masterbuilt model mb20076718 smoker not heating

[tdd3748]

I have a masterbuilt model mb20076718 smoker that is not heating.
I have replaced the heating element and the control panel and still no heat.
Is there something else I need to be checking?
I am not seeing any other access panels that I can remove and check.

Thanks to all who respond.

Tom D

 

[tallbm]

I have a masterbuilt model mb20076718 smoker that is not heating.
I have replaced the heating element and the control panel and still no heat.
Is there something else I need to be checking?
I am not seeing any other access panels that I can remove and check.

Thanks to all who respond.

Tom D

Hi there and welcome!

I'd bet money that the safety limit rollout switch (overheat switch) is the problem.

It is the flat round quarter sized thing located here on the inside:


To get to it you will need to cut the sheet metal on the back of your smoker to make a panel (best option) or take the back off (which I do not recommend).

These switches melt down or the crappy female spade wire connectors corrode away. MES uses the least durable connectors possible, it seems.

Open it up and should you find the connectors or the switch to be an issue you can simply remove the wires from the switch and wire-nut the wires ends together for the time being to be back up and running but WARNING the overheat safety switch is no longer in the mix.

To replace the switch get this exact switch. There are others that look like it but are not going to work. There are 2 different designs and though you think you found a cheaper one you likely have found the design that wont work, plus these are ceramic and may not melt down as fast as the plastic back switches:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q99KJWC/ref=twister_dp_update?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&th=1

These high temp connectors will get the job done and I recommend you replace the existing connectors at the safety rollout limit switch AND the heating element with these:

https://www.amazon.com/Supco-T1111-Disconnect-Temperature-Female/dp/B0071NC5NO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TLQHC3VW2QO2&keywords=supco+t1111&qid=1674692266&sprefix=supco+t1111%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1

Dig into the back where that switch is located (it's inside a housing) and let us know what you find.

Let us know if this makes sense and ask any questions you may have :)

 

[tdd3748]

Tank You TallBM
I will dig into this once I get the parts in hand.
so irritated with not being able to smoke the last few weeks.

Thanks Again
Tom D

 

[jkc64]

What tallbm said. He probably has more MES fixes than posts on this forum. Maybe not quite that many but close.

 

[tdd3748]

Hi there and welcome!

I'd bet money that the safety limit rollout switch (overheat switch) is the problem.

It is the flat round quarter sized thing located here on the inside:
View attachment 655838

To get to it you will need to cut the sheet metal on the back of your smoker to make a panel (best option) or take the back off (which I do not recommend).

These switches melt down or the crappy female spade wire connectors corrode away. MES uses the least durable connectors possible, it seems.

Open it up and should you find the connectors or the switch to be an issue you can simply remove the wires from the switch and wire-nut the wires ends together for the time being to be back up and running but WARNING the overheat safety switch is no longer in the mix.

To replace the switch get this exact switch. There are others that look like it but are not going to work. There are 2 different designs and though you think you found a cheaper one you likely have found the design that wont work, plus these are ceramic and may not melt down as fast as the plastic back switches:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07Q99KJWC/ref=twister_dp_update?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&th=1

These high temp connectors will get the job done and I recommend you replace the existing connectors at the safety rollout limit switch AND the heating element with these:

https://www.amazon.com/Supco-T1111-Disconnect-Temperature-Female/dp/B0071NC5NO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=TLQHC3VW2QO2&keywords=supco+t1111&qid=1674692266&sprefix=supco+t1111%2Caps%2C158&sr=8-1

Dig into the back where that switch is located (it's inside a housing) and let us know what you find.

Let us know if this makes sense and ask any questions you may have :)

The temp switch is only listed to go to 250 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...8&redirect=true&th=1&tag=smokingmeatforums-20). The smoker max temp is 275 so seems like that should be the safety switch needed or maybe 300 as a buffer.
Am I missing something here?

 

[tallbm]

The temp switch is only listed to go to 250 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B...8&redirect=true&th=1&tag=smokingmeatforums-20). The smoker max temp is 275 so seems like that should be the safety switch needed or maybe 300 as a buffer.
Am I missing something here?

