Masterbuilt Gravity Feed

[desertsubi]

Well she's together, but defiantly built on a Friday by someone who got paid on Thursday and drank a whole bunch the night before lol... Firebox mounting holes were tapped by a 2 year old I had to re-tap them, may not even have been tapped at all now that I think about it.

Lots of dents and bends in some panels that I had to straighten out. Its about what I expect from a box store unit though. About the only thing I might call them on is the main lid, it got tweaked a bit in shipping no damage visually outside when closed, it was twisted a hair but corrected. but it also had the corners were cracked up front on the inside.

Other than that, I hope it turns on, lol, didnt get time tonight to try, it was way too hot outside and I was soaking wet from our humidity to even bother. I went inside and stood in a cold shower for 20 minutes when I finished.

On a good note, all the glued on advertising came off real clean. That made my day, Ive seen the few horror stories about that stuff and was dreading peeling it.

Ill burn all the PIO off tomorrow and season it, and get a quick cook on it.

 

[clifish]

Nice, Costco has the MB 800 for $100 off so $549...but I think I will regret getting it. I am probably going to wait for a sale on the 1050 later in the summer.

 

[desertsubi]

Nice, Costco has the MB 800 for $100 off so $549...but I think I will regret getting it. I am probably going to wait for a sale on the 1050 later in the summer.

The Costco deal does not have the griddle portion of the 800 in it. Which is not a total loss of your just looking for a bit more cooking surface

 

[clifish]

The Costco deal does not have the griddle portion of the 800 in it. Which is not a total loss of your just looking for a bit more cooking surface

correct, I already have a blackstone.

 

[BBQ Bird]

lss makes 2 - 24 x 14 grates that fit the 800 - Thanks for your reply
View attachment 636360

That is a pic of a 560 with their grates in it. The 2nd pic shows the grates in stalled in an 800:


You can see that only the back half of the rack is supported by the rails on the side of the cook chamber. LSS says that it can support up to 30 lbs depending on weight distribution. So basically, you would only use the back half of the rack for anything with any weight. I guess they'd be good for jerky or abts. I'd want to see them in person before putting anything heavier on the front side.

Again, I think this was a crappy design decision my MB. I wish the sides went all the way to the front of the cook chamber like they do on the 560. Other than that, I still love my 800.

 

[desertsubi]

That is a pic of a 560 with their grates in it. The 2nd pic shows the grates in stalled in an 800:
View attachment 636553

You can see that only the back half of the rack is supported by the rails on the side of the cook chamber. LSS says that it can support up to 30 lbs depending on weight distribution. So basically, you would only use the back half of the rack for anything with any weight. I guess they'd be good for jerky or abts. I'd want to see them in person before putting anything heavier on the front side.

Again, I think this was a crappy design decision my MB. I wish the sides went all the way to the front of the cook chamber like they do on the 560. Other than that, I still love my 800.

what about adding some Stainless dowels downward to the bottom grate? just for support legs that would make it so it can support more than just light items out that far.

 

[BBQ Bird]

what about adding some Stainless dowels downward to the bottom grate? just for support legs that would make it so it can support more than just light items out that far.

That could work, but seems like it would be annoying extra work around. If you had two full size racks, the support dowels for the upper rack would have to rest on the middle rack, and the middle rack would have to rest on the bottom rack.

I could see myself accidentally knocking them out of place when rotating food in a full smoker and possibly spilling the food off the rack.

 

[negolien]

Yeah that design sucks i agree. I would never give up my full shelves

 

[Bigheaded]

The Costco deal does not have the griddle portion of the 800 in it. Which is not a total loss of your just looking for a bit more cooking surface

Buying this + the griddle + griddle manifold would still be a decent amount cheaper than buying the 800 that comes with them. So it's a good deal either way.

 

[SmokingCoals]

What’s a good charcoal to use in the 800 when cooking low & slow? I would prefer a light smoke flavor rather than a heavy coal flavor. I’ve tried Kingsford Professional (not bad but filled the yard with smoke), Jealous Devil hardwood lump (much more civilized but didn’t last long), and B&B char logs (seemingly last forever but imparted a heavy coal flavor to my tri-tip).

 

[912smoker]

I like the char logs due the extended burn time and clean burn in the 1050 but also use Royal Oak and B&B lump. I always add wood chunks so not sure about the pure charcoal flavor.

And welcome to SMF from SE Ga! Stop by roll call and introduce yourself when you can.

Keith

 

[BBQ Bird]

I also used wood chunks mixed in with the charcoal and added to the ash bin, so I don't think I could tell how much charcoal smoke vs wood smoke is affecting the flavor in the food.

That being said, in my 800, I recently did a couple of cooks using the Kingsford briquettes that have apple wood infused in them and they produced the thinnest (cleanest?) smoke I've seen. I used apple chunks a long with it and the apple smoke flavor was great.

For me, I've had good results using Kingsford professional and B&B briquettes. I had a bad experience with Royal Oak briquettes producing dirty smoke, but maybe I had a bad batch, as others seem to like them.

What I have found is that with all charcoal, I let it come up to temp and then run for at least 30 min to an hour before adding the meat. It seems that the fire dials in after a while and then smoke gets cleaner.

 

[negolien]

I mostly use briquettes either safeway brand or kingsford fruit wood and fruitwood chunks

 

[mcokevin]

I typically use Kingsford competition briquettes with a hickory split vertically inside my charcoal chute. If I'm doing something more delicate than pork or beef I'll use apple chunks in the chute instead of the hickory split. I don't care for stuff in the ash bin - I tried that at first and wasn't getting enough smoke on the meat. Definitely possible I was just doing it wrong though!

 

[912smoker]

I still haven't tried the splits !
That's a must do in the next few weeks for sure! There's a comp coming up in Sept and I need to give it a go.

Keith

 

[mcokevin]

I still haven't tried the splits !
That's a must do in the next few weeks for sure! There's a comp coming up in Sept and I need to give it a go.

Keith

Honestly I don't think I'll ever go back. What I love about the split is it's consistent TBS all the way through. With chunks in the hopper there could easily be periods where you aren't rolling wood smoke, only charcoal. And if you have a period early in the cook where you aren't rolling wood smoke I think that could be enough impact the results.

 

[912smoker]

I agree and remember you talking about the results and consistent smoke. We were very fortunate last time but this is a KCBS and have to up my game to have decent showing.
Any fuel on the bottom first or just a split down wrapped in coals ?

Keith

 

[Smokin Okie]

I take a 1/4 split and split it again.

But what I've found is the fire travels up the wood faster than the charcoal drops. Example, at the end of a cook, the split will be completely burnt up, but the charcoal around it has not been lit.

The wood burns easier than the charcoal. It burns at a faster rate.

 

[912smoker]

So I'll need to reload on a brisket cook then right ? I'll need to experiment and record my times and temps .

Keith

 

[Smokin Okie]

I would stack split on top of split, which is not that hard to do. Run it all the way to the top.

I put wood in the hopper and in the FB, where I have to add wood about every 20 to 30 minutes. I've got a grate in the FB pan that gets the chunks up out of the bottom with the ash. And they burn easily there, in fact, there's been times I open the FB door and the chunks are in flame.