Masterbuilt Gravity Feed

[Bigheaded]

The 800s are now for sale on mbs website. They were only at Walmart until I guess This week. They’ve been out of stock for almost 2 months now. I’ve been checking for them every few days. Just happened to go on mb web site and they’re in stock there now.

 

[SGMan]

The 800s are now for sale on mbs website. They were only at Walmart until I guess This week. They’ve been out of stock for almost 2 months now. I’ve been checking for them every few days. Just happened to go on mb web site and they’re in stock there now.

You sure? Maybe I need to clear my cache, but Im showing them as only having the 560 and 1050.

 

[Bigheaded]

You sure? Maybe I need to clear my cache, but Im showing them as only having the 560 and 1050.

I was when I posted it, just checked and they're already out of stock. wowzers. But I just checked Walmart and they're in stock again. Lovely that I clicked on the "notify me when in stock" button last damn month and there was no email from them saying it's back in stock.

 

[BiscuitoftheSea]

I was smoking some chuck roast at 235 degrees today and when I went to go temp them, I opened the lid and there was some huge flames coming from the right side (where the firebox links to the ash bin area). I opened the top of the charcoal hopper and looked in and the whole thing was a blaze of fire. Is that normal?

 

[Chasdev]

When the briquettes get low you will see the combustion process in the gravity bin that you would not normally see when the bin has a higher fill level of briquettes.
There's always a fire burning in the bottom of the bin.
Was the fan blowing?
You can put your hand across the fan housing and tell if it's running/blowing air.
If your set temp was stable then the fan should not blow until/unless more heat was needed to match your temp setting.
If your gravity bin was 1/4 or more full and you saw flames then something bad is happening.
If so, I think your temp readings would skyrocket right quick.
If that happened then you need/ed to insert the shut down plates to put out the fire.

 

[BiscuitoftheSea]

When the briquettes get low you will see the combustion process in the gravity bin that you would not normally see when the bin has a higher fill level of briquettes.
There's always a fire burning in the bottom of the bin.
Was the fan blowing?
You can put your hand across the fan housing and tell if it's running/blowing air.
If your set temp was stable then the fan should not blow until/unless more heat was needed to match your temp setting.
If your gravity bin was 1/4 or more full and you saw flames then something bad is happening.
If so, I think your temp readings would skyrocket right quick.
If that happened then you need/ed to insert the shut down plates to put out the fire.

This must have been it (getting low on briquettes). It was the end of the smoke and was only a thin layer left in the hopper. Just wanted to make sure nothing was wrong with it!

 

[Nayston]

So I picked up the 1050 yesterday. Got around to doing my burn-in today. After round 1, I opened the lid and noticed a lot of ash coating all the grates and the inside of the lid. I figured it was the first run, so I wiped it down. And did it again. Opened the lid. Ash, same as the first. I can understand a little bit of ash from a charcoal grill, but this seems excessive. Running my finger across the grates makes my hands dirty, and I wouldn't want that on my food.

Is this normal? Does it go away? I didn't put it together, Ace Hardware did. Did they put it together properly? Can someone speak to the volume of ash in the cooking chamber with this grill?

TIA!

- Nayston

 

[Roman Buffalo]

So I picked up the 1050 yesterday. Got around to doing my burn-in today. After round 1, I opened the lid and noticed a lot of ash coating all the grates and the inside of the lid. I figured it was the first run, so I wiped it down. And did it again. Opened the lid. Ash, same as the first. I can understand a little bit of ash from a charcoal grill, but this seems excessive. Running my finger across the grates makes my hands dirty, and I wouldn't want that on my food.

Is this normal? Does it go away? I didn't put it together, Ace Hardware did. Did they put it together properly? Can someone speak to the volume of ash in the cooking chamber with this grill?

TIA!

- Nayston

About 400 cubic mm per hour of ash movement. You’ll need a air flow analyzer with a particulate collector. Once you take your reading over an hour you’ll have to take collector filter and chemically seperate the particulate from the filter and weigh it out.

Hope that helps.

I’m joking. Think about it your cooking with charcoal not gas and pellets it’s inherently a dirtier process I think what your seeing is normal unless your ash bin and hopper are both empty at the end of the cook. Then I’d be concerned.

 

[Nayston]

I understand that, but it seems excessive. See the pictures. In one of the pictures I wiped my finger over some of the grates just to see the difference. I've cooked with charcoal before and it's never been like this. It's basically eating ash. How can this really be normal?

 

[912smoker]

I tend to get more Ash if using a briquettes. You might try cleaning the heat inside of the diffuser and trying the process again.

