Masterbuilt 20070312

[Smoothjazz]

Hello all,
A newbie to this forum. I have been trying to troubleshoot my Masterbuilt electric smoker.I replaced the heating element because it wouldnt get hot.
After replacing the element no change.I am now trying to find a control panel( which online I cant find) Any ideas or suggestions? If its the controller,
what usually goes bad in them?

Thanks,
Smoothjazz

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Welcome to SMF.

If it is the control panel, then you should consider a PID controller.
Use the search function here on the site for PID controller.
You'll discover excellent tutorials by @tallbm that detail how to go about it.

 

[GaryHibbert]

Yep. @tallbm . He solved my MES problems.
Gary

 

[tallbm]

Hello all,
A newbie to this forum. I have been trying to troubleshoot my Masterbuilt electric smoker.I replaced the heating element because it wouldnt get hot.
After replacing the element no change.I am now trying to find a control panel( which online I cant find) Any ideas or suggestions? If its the controller,
what usually goes bad in them?

Thanks,
Smoothjazz

Hi there and welcome!

If you look at the back of your MES (Masterbuilt Electric Smoker) and you are lucky... you will have a panel that is about halfway up the back either in the middle of the back or to the right hand side of the back.
Open that panel and remove any box you see under the panel.

There you will see the Safety Rollout Limit Switch. This thing is often a culprit causing what you are explaining. If there is a problem here you will likely notice the connector or the switch itself has burnt up, corroded, disconnected, etc.

Safety Rollout Limit Switch Replacement (if it's the issue)
If that is the case you can replace any corroded connectors with these (do this anyways):

If the safety rollout limit switch is burned up or damaged you can simply cut the connectors off the wire right where the connector and wire come together to leave as much wire as possible.
Wire nut the ends of those 2 wires together and wrap with electrical tape.
That will get you going but WARNING there is no extra over temp safety switch in the mix so always be able to monitor your smoker temp.
Get these EXACT replacement switches, do not get another one that looks the same simply click this link to buy the correct ones or you will likely get the wrong ones!!!

Once these come in undo the wire nut and use the Supco Hi Temp connectors to connect back to a new switch THEN install the switch into the MES.


If the safety limit switch isn't the issue then more trouble shooting needed like checking UNDER the MES in a panel to see if the lower controller board shows signs of issues. But one step at a time.

You will want to check all of this out before we start talking about replacing your controller as these are simpler and much cheaper fixes.

Let me know if this info helps :)

 

[Smoothjazz]

Hi there and welcome!

If you look at the back of your MES (Masterbuilt Electric Smoker) and you are lucky... you will have a panel that is about halfway up the back either in the middle of the back or to the right hand side of the back.
Open that panel and remove any box you see under the panel.

There you will see the Safety Rollout Limit Switch. This thing is often a culprit causing what you are explaining. If there is a problem here you will likely notice the connector or the switch itself has burnt up, corroded, disconnected, etc.

Safety Rollout Limit Switch Replacement (if it's the issue)
If that is the case you can replace any corroded connectors with these (do this anyways):

If the safety rollout limit switch is burned up or damaged you can simply cut the connectors off the wire right where the connector and wire come together to leave as much wire as possible.
Wire nut the ends of those 2 wires together and wrap with electrical tape.
That will get you going but WARNING there is no extra over temp safety switch in the mix so always be able to monitor your smoker temp.
Get these EXACT replacement switches, do not get another one that looks the same simply click this link to buy the correct ones or you will likely get the wrong ones!!!

Once these come in undo the wire nut and use the Supco Hi Temp connectors to connect back to a new switch THEN install the switch into the MES.


If the safety limit switch isn't the issue then more trouble shooting needed like checking UNDER the MES in a panel to see if the lower controller board shows signs of issues. But one step at a time.

You will want to check all of this out before we start talking about replacing your controller as these are simpler and much cheaper fixes.

Let me know if this info helps :)

Thanks for the info. Will let you know what I find.

 

[JLeonard]

Welcome to the forums from Mississippi!

Jim

 

[Wurstmeister]

Welcome to the Forum from South Carolina's Thoroughbred Country.
John

 

[MJB05615]

Welcome from Ga. I see you're in good hands with @tallbm .

 

[tallbm]

Thanks for the info. Will let you know what I find.

