Masterbuilt 40 Inch Digital Charcoal Smoker

[front sight]

Anybody have the new Masterbuilt 40 Inch Digital Charcoal Smoker?
Likes, Dislikes

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

No but it sure looks good. What the retail on that sucker

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks very interesting, I’m surprised they are getting away from their gravity feed smoker, which seems to be a real winner.
Al

 

[front sight]

What the retail on that sucker

$350

 

[MJB05615]

I had one for 5 months and gave it away to a friend. It's a nice looking unit. The Bluetooth works pretty well.
The main issue I had was not nearly enough smoke. I watched all of the videos, etc. They all put wood chunks in with the charcoal to produce different flavored smoke, other than charcoal. Every time I did this, even with dry, wet, 1-2 small chunks, etc. It would always flame up and give an error code on the screen. I would have to pull out the Charcoal tray and carefully remove the wood chunks and restart with only charcoal. I researchd the small amount of info available and there was no solution. So I gave up and gifted to a close friend. He's using it as a small stick burner not ever plugged into the electricity or using any features, etc. LOL. The design idea is good, but not if you want wood smoke flavor. I ended up getting a Chargriller Grill with an add on side smoker box for offset smoking for short cooks. I use my MES 40 Gen 1 for most and all long cooks. Hope this helps, sorry for being so wordy.

 

[lowslowmac]

I just bought one yesterday. Seasoned part 1 today. Doing another burn to season tomorrow then cooking Tuesday. So far I like it. But will know more later this week.

 

[617Smoker]

Just got one for my birthday. If anyone has any advice I'd love to hear it.

 

[bill1]

I have a 10yo $100 version of this that's ~22" square, but with no digital controls or electrical features of any sort. It came with a worthless round shallow charcoal pan so I made a labyrinth 6" high charcoal basket that slides in the bottom, which it appears this has direct from the factory. (MB...you owe me a royalty check!) Mine is just natural air draft, so setting the temperature is a matter of just setting the vents. If you load the fuel uniformly, and keep the door shut, it maintains temp to about 30 degF which is fine for me. A full labyrinth of fresh fuel gives a 6h cook; I usually only fill it 2/3 high.

Since mine burns evenly, I have no flare ups, which I think is a by-product of the controller electronics continually turning a fan on and off to maintain temps. The physics and flavor profile of mine seems identical to my "bullet" style smoker (like Weber Smokey Mtns) when run as a charcoal (or charcoal and lump) machine. These are just square in cross-section instead of round.

Which is a flavor I like and a nice change from charcoal-free/all-wood. If I did have a flare-up issue, I'd just cut a sheet of steel to put in the bottom that arrests the flames but lets the smoke go around the outer edges or through small .25" puncture holes in the plate. (There are some bullet folks that complain of flareups...they might be the same ones that add a thermostatic fan like this has!)

This is NOT going to replace the MB gravity grills. This one's cheaper, and can hold lots of food (as is true of all vertical smokers) esp if it's thin like briskit instead of fat like butts. But the gravity has a true high-temp grill option (this is a traditional smoker only) and when you turn off a gravity, you can save a lot of the fuel for next time. And as I get older, I find the biggest advantage of the gravity layout is everything is at table level. You don't have to crouch down to load or clean one of them. Seriously I haven't used a vertical machine since Christmas holidays. (You can fit lots of nuts, etc in a vertical!)

So I think this is a totally different market than the Gravity series. I think MB is taking aim at the Weber Smokey Mtn with this. Weber still doesn't offer a thermostatic control with theirs, although there are plenty of after-market options. Then again, if MB doesn't address Mike's problems (and I think they're easily solved) MB will do nothing but create unhappy customers with it.

 

[617Smoker]

I have a 10yo $100 version of this that's ~22" square, but with no digital controls or electrical features of any sort. It came with a worthless round shallow charcoal pan so I made a labyrinth 6" high charcoal basket that slides in the bottom, which it appears this has direct from the factory. (MB...you owe me a royalty check!) Mine is just natural air draft, so setting the temperature is a matter of just setting the vents. If you load the fuel uniformly, and keep the door shut, it maintains temp to about 30 degF which is fine for me. A full labyrinth of fresh fuel gives a 6h cook; I usually only fill it 2/3 high.

Since mine burns evenly, I have no flare ups, which I think is a by-product of the controller electronics continually turning a fan on and off to maintain temps. The physics and flavor profile of mine seems identical to my "bullet" style smoker (like Weber Smokey Mtns) when run as a charcoal (or charcoal and lump) machine. These are just square in cross-section instead of round.

