Masterbuilt Gravity Feed

[912smoker]

Do your self a favor and before you cook anything in there after you do your initial seasoning - line the bottom and top of the manifold with foil. Makes it a lot easier to keep it clean

Man now that's something I haven"t done........until tomorrow.....

 

[Roman Buffalo]

Well after the factory plates burn through it will start to reveal the insulation and it begin to degrade. The factory plates are thin metal. The repair kit is 12 gauge stainless steel... much heavier.
You will be glad you swapped it out. Won't take long.

I haven’t honestly had an issue with burn through on mine I’ve had almost a year now. I guess it all depends on how often your cranking it up to inferno mode. Ive only peaked it out maybe 6 times the rest of the time it’s under 400

 

[Smokin Okie]

Smoking yardbird this afternoon, but had a few coals left in hopper from burn in and I did a biscuit test. I also put temp probes left and right on bottom grate and to the left of the middle grate. Found a hot spot and it sort've surprised me.

I used my Thermoworks Smoke and ChefAlarm temp gauges.

I got the MB up to 400* and left biscuits on for 13 minutes, that was the instructions on the biscuit can.

Here's a pic of the bottom side of biscuits showing how they were arranged ..........

Bottom of biscuits tell real story on biscuit test. I moved them to this cookie tray to get a better pic. The two rows at the bottom of the pic are the lower grate. Two rows at top, are the middle grate.

And here's the top side

 

[Smokin Okie]

I've edited this to make a correction.

The TW Smoke probes were on each end of the middle grate.

ChefAlarm probe was on the lower grate , on the far left of the grate. I placed it as close to the MB probe as I could. I have no explanation why its 40* lower than MB probe. I tested all three of the TW probes yesterday in boiling water.

Here's pics toward the end of the test

 

[Smokin Okie]

And I graphed the middle grate, left to right . Ch1= left, Ch2 = right, biscuit test was at 10:40 to 11 or so.

I first got the MB up to 250 then ran it on up to 400 for the biscuit test. I don't know why one side gets cooler when lid si open

 

[912smoker]

And I graphed the lower grate, left to right . Ch1= left, Ch2 = right, biscuit test was at 10:40 to 11 or so.

I first got the MB up to 250 then ran it on up to 400 for the biscuit test. I don't know why one side gets cooler when lid si open

View attachment 480551

I discovered the same thing last night. Middle grate on mine was also 25-30* cooler. Had to adjust the increase * on the 1050 to reach target * of butt.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Well, aging is a terrible thing. I got mixed up on which grates I put probes. I've had to edit those posts to make a correction.

I put a probe on each end of the middle grate. Those are the temps that I charted with the Thermoworks Smoke.

And the ChefAlarm probe is located on the lower grate , near the MB probe.

Man, sometimes I wonder how I find my way around.

And I'm gonna do another biscuit test, only at 275* , which is more of a smoking temp. 400* is more of a grilling temp. I got a hunch that the hot spot will move at lower temps.

 

[Will Squared]

And I graphed the middle grate, left to right . Ch1= left, Ch2 = right, biscuit test was at 10:40 to 11 or so.

I first got the MB up to 250 then ran it on up to 400 for the biscuit test. I don't know why one side gets cooler when lid si open

View attachment 480551

Are those two down spikes when you opened the lid?
I have found when I am searing that I can drop 100' when opening the lid.
I max out the temp and rely on the heat sink of the grates to do their job.
When searing the oven temp is not as important.
Great work on the charts.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Are those two down spikes when you opened the lid?
I have found when I am searing that I can drop 100' when opening the lid.
I max out the temp and rely on the heat sink of the grates to do their job.
When searing the oven temp is not as important.
Great work on the charts.

Yes, I opened the lid twice, once to put on the biscuits and then again to take them off.

 

[Smokin Okie]

I just ran another biscuit test before putting the yardbird on, ran it for 25 minutes at 300* , the hot spot moved a little to the right, but not much . I like how even the middle grate cooks.

 

[912smoker]

Great experiment and thanks for sharing
Keith

 

[Smokin Okie]

I think I'm gonna love this smoker. I used B&B char logs and cherry chunks. Smoke was thin and blue. I've got nothing to complain about.

 

[Smokin Okie]

I read elsewhere , that there's a guy who makes an upper grate from expanded metal, I think his name is Joe and he can be found on Facebook. But I don't do FB and its really hard to dig back through FB archives.

Anyone know something about this ?

 

[912smoker]

I read elsewhere , that there's a guy who makes an upper grate from expanded metal, I think his name is Joe and he can be found on Facebook. But I don't do FB and its really hard to dig back through FB archives.

Anyone know something about this ?

Haven't herd of that since no FB here either. Nice cook and also lovin' my 1050. It does seem to use a lot of fuel. What about the char logs ? Never used or seen them.

 

[Smokin Okie]

Haven't herd of that since no FB here either. Nice cook and also lovin' my 1050. It does seem to use a lot of fuel. What about the char logs ? Never used or seen them.

I haven't used them that much. I bought a bag several years ago that I mostly used for grilling and went back to KBB. But I thought I would give them a try in the 560, mostly based on Rexter in this thread. They are suppose to burn longer. They won't fall through the MB charcoal grate, which for me is not a good point. I want coals falling down on the chunks of wood in the ash pan. But I'm gonna use them some more, give them a good run.

Here's a podcast made by David Bouska of Butcher BBQ. Bouska has won some big events and appeared in two seasons of BBQ Pitmasters. His guest is B&B rep Ed Reilly, at about the 10 minute mark, Reilly explains how char logs are made, but I would recommend this entire podcast if your interested in diff types of lump and charcoal. Its a real education

https://www.butcherbbq.com/podcast-1/episode/254870e4/interview-with-ed-reilly-044

BTW, I've only had this 560 fired up a couple times, but it does appear to use a lot of charcoal. Too soon for me to form an opinion, though.

 

[912smoker]

Thanks for the info. I'll give it listen !

 

[Smokin Okie]

I found Joe's Grill Grates ........... he makes expanded metal grates for the 560. $140 + shipping for the pair, but I'm thinking they'd be a big improvement over the grates from MB.

https://www.facebook.com/smokinjoesgrillgrates/

 

[Roman Buffalo]

I found Joe's Grill Grates ........... he makes expanded metal grates for the 560. $140 + shipping for the pair, but I'm thinking they'd be a big improvement over the grates from MB.

https://www.facebook.com/smokinjoesgrillgrates/

Those would be nice for the middle grates! Id leave the cast irons in though for the bottom row you'd be giving up a decent amount of heat retention.

 

[negolien]

yup big fan of his I

have the top two but usually only use the middle

 

[912smoker]

I found Joe's Grill Grates ........... he makes expanded metal grates for the 560. $140 + shipping for the pair, but I'm thinking they'd be a big improvement over the grates from MB.

https://www.facebook.com/smokinjoesgrillgrates/

Those look nice ! Would love to have some for the upper in the 1050 !