masterbuilt model mb20076718 smoker not heating

[jchad]

After reading through some more forums, I decided to flip over the smoker and see what the bottom looked like.

This was the first panel I opened, and first thing I noticed was moisture inside. I’m not sure if you can see the moisture from the pictures, but you can see areas rusted. There's not a rip in the green wire, just gunk that I wiped off.

The pictures with the board (yellow side), one terminal looks darker than the others. I tried to get a picture showing that, not sure if it's visible. And on the underside of the board (green side), you can see some gunk all over the board, as well as a the big black spot more to the bottom right. That lines up with the burnt terminal on the other side. With all of this new information, here are my next trouble shooting steps, going from least expensive to most expensive.

1) clean/replace the screw, nuts, and terminals that have rusted in the second picture. If that doesn't work, then:
2) Replace the terminal on the board. If that doesn't work, then:
3) clean the gunk off the board and reconnect. (any recommendations on how to clean this? Looks like grease that came through the grease trap). If that doesn't work, then:
4) Replace the board. Any recommendations on where to buy this, what to buy, or what it's even called?

Even though this is the first smoker I've tried to fix, I can say I've learned a lot through this forum and I appreciate everyone's help educating me!

 

[tallbm]

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



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.



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.



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.



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!

Thanks for the detailed info!

The ground wire grounds at the heating element. So if replacing the heating element, there is often a screw there that secures the ground wire.
The ground wire often is sandwiched between the heating element plate and some metal on the smoker and it's kind of a pain lining up the ground wire's round connector to match the hole so the screw can go through it all when fastening the heating element to the MES. chopsaw posted a pic very recently of the ground wire and how to easily align it when putting in a heating element. These pics:

I would imagine that if the ground was not fastened back or something wild has happened that your breaker may have flipped at the breaker box. If not getting any power to the MES at all now that would be a simple thing to check.

With the safety switch bypassed and the heating element WITH the ground properly fastened in place then a flipped breaker would be a simple explanation for no power.
If the breaker hasn't flipped then simply checking that the outlet can power some other device will rule out the outlet or an outlet level "breaker" reset if it has one of those reset buttons on the outlet.

After that it comes down to something at the smoker level. Wiring issue, top controller died, or lower circuit board died, are options at that point if the MES won't power on AND the breaker and outlet are working fine.

We are getting in the ballpark of locating the issue. Not many more options to troubleshoot and one of them will tell us what is going wrong :D

 

[jchad]

Thanks for the detailed info!

The ground wire grounds at the heating element. So if replacing the heating element, there is often a screw there that secures the ground wire.
The ground wire often is sandwiched between the heating element plate and some metal on the smoker and it's kind of a pain lining up the ground wire's round connector to match the hole so the screw can go through it all when fastening the heating element to the MES. chopsaw posted a pic very recently of the ground wire and how to easily align it when putting in a heating element. These pics:
View attachment 703710
View attachment 703711

I would imagine that if the ground was not fastened back or something wild has happened that your breaker may have flipped at the breaker box. If not getting any power to the MES at all now that would be a simple thing to check.

With the safety switch bypassed and the heating element WITH the ground properly fastened in place then a flipped breaker would be a simple explanation for no power.
If the breaker hasn't flipped then simply checking that the outlet can power some other device will rule out the outlet or an outlet level "breaker" reset if it has one of those reset buttons on the outlet.

After that it comes down to something at the smoker level. Wiring issue, top controller died, or lower circuit board died, are options at that point if the MES won't power on AND the breaker and outlet are working fine.

We are getting in the ballpark of locating the issue. Not many more options to troubleshoot and one of them will tell us what is going wrong :D

Thank you!

I’ve always got power to the smoker. Always been able to set the time and temp, which leads me to believe it isn’t an external issue.

Did you see my most recent update with pictures of the lower circuit board and their components? Of all the areas I’ve looked at, they were the most concerning. Wanted to grab your thoughts on those.

 

[jchad]

Thanks for the detailed info!

The ground wire grounds at the heating element. So if replacing the heating element, there is often a screw there that secures the ground wire.
The ground wire often is sandwiched between the heating element plate and some metal on the smoker and it's kind of a pain lining up the ground wire's round connector to match the hole so the screw can go through it all when fastening the heating element to the MES. chopsaw posted a pic very recently of the ground wire and how to easily align it when putting in a heating element. These pics:
View attachment 703710
View attachment 703711

I would imagine that if the ground was not fastened back or something wild has happened that your breaker may have flipped at the breaker box. If not getting any power to the MES at all now that would be a simple thing to check.