Which is a flavor I like and a nice change from charcoal-free/all-wood. If I did have a flare-up issue, I'd just cut a sheet of steel to put in the bottom that arrests the flames but lets the smoke go around the outer edges or through small .25" puncture holes in the plate. (There are some bullet folks that complain of flareups...they might be the same ones that add a thermostatic fan like this has!)

This is NOT going to replace the MB gravity grills. This one's cheaper, and can hold lots of food (as is true of all vertical smokers) esp if it's thin like briskit instead of fat like butts. But the gravity has a true high-temp grill option (this is a traditional smoker only) and when you turn off a gravity, you can save a lot of the fuel for next time. And as I get older, I find the biggest advantage of the gravity layout is everything is at table level. You don't have to crouch down to load or clean one of them. Seriously I haven't used a vertical machine since Christmas holidays. (You can fit lots of nuts, etc in a vertical!)

So I think this is a totally different market than the Gravity series. I think MB is taking aim at the Weber Smokey Mtn with this. Weber still doesn't offer a thermostatic control with theirs, although there are plenty of after-market options. Then again, if MB doesn't address Mike's problems (and I think they're easily solved) MB will do nothing but create unhappy customers with it.

Thanks for the thoughtful response. Mine is being shipped my way as we speak and I think I'll keep it. My previous and only smoker was like a WSM and I would have kept that save for a rusting leg. Your idea to put some metal over the chunks to tamp down flare ups is great. And I suppose I can always run it without the fan.

 

[bill1]

...put some metal over the chunks to tamp down flare ups...

Actually I recommend 1-2" above the coals/chunks...verticals have lots of shelf rails you can hang things off of. And if you have more than 1 layer of meat in a vertical machine (round or square) you want that shield to "shade" your meat from the infrared radiation of the glowing coals, even if you have NO flare-ups).

If you use a labyrinth and have one layer of meat, the IR source moves its way around the meat and more or less cooks it uniformly, albeit mostly from the bottom (unless you frequently flip.) But load up layers of meat, and the top layers are consistently in the "shadow" of the IR and just don't cook as fast.

IR can be a huge part of heat generation, especially if your source is red hot (coals or electric elements). IR radiation goes as a huge fourth power of temperature so you luckily don't need more than 1 or 2 "heat shields" to knock down the re-radiated component to levels that become dominated by the convective heating component. And really, that's the heart and soul of low and slow.

But if you want to cook fast, you want your meat to "see" the red-hot heat source and directly absorb the IR.

 

[617Smoker]

Actually I recommend 1-2" above the coals/chunks...verticals have lots of shelf rails you can hang things off of. And if you have more than 1 layer of meat in a vertical machine (round or square) you want that shield to "shade" your meat from the infrared radiation of the glowing coals, even if you have NO flare-ups).

If you use a labyrinth and have one layer of meat, the IR source moves its way around the meat and more or less cooks it uniformly, albeit mostly from the bottom (unless you frequently flip.) But load up layers of meat, and the top layers are consistently in the "shadow" of the IR and just don't cook as fast.

IR can be a huge part of heat generation, especially if your source is red hot (coals or electric elements). IR radiation goes as a huge fourth power of temperature so you luckily don't need more than 1 or 2 "heat shields" to knock down the re-radiated component to levels that become dominated by the convective heating component. And really, that's the heart and soul of low and slow.

But if you want to cook fast, you want your meat to "see" the red-hot heat source and directly absorb the IR.

 

[617Smoker]

I thought ithe smoker had a water pan but I guess not. I wonder if a steamer tray on the bottom rack full of water would fry some moisture in the smoker which I think can only help and also block flare ups and infrared. My WSM-type unit had a big water dish below the racks. Thanks again for the response. I am going to keep the unit (had thought about rreturning it unopened) and just make it work.

 

[bill1]

water pans are controversial here. One thing I'd say is absolute...more humidity (steam) makes your meat cook faster, hence saving fuel and cook time. Some say then you don't get as much smoke flavor; others say steam helps the smoke flavor molecules stick better to the meat so you get more flavor even in less time.
Some use water pans for everything except chicken; others for nothing buy chicken. It's a free country.
In a vertical smoker, you can put it anywhere and get some steam, as long as your cooking temps are over 212F. But if you put it so low as to actually intercept flare-ups, you'll be adding water more frequently, and cooking even faster yet, which I see as a plus, but not all do.