end of a short ext. cord and rigged it with a couple female wire ends. Hooked it directly to the element and plugged it in. It heated just fine. i pulled the plug after about 15 mins so it wouldn't get too hot. So now I'm thinking it's in the wiring. triple checked all my connections, and tallbm's instructions, and everything looks fine. Only thing left I can think of is the safety switch and the power cord. Any other ideas??

 

[chopsaw]

Any other ideas??

Something is bleeding of off to ground ( we know that already ) . Just my thoughts , if you did not have this trouble before , then it's something that happened after the re wire . By plugging in direct like you did , that by passes everything else , and tells you the element is good .
I would not be suspect of the limit switch , but that's just my opinion .
Like I said above , make sure " something " is not be caused when you put the inspection covers back on .
Do you have the rubber gaskets in place that go between the covers and the body of the smoker ?
Screw touching a wire ?
Take the covers of and try it . Can't hurt at this point .
I'm thinking it's something in the bottom where you did the re wire .
When stripping stranded wire and wire nutting 2 wires together , you have to be careful that a single strand did not end up outside the wire nut / tape . I have had this happen to me .

Anyway , you have narrowed it down , so good job there . If nothing else you can run it wired straight to the element plugged into the PID . You just won't have the over heat protection .

 

[tanglefoot]

Something is bleeding of off to ground ( we know that already ) . Just my thoughts , if you did not have this trouble before , then it's something that happened after the re wire . By plugging in direct like you did , that by passes everything else , and tells you the element is good .
I would not be suspect of the limit switch , but that's just my opinion .
Like I said above , make sure " something " is not be caused when you put the inspection covers back on .
Do you have the rubber gaskets in place that go between the covers and the body of the smoker ?
Screw touching a wire ?
Take the covers of and try it . Can't hurt at this point .
I'm thinking it's something in the bottom where you did the re wire .
When stripping stranded wire and wire nutting 2 wires together , you have to be careful that a single strand did not end up outside the wire nut / tape . I have had this happen to me .

Anyway , you have narrowed it down , so good job there . If nothing else you can run it wired straight to the element plugged into the PID . You just won't have the over heat protection .

Actually, the only reason I'm even messing with this thing is that I started having trouble with it a couple weeks ago. I brought it up in another thread....here's a copy & paste.....
Downright unhappy with my mes30 today. Fired it up to do up some baby backs and can't get the thing to stay on. It will start out ok, but after it gets up to temp it shuts down it pops the ground fault outlet when the thermostat kicks in again. The outlet is fine. in fact, I plugged the GMG Dan'l Boone in to the same outlet to get the job done and it worked fine. (it's a 20amp dedicated outlet). I'm a meat smoker and not an electrician so i'm not sure where the problem is. I don't think it's the element as the thing fires up just fine to start with. On a side note, I just bought this smoker last year after having a mes30 for about 8-10 years before this one and smoked many, many meals without a glitch. When I brought this one home and unpacked it from the box I noticed how cheaply it was made. (my $0.02) Any ideas out there?

 

[tanglefoot]

Anyway , you have narrowed it down , so good job there . If nothing else you can run it wired straight to the element plugged into the PID . You just won't have the over heat protection .

I'm seriously considering that, but I'd feel a lot better with that limit switch in the loop.

 

[chopsaw]

You're tacking it down . Keep lookin , you'll get it . If need to smoke something use the pig tail cord .

 

[MJB05615]

I've been using the Auber PID direct wired to the heating element for nearly a year without any issues. I smoke at least 2-3 times every month all year. I'm always home when smoking. I am aware that it is safer with the overload switch, but this is so much easier, and works perfectly. Good luck.

 

[tanglefoot]

You're tacking it down . Keep lookin , you'll get it . If need to smoke something use the pig tail cord .

Thanks chopsaw. I still have the GMG Dan'l Boone to get my smoking "fix." In fact I did a butt on it yesterday and made a big ol pan of "pork pot pie" today.

 

[tanglefoot]

I've been using the Auber PID direct wired to the heating element for nearly a year without any issues. I smoke at least 2-3 times every month all year. I'm always home when smoking. I am aware that it is safer with the overload switch, but this is so much easier, and works perfectly. Good luck.

Thanks, MJB.

 

[dr k]

You can take off the element access plate and plug in the Mes power cord and right when the element is hot and trips. Quickly unplug the smoker, remove the connectors from the element and with the ohm meter on the highest setting touch one of the element male spades with a probe and the other on the back of the smoker to see if there is continuity when the element is hot. Maybe the resistance wire when hot has a failed insulation area between the resistance wire and outside metal element jacket that deforms with heat allowing the short.

 

[chopsaw]

He had it wired direct to the element and it heated until unplugged. So that should rule out the element , right ?