With the safety switch bypassed and the heating element WITH the ground properly fastened in place then a flipped breaker would be a simple explanation for no power.
If the breaker hasn't flipped then simply checking that the outlet can power some other device will rule out the outlet or an outlet level "breaker" reset if it has one of those reset buttons on the outlet.

After that it comes down to something at the smoker level. Wiring issue, top controller died, or lower circuit board died, are options at that point if the MES won't power on AND the breaker and outlet are working fine.

We are getting in the ballpark of locating the issue. Not many more options to troubleshoot and one of them will tell us what is going wrong :D

After more digging, scraping, cleaning, wiring, I think I found the culprit. The black box labeled “HONGFA” on the bottom bored is melted at the N.O. Terminal, which corresponds to the dark spot on the green side of the board.

Now I feel like my options are very limited.

1) I found the “HONGFA” part online, is soldering an option? I have some experience with smaller electronics, would it be the same?
2) replace the board, but I can’t find the board for this model number. I found similar ones, but mine has 3 spots for the small wire connectors and are labeled CON1 (5 wire) CON2 (2 wire) & CON3 (3 wire). Others I’ve seen only have 1 & 2.
3) or do the rewire, but what I’ve read about that feels out of my wheelhouse.

Any thoughts here? Thank you!

 

[tallbm]

View attachment 703722
After more digging, scraping, cleaning, wiring, I think I found the culprit. The black box labeled “HONGFA” on the bottom bored is melted at the N.O. Terminal, which corresponds to the dark spot on the green side of the board.

Now I feel like my options are very limited.

1) I found the “HONGFA” part online, is soldering an option? I have some experience with smaller electronics, would it be the same?
2) replace the board, but I can’t find the board for this model number. I found similar ones, but mine has 3 spots for the small wire connectors and are labeled CON1 (5 wire) CON2 (2 wire) & CON3 (3 wire). Others I’ve seen only have 1 & 2.
3) or do the rewire, but what I’ve read about that feels out of my wheelhouse.

Any thoughts here? Thank you!

Good find! Yeah this looks like it is probably the culprit.
Answers to your options:

1. You could try and find the part and put it on the board but that is more of a guess and gamble and hope that other parts are not damaged too much.
2. Amazon started having lower boards available for MES recently. I'm not sure you would find one for your model though, or how interchangable they may be.
3. The rewire and using an Auber PID controller is pretty much always an amazing option. You are also in luck that your rewire is even simpler than many because you have "clips" that will connect the sets of wires easily Here is the clip to the red braided wires from your own pictures:
   
   
   
   
   Here is another image from another post going on right now where the guy can rewire with the same style of clips in his MES. His image shows both clips that will work together. It's easy this way because the little bit of guess work is eliminated because the clips will only mate when you go smooth black and white wires clip to the red braided clip. Here is the image from that thread. It's as simple as disconnect clips and mate black/white smooth clip to red braided clip and rewire is done!
   
   
   
   
   Now with it rewired you just do a test but DO NOT leave it unattended. You just plug in the MES to the outlet and the heating element will begin to heat up uncontrolled with the high temp safety limit switch still in the mix. Now it is ready to run with an Auber PID.
   
   I wouldn't suggest someone build their own PID if they have never done it before and do not care for the project of it all. Getting into building 1 costs more in tools, materials, and time than buying the lowest level Auber PID that would work:
   

   Multi Purpose Controller [WS-1510ELPM] - $159.95 : Auber Instruments, Inc., Temperature control solutions for home and industry

   Auber Instruments, Inc. Multi Purpose Controller [WS-1510ELPM] - The WS-1510ELPM is a versatile temperature controller to have in your home. It can be used for various applications such as Sous Vide cooking, controlling an electric smoker, making yogurt, dough proofing, controlling the...

   www.auberins.com
   
   Also if rewiring and using a PID (and replacing cheap crappy Masterbuilt wire connectors with hi temp ones that don't rot so fast) then you can keep it going through anything short of a lighting strike and your performance on that smoker will be 50x better than the stock MES. It's really a whole different and better machine :D
   

 

[dsk]

While I highly recommend converting to PID control, you could try replacing the Hongfa relay by desoldering and soldering in a new one. You should probably replace this component...

While you are at it, because it doesn't look so good. Fortunately, another user posted up a picture of this board a few days ago in this thread: https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/reviving-a-mes-30-pid.328520/

From that, we can see it is a 20ohm 5% resistor, probably 1 watt size. Your board might, or might not work when you are done, but this would be the least expensive way to get back running.

The other user is converting his smoker to PID control. Maybe his board is for sale.