I THINK those in the like I provided before are 150 Celsius and up however just to be safe this one clearly states 155C which is 311F and good to go :)

uxcell A13092400ux0093 5 Piece NC Ceramic Temperature Switch Thermostat 155 Degree Celsius KSD301 Gold Tone Terminal: Industrial Basic Switches: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

uxcell A13092400ux0093 5 Piece NC Ceramic Temperature Switch Thermostat 155 Degree Celsius KSD301 Gold Tone Terminal: Industrial Basic Switches: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.com

Thanks for bringing up the question and this should surely keep you on the right track with no ambiguity :)

 

[tdd3748]

I THINK those in the like I provided before are 150 Celsius and up however just to be safe this one clearly states 155C which is 311F and good to go :)

uxcell A13092400ux0093 5 Piece NC Ceramic Temperature Switch Thermostat 155 Degree Celsius KSD301 Gold Tone Terminal: Industrial Basic Switches: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

uxcell A13092400ux0093 5 Piece NC Ceramic Temperature Switch Thermostat 155 Degree Celsius KSD301 Gold Tone Terminal: Industrial Basic Switches: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.com

Thanks for bringing up the question and this should surely keep you on the right track with no ambiguity :)

Thank You - order placed will post once I have them and get on installed.

Tom

 

[tdd3748]

Thank You - order placed will post once I have them and get on installed.

Tom

Well I am finally getting back to this.
Replaced the heat sensor and all is good.
Thank You to all who replied.

Tom

 

[tallbm]

Well I am finally getting back to this.
Replaced the heat sensor and all is good.
Thank You to all who replied.

Tom

Nice, and congrats on being up and running again!
Those safety limit rollout switches are a major area of failure. If it fails and you need to complete a smoke or start one, you can simply undo the wires and wire nut the ends together but WARNING that is removing the failed safety switch from the mix.

Just good info to have on hand :)

 

[tdd3748]

Nice, and congrats on being up and running again!
Those safety limit rollout switches are a major area of failure. If it fails and you need to complete a smoke or start one, you can simply undo the wires and wire nut the ends together but WARNING that is removing the failed safety switch from the mix.

Just good info to have on hand :)

Yeah that is what I did before the new sensors arrived. Thanks again for the info.

Tom

 

[jchad]

Yeah that is what I did before the new sensors arrived. Thanks again for the info.

Tom

I’m having the same issue now. Did you end up removing the back or cut the sheet metal to make a panel? I’m having trouble visualizing this and I can’t find any videos showing someone replacing the overheat switch.

 

[tallbm]

I’m having the same issue now. Did you end up removing the back or cut the sheet metal to make a panel? I’m having trouble visualizing this and I can’t find any videos showing someone replacing the overheat switch.

Hi there and welcome!

Here are some pics to help you and you can get a ton of info on that safety limit switch at this thread:

MES Safety Rollout Limit Switch Located Here

The MES safety rollout limit switch is a common point of failure so I am making this post to have pictures of it that I can easily find instead of digging up new ones everytime we help someone with this issue. Also adding tags so it's easy to search in SMF and hopefully via Google as well...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Drill a hole high on the green line here and then you can use tin snips to cut the metal. My brother got a little out of hand when he was making his panel but his pics are good to show what you are likely to encounter. The metal box with the black wires there is the cover to the switch. So cut along those lines in the image and you can easily then fold the metal back and duct/flue tape over it when done. You now have access when you need. Also a dremel with a metal cutting wheel makes short work if you don't want to use tin snips.
Just mind those white wires if you tend to keep using the stock controller on top :D

This last picture shows the switch that will get replaced. In the post I linked above the pics you can see info on what switches to get as preplacement, etc.

 

[jchad]

Hi there and welcome!

Here are some pics to help you and you can get a ton of info on that safety limit switch at this thread:

MES Safety Rollout Limit Switch Located Here

The MES safety rollout limit switch is a common point of failure so I am making this post to have pictures of it that I can easily find instead of digging up new ones everytime we help someone with this issue. Also adding tags so it's easy to search in SMF and hopefully via Google as well...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

View attachment 702529

Drill a hole high on the green line here and then you can use tin snips to cut the metal. My brother got a little out of hand when he was making his panel but his pics are good to show what you are likely to encounter. The metal box with the black wires there is the cover to the switch. So cut along those lines in the image and you can easily then fold the metal back and duct/flue tape over it when done. You now have access when you need. Also a dremel with a metal cutting wheel makes short work if you don't want to use tin snips.
Just mind those white wires if you tend to keep using the stock controller on top :D

View attachment 702530


This last picture shows the switch that will get replaced. In the post I linked above the pics you can see info on what switches to get as preplacement, etc.
View attachment 702531

Thank you! This helps a lot! We have a chicken wing competition in a month and what a great time for my smoker to go out!

