MB Electric and salmon

[gt1900]

I purchased a MB20070421 30” electric smoker, mostly for doing salmon. Today was the first day, and I was sorely disappointed in its performance. I couldn’t get it to produce smoke to save my life at 130-140 degrees. Crank it up to 150-160 and instantly got smoke, but that’s much hotter than I like to start my salmon. I bought the MB over the Bradley just to save a little money, but I might be kicking myself as we’ve never had an issue creating smoke with my Dads Bradley at 120-130. Is there anything I can do to get smoke at lower temps with the MB, or should I send it down the road and just get a Bradley?

TIA

 

[BigW.]

Look around here for the "mailbox mod". Or you can try a pellet tube or tray. I do think Bradley makes a great smoker, but the pucks are pricey. You can make the MB work for your needs.

 

[smokerjim]

Unfortunately most mes's wont produce smoke until 180 or 200, as mentioned look into the mailbox mod for cold smoking you wont be disappointed

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

One quick and easy thing you could try for low temp smoke production is to pull the chip loader tube out about an inch or so to improve the air flow.
Other than that, B BigW. and smokerjim have pointed you in the right direction with the mailbox mod and/or pellet tube.

 

[cmayna]

Yes for Mailbox mod which will help your warm Salmon smoke but also in case you want to do some cold lox smoking, cheese smoking, etc.

 

[gt1900]

Could you just use the MB cold smoker attachment for the smoke, and set the smoker for the temps you need, or does the cold smoker only work for cold smoking?

 

[tallbm]

I purchased a MB20070421 30” electric smoker, mostly for doing salmon. Today was the first day, and I was sorely disappointed in its performance. I couldn’t get it to produce smoke to save my life at 130-140 degrees. Crank it up to 150-160 and instantly got smoke, but that’s much hotter than I like to start my salmon. I bought the MB over the Bradley just to save a little money, but I might be kicking myself as we’ve never had an issue creating smoke with my Dads Bradley at 120-130. Is there anything I can do to get smoke at lower temps with the MB, or should I send it down the road and just get a Bradley?

TIA

Hi there and welcome!

I'm right there with the guys on the mailbox mod.

If you don't want to full with that much work just buy a pellet tube and you should be able to put it directly into your MES where it wont get dripped on and it should do the problem since it needs way less oxygen then the pellet trays need.

Having smoke generate independent of heat generation is a game changer. Also 1 bag of pellets used this way will last you forever!

I hope this info helps :)