Also if this panel doesn't exist let us know.
In that case the back of the smoker must come off to get to the switch. It's usually not a big deal and just takes some sheet metal screws to refasten back again. If this is the case you would want to cut a square out to make your own panel to access this switch. I had to do this for my smoker and I've had to replace a number of switches so I consider it a mandatory thing to do lol.

Pictures help as well to show whatever you run into :)
Here is one of an MES and the switch I mention (this one seems to be halfway up back of smoker and on the left) .

 

[Smoothjazz]

Also if this panel doesn't exist let us know.
In that case the back of the smoker must come off to get to the switch. It's usually not a big deal and just takes some sheet metal screws to refasten back again. If this is the case you would want to cut a square out to make your own panel to access this switch. I had to do this for my smoker and I've had to replace a number of switches so I consider it a mandatory thing to do lol.

Pictures help as well to show whatever you run into :)
Here is one of an MES and the switch I mention (this one seems to be halfway up back of smoker and on the left) .

View attachment 502233

Gotcha.. will take a look sometime this weekend. By the way, love your Fluke multimeter. Used one in the Navy

 

[tallbm]

Gotcha.. will take a look sometime this weekend. By the way, love your Fluke multimeter. Used one in the Navy

Wish I could claim that was me and my multimeter. I just grabbed an MES rollout switch image from the web as a visual. I use a cheapo multimeter hahaha. Glad it brought back good memories for ya though :D

 

[Smoothjazz]

Thanks for the info. Will let you know what I find.

Thanks again ,
I will take a look at tomorrow and let you know what I find out. Things have been busy lately and haven’t had the chance to do much troubleshooting.

 

[Smoothjazz]

Wish I could claim that was me and my multimeter. I just grabbed an MES rollout switch image from the web as a visual. I use a cheapo multimeter hahaha. Glad it brought back good memories for ya though :D

 

[Smoothjazz]

My friend gave this to me. I am cleaning it out inside due to lots of mold inside
Good afternoon
I was able to finally get a chance to look at the MES. I took a picture of the back .Took off the only panel that had screws. I plugged it in and turned on the controller. I then went to the back where the connections are at for the heating element. I tested for ac voltage at the connection points and got zero voltage.I am now guessing that I am going to have find the way to get that sheet panel off to troubleshoot more to see where those wires go to.

 

[tallbm]

My friend gave this to me. I am cleaning it out inside due to lots of mold inside
Good afternoon
I was able to finally get a chance to look at the MES. I took a picture of the back .Took off the only panel that had screws. I plugged it in and turned on the controller. I then went to the back where the connections are at for the heating element. I tested for ac voltage at the connection points and got zero voltage.I am now guessing that I am going to have find the way to get that sheet panel off to troubleshoot more to see where those wires go to.

Thanks for the pics!
If the controller isn't turned on and set to so something you won't get any juice to the element.
If you had the controller on like it should have been feeding juice then I bet money your safety rollout limit switch or it's connectors are bad AND you have no panel for it according to the image of the back of your MES

The back will have to come off AND yours is not riveted on so get ready to fight with bending the metal to fit in the groove when potting it back on. I had one like that I did the best I could but took a bunch of needle knows bending and hammering to get the metal to back into the groove. You'll see what I mean when you take it off.
I still used a few sheet metal screws to fasten it back

Honestly a better approach is to find the switch from the inside against the back wall, its here or here but I can't really tell. It looks round and about the size of a quarter:

Measure from the ground up and measure from the side over to figure out where it lies on the back wall. Then without going deep at all cut like an 8inch by 6inch rectangle around that area to make a panel and get to the switch from the back. Again DO NOT cut very deep to avoid any wires. To make a panel just get a sheet of scrap aluminum or something that wont rust and use self tapping sheet metal screws to fasten it over the hole you cut. Panel built!

To cut you will want to use a dremel like rotary tool or an oscillating cutting tool.

Having pulled a back like yours off before I would totally avoid that due to the pain in the butt it is to put it back. Unless you want to spend an hour and a half hammering metal back into place hahah.