 

[tallbm]

Thank you! This helps a lot! We have a chicken wing competition in a month and what a great time for my smoker to go out!

Do you get good results with the skin on your wings from your MES?
When I rewired mine and slapped a PID controller on it to run it I also increased the safety limit switch to one that could handle higher temps so I could smoke at 325F just for fast chicken and turkey skin smokes. Since poultry skin wants to be rubbery when not cooked high enough.

I never did try the baking soda trick so I'm wondering if you have a good reliable skin trick for your wings :D

 

[jchad]

Do you get good results with the skin on your wings from your MES?
When I rewired mine and slapped a PID controller on it to run it I also increased the safety limit switch to one that could handle higher temps so I could smoke at 325F just for fast chicken and turkey skin smokes. Since poultry skin wants to be rubbery when not cooked high enough.

I never did try the baking soda trick so I'm wondering if you have a good reliable skin trick for your wings :D

Great question! This is the second year we’ve entered, but we adjusting and tweaking our methods. And this competition is in a small town.

There’s two parts the competition, judges scores, and people’s favorite. The peoples favorite, the patrons goes around, sample a wing from each competitor, (last year I think there were 15 teams) and then they give the one they liked most their ticket. The team with the most tickets win the people’s vote. Problem with that, is the big companies but large amount of entries, give them to the employees and their families, rip off the voting ticket, and keep it for themselves. So this year we’re going to have fun on that aspect, but not get upset losing at something we can’t control.

The judges portion is where there’s less bias. We have two hours to receive, cook and turn in 6 wings. So first 10 minutes we rush prep, paper towel dry, season and throw in the smoker (apple wood chips) and pray to the wing gods (they did let us get our wings a few minutes early since we were smoking). Then when we get the 15 minute warning we take them out, throw them on a 36” blackstone and get the skin crispy. After that we toss them in our homemade sweet and sticky peach glaze. Then we pick out the wings to be judged, place them in an unmarked takeout box, an event representative takes them to a hidden judging area where the judges have to stay until all wings are judged. Then we continue cooking for the public.

They give us about 100 lbs of wings to cook throughout the day. Last year we had 3 smoker rocking and rolling. We obtained a fourth smoker, but now two of our smokers have crapped. So literally one step forward, two steps back.

Obviously the hardest part is it’s not enough smoke time. We’ve toyed with the idea of either using hickory chips to hit it with a stronger smoke flavor in the short time, or maybe getting a smoke tub to place the source closer to the wings. Not sure if that would even make a difference.

There’s our life story! We are very much amateurs and open to any feedback from what anyone reads! It won’t hurt our feelings!

 

[jchad]

Hi there and welcome!

Here are some pics to help you and you can get a ton of info on that safety limit switch at this thread:

MES Safety Rollout Limit Switch Located Here

The MES safety rollout limit switch is a common point of failure so I am making this post to have pictures of it that I can easily find instead of digging up new ones everytime we help someone with this issue. Also adding tags so it's easy to search in SMF and hopefully via Google as well...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

View attachment 702529

Drill a hole high on the green line here and then you can use tin snips to cut the metal. My brother got a little out of hand when he was making his panel but his pics are good to show what you are likely to encounter. The metal box with the black wires there is the cover to the switch. So cut along those lines in the image and you can easily then fold the metal back and duct/flue tape over it when done. You now have access when you need. Also a dremel with a metal cutting wheel makes short work if you don't want to use tin snips.
Just mind those white wires if you tend to keep using the stock controller on top :D

View attachment 702530


This last picture shows the switch that will get replaced. In the post I linked above the pics you can see info on what switches to get as preplacement, etc.
View attachment 702531

Step by step update:

-Replaced the thermal regulator, fired up the smoker and it did not heat.
-Removed the plate with the heating element connectors and out of frustration of replacing the heating element, I forgot to connect them back. EDIT: reconnected the element connectors.
-Turned on the smoker and it worked!
-Turned off the smoker, put little bit of wires that was sticking out from the heating element section into the casing.
-Turned the smoker back on and no heat.
-Removed the plate with the access to the heating element, replaced a loose fitting spade terminal, still no heat.