 

[Smokin Okie]

So I picked up the 1050 yesterday. Got around to doing my burn-in today. After round 1, I opened the lid and noticed a lot of ash coating all the grates and the inside of the lid. I figured it was the first run, so I wiped it down. And did it again. Opened the lid. Ash, same as the first. I can understand a little bit of ash from a charcoal grill, but this seems excessive. Running my finger across the grates makes my hands dirty, and I wouldn't want that on my food.

Is this normal? Does it go away? I didn't put it together, Ace Hardware did. Did they put it together properly? Can someone speak to the volume of ash in the cooking chamber with this grill?

TIA!

- Nayston

I don't think its normal. You should not have that much ash the first time you use it. My 560 did not do that.

After I'd used my 560 several times, I had ash build up inside the manifold. I never thought to clean that , which I did with a Shop Vac.

I've seen ash exit the exhaust after a chunk of charcoal drops into the ash bin. But the new charcoal grate should solve that issue as the chunks won't be nearly as large.

 

[Roman Buffalo]

I understand that, but it seems excessive. See the pictures. In one of the pictures I wiped my finger over some of the grates just to see the difference. I've cooked with charcoal before and it's never been like this. It's basically eating ash. How can this really be normal?

The only thing I think you can really do is change up your fuel and see if it helps. That does seem like a lot.

 

[BBQ Bird]

The only thing I think you can really do is change up your fuel and see if it helps. That does seem like a lot.

I agree. My guess is that your charcoal is kicking off a lot more ash than normal. The only other thing would be if your fan is running full blast at all times. However, that would kick your temps up well over the set temp. Does the 1050 hold a steady temp? If so, when at temp, does the fan slow way down (it should)?

 

[Nayston]

The 1050 is holding temps just fine. I'm using Weber briquettes. They are from last season, so the bag was open and just sitting in my garage for the winter. Never been a problem before. I have other Kingford charcoal briquettes that I just bought. I was going to hose off the grates and give it one more go, before contacting the store. I have to assume that they assembled it incorrectly. Again, I know charcoal is more messy, and little ash in the cook chamber, no problem. But who wants a dusting of ash with the food. We'll see what happens with different charcoal, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Terry Bussenger]

RomanBuffalo...I love that first part of your answer, had me going for a second! My 1050 initially had ash, first 2 times, seasoning it and the next cook. Make sure to empty the ash bin before every cook? I get ash, but not like that picture.

 

[jrberg56]

Long time reader and first time poster. I've read through a majority of this thread and have read a lot about the Char-Griller 980 as well. I'm considering the MB 1050 vs the CG 980. For those who own the 1050 do you feel that MB cleaned up most of their design or material quality changes enough from the 560?

For reference I have watched Tom Horsman's comparison of the 560 vs 980 but am wondering if MB has improved the elements he points out that tip the scales to the CG980 over the MB560.

 

[worldbfreebase]

that is kind of a loaded question. the 1050 is superior to the 560. better overall construction in general, but the main components are the same, unless they have changed some things that they are not listing on their site.

I think the 980 may be a superior product to the 1050 at this point, but I would really like to see some guys do some cooks on it.

 

[Roman Buffalo]

Long time reader and first time poster. I've read through a majority of this thread and have read a lot about the Char-Griller 980 as well. I'm considering the MB 1050 vs the CG 980. For those who own the 1050 do you feel that MB cleaned up most of their design or material quality changes enough from the 560?

For reference I have watched Tom Horseman's comparison of the 560 vs 980 but am wondering if MB has improved the elements he points out that tip the scales to the CG980 over the MB560.

I can’t speak from experience on the 980 but the 1050 is a beefier version of the 560 it’s not just a bigger smoker. Not sure if that helps at all.

 

[912smoker]

Welcome to the site jr. The 1050 deff has improvements over the original 560 . I have read (on this forum) that the 980 is also having some issues. All I can say is I love my 1050 and have had no mods or isuues. I've also seen Tom's video and respect his opinion as he has used both ..but very limited use of the 980.

 

[jrberg56]

that is kind of a loaded question. the 1050 is superior to the 560. better overall construction in general, but the main components are the same, unless they have changed some things that they are not listing on their site.

I think the 980 may be a superior product to the 1050 at this point, but I would really like to see some guys do some cooks on it.

I couldn't have my first question be a softball that you all knock out of the park! Appreciate the quick responses and the perspectives on this. One big benefit that the 1050 has going for it for me is that it's actually available in my area . That honestly might be the deciding factor since they are both at least close in quality, price etc... and I am not aware of other gravity fed charcoal smokers in the $1kish range that are available around me (metroish area of Minnesota).