Let me know if this makes sense. :)

 

[Smoothjazz]

Thanks for the pics!
If the controller isn't turned on and set to so something you won't get any juice to the element.
If you had the controller on like it should have been feeding juice then I bet money your safety rollout limit switch or it's connectors are bad AND you have no panel for it according to the image of the back of your MES

The back will have to come off AND yours is not riveted on so get ready to fight with bending the metal to fit in the groove when potting it back on. I had one like that I did the best I could but took a bunch of needle knows bending and hammering to get the metal to back into the groove. You'll see what I mean when you take it off.
I still used a few sheet metal screws to fasten it back

Honestly a better approach is to find the switch from the inside against the back wall, its here or here but I can't really tell. It looks round and about the size of a quarter:View attachment 502841

Measure from the ground up and measure from the side over to figure out where it lies on the back wall. Then without going deep at all cut like an 8inch by 6inch rectangle around that area to make a panel and get to the switch from the back. Again DO NOT cut very deep to avoid any wires. To make a panel just get a sheet of scrap aluminum or something that wont rust and use self tapping sheet metal screws to fasten it over the hole you cut. Panel built!

To cut you will want to use a dremel like rotary tool or an oscillating cutting tool.

Having pulled a back like yours off before I would totally avoid that due to the pain in the butt it is to put it back. Unless you want to spend an hour and a half hammering metal back into place hahah.

Let me know if this makes sense. :)

Good morning
It totally makes sense. Any chance it might be behind one of those panels that has the pop rivet cover on them? Just curious. I will look inside today when I get a chance to see if I can see it.One last question. Will I see voltage numbers before or after I set the timer on the controller?

 

[tallbm]

Good morning
It totally makes sense. Any chance it might be behind one of those panels that has the pop rivet cover on them? Just curious. I will look inside today when I get a chance to see if I can see it.One last question. Will I see voltage numbers before or after I set the timer on the controller?

You can try dripping those rivets off and seeing if there is something underneath but I think they are just tacked onto the back as labels for whatever they are displaying. Won't hurt to measure and see if it lines up behind one though hahaha.

If you turn the controller on and set it to get hot then you SHOULD see voltage at the heating element IF the safety rollout limit switch isn't busted and the controller is on and trying.
The other much rarer issue is that there is a break somewhere else in the wiring not allowing you to get voltage to the heating element but again much rarer and if there is a problem at the lower circuit board then chances are usually high that the controller wont even come on.

You will just have to trace where things may be busted and right now the long pole in the tent is that inaccessible rollout safety limit switch.

 

[Winterrider]

I have that same MES as @Smoothjazz , that safety switch is the right arrow in @tallbm pic. I have been lucky thus far that I haven't had to replace mine yet ( did purchase in case) but also gonna have to do the cut thing when time comes. Yuk...

 

[Smoothjazz]

Good morning
It totally makes sense. Any chance it might be behind one of those panels that has the pop rivet cover on them? Just curious. I will look inside today when I get a chance to see if I can see it.One last question. Will I see voltage numbers before or after I set the timer on the controller?

 

[Smoothjazz]

Hi there and welcome!

If you look at the back of your MES (Masterbuilt Electric Smoker) and you are lucky... you will have a panel that is about halfway up the back either in the middle of the back or to the right hand side of the back.
Open that panel and remove any box you see under the panel.

There you will see the Safety Rollout Limit Switch. This thing is often a culprit causing what you are explaining. If there is a problem here you will likely notice the connector or the switch itself has burnt up, corroded, disconnected, etc.

Safety Rollout Limit Switch Replacement (if it's the issue)
If that is the case you can replace any corroded connectors with these (do this anyways):

If the safety rollout limit switch is burned up or damaged you can simply cut the connectors off the wire right where the connector and wire come together to leave as much wire as possible.
Wire nut the ends of those 2 wires together and wrap with electrical tape.
That will get you going but WARNING there is no extra over temp safety switch in the mix so always be able to monitor your smoker temp.
Get these EXACT replacement switches, do not get another one that looks the same simply click this link to buy the correct ones or you will likely get the wrong ones!!!

Once these come in undo the wire nut and use the Supco Hi Temp connectors to connect back to a new switch THEN install the switch into the MES.


If the safety limit switch isn't the issue then more trouble shooting needed like checking UNDER the MES in a panel to see if the lower controller board shows signs of issues. But one step at a time.

You will want to check all of this out before we start talking about replacing your controller as these are simpler and much cheaper fixes.

Let me know if this info helps :)

.

Good morning
Well I have pictures to show u. I was able to get the
back cover off with removing and pulling back the
sheet metal cover. OMG!! Check out these pictures!
The whole area is burnt up!!