Before I take a next step, are there any recommendations on moving forward?

 

[tallbm]

Step by step update:

-Replaced the thermal regulator, fired up the smoker and it did not heat.
-Removed the plate with the heating element connectors and out of frustration of replacing the heating element, I forgot to connect them back.
-Turned on the smoker and it worked!
-Turned off the smoker, put little bit of wires that was sticking out from the heating element section into the casing.
-Turned the smoker back on and no heat.
-Removed the plate with the access to the heating element, replaced a loose fitting spade terminal, still no heat.

Before I take a next step, are there any recommendations on moving forward?

So to recap.
You replaced the hi temp safety limit switch?

Those switches are very delicate and you CANNOT cause any wiggle to the tabs that connect to the back of the safety limit switch when putting on the new connectors or it will melt down again in short time... the plastic back ones at least will.

Is this a full rewire or are you still using the stock controller and lower control board (meaning no rewire at the lower control board)?
if using the stock controller, does it turn on at all?

If this is basically a stock MES I would take the wire ends that connect to the safety limit switch and wire nut them together to rule out the switch as the issue.
Then I would double check the connectors AND the ground wire connector at the heating element side of things and see if it will heat up now with the safety limit switch bypassed.

The stock MES is also funny that it needs you to set a TIME limit as well as a set temp. So make sure you have like a max time period entered in or the smoker will never heat up.

Really we need the questions above answered and maybe a little more info to see what may be happening. The good news is that there really arent that many things to check and one of them will identify your issue :D

 

[jchad]

So to recap.
You replaced the hi temp safety limit switch?

Those switches are very delicate and you CANNOT cause any wiggle to the tabs that connect to the back of the safety limit switch when putting on the new connectors or it will melt down again in short time... the plastic back ones at least will.

I’ll double check, I did replace with a ceramic switch. I also tried connecting the two wires to bypass and nothing.

Is this a full rewire or are you still using the stock controller and lower control board (meaning no rewire at the lower control board)?
if using the stock controller, does it turn on at all?

Have not rewired. Replacements: the heating element, new spade terminals on both wires connecting the to the heating element, new ceramic safety limit switch. I haven’t changed out any boards. The panel that I use to turn on the smoker has always worked and allows me to set the temperature and the time with no issues at all.

If this is basically a stock MES I would take the wire ends that connect to the safety limit switch and wire nut them together to rule out the switch as the issue.
Then I would double check the connectors AND the ground wire connector at the heating element side of things and see if it will heat up now with the safety limit switch bypassed.

Pretty much is stock except for those parts above. I’ll check the ground wire. Can you elaborate what I need to look for on the ground wire? Also can you educate me on how that would stop everything from working? Thats the one thing I have not touched since replacing the element as it was a pain to get back on.

The stock MES is also funny that it needs you to set a TIME limit as well as a set temp. So make sure you have like a max time period entered in or the smoker will never heat up.

Great point, I always set the temp and always set the timer for 24 hours as I monitor cook time with my phone and timers there. That is always set.

Really we need the questions above answered and maybe a little more info to see what may be happening. The good news is that there really arent that many things to check and one of them will identify your issue :D

I hope those answers are detailed enough to help! I’ll be glad to provide any additional info! I really appreciate you taking time to help me out!

 

[dsk]

-Removed the plate with the heating element connectors and out of frustration of replacing the heating element, I forgot to connect them back.
-Turned on the smoker and it worked!

I don't understand this. I read this as you left the heating element disconnected, and the smoker worked. I don't see this as possible.

 

[jchad]

I don't understand this. I read this as you left the heating element disconnected, and the smoker worked. I don't see this as possible.

Sorry! I did connect them back and it worked for that one time. I edited my post. Thank you for pointing that out!