MES 20070610

[walta]

 
One question - when I added the chips to the smoker through the loader about 3 hours into the seasoning at 275deg with vent about 1/2 way closed, about 15-20 mins later I got some "blow back" through the loader access port where some whisps of smoke first came out of the access port, sucked back in and then I think the chips "flashed over" and blew the loader tray about 2 inches back out of the access port.  This happened 3 times in about 5 min (only blew the loader tray back once though).  I notced that the temperature climbed to 300deg - before it was only getting up to about mid 280's with the thermostart set at 275.  It was just like a scene out of the movie "Backdraft".  Looked and sounded pretty cool, but was wondering if this was normal?

Had you soaked the chips of wood in water before to put then in the smoker?

Walta

 

[Bearcarver]

 
So my purchase is now complete:  MES 0910, AMNPS, Maverk ET-732 Thermometer, Cover and 40lbs Perfict Mix smoking pellets.  Took delivery of smoker today and just got done seasoning it.  Ready to do a first smoke later in the week.  The biggest next decision is the first meat to smoke - salmon, pork butt or ribs - decisions, decisions

.

One question - when I added the chips to the smoker through the loader about 3 hours into the seasoning at 275deg with vent about 1/2 way closed, about 15-20 mins later I got some "blow back" through the loader access port where some whisps of smoke first came out of the access port, sucked back in and then I think the chips "flashed over" and blew the loader tray about 2 inches back out of the access port.  This happened 3 times in about 5 min (only blew the loader tray back once though).  I notced that the temperature climbed to 300deg - before it was only getting up to about mid 280's with the thermostart set at 275.  It was just like a scene out of the movie "Backdraft".  Looked and sounded pretty cool, but was wondering if this was normal?

Normally that only happens when somebody has a rack covered in foil or filled too full with meat to allow heat to flow through the smoker properly.

So since you were only seasoning your new smoker, I would assume that wasn't the cause, so I'm thinking maybe your heat was a lot higher than 300°. Did you have another therm in your smoker, like a digital wireless Maverick? If not there could be a problem with your controller & it could be actually a lot higher temp in your smoker than you think.

Bear

 

[hawk2000x]

Had another thermometer (mechanicle) in the smoker that was through the top vent that was positioned about 3rd rack from the bottom. Temperature was tracking pretty close to MES. The only time Temperature spiked to 300+ was about 15 - 20min after adding chips - otherwise temp was between 270 and about 285 with MES set temp at 275. Chips were dry and not soaked.

 

[dr k]

Had another thermometer (mechanicle) in the smoker that was through the top vent that was positioned about 3rd rack from the bottom. Temperature was tracking pretty close to MES. The only time Temperature spiked to 300+ was about 15 - 20min after adding chips - otherwise temp was between 270 and about 285 with MES set temp at 275. Chips were dry and not soaked.

I wonder what temp the flat button safety sensor gets tripped at? Also, once the circuit opens on the safety sensor does it reset itself or does it have to be replaced. If the max the Mes controller goes to is 275*F, you may be pushing the limit on the safety sensor when your reliable therm is reading over 300*F.
-Kurt

 

[daricksta]

 
So my purchase is now complete:  MES 0910, AMNPS, Maverk ET-732 Thermometer, Cover and 40lbs Perfict Mix smoking pellets.  Took delivery of smoker today and just got done seasoning it.  Ready to do a first smoke later in the week.  The biggest next decision is the first meat to smoke - salmon, pork butt or ribs - decisions, decisions

.

One question - when I added the chips to the smoker through the loader about 3 hours into the seasoning at 275deg with vent about 1/2 way closed, about 15-20 mins later I got some "blow back" through the loader access port where some whisps of smoke first came out of the access port, sucked back in and then I think the chips "flashed over" and blew the loader tray about 2 inches back out of the access port.  This happened 3 times in about 5 min (only blew the loader tray back once though).  I notced that the temperature climbed to 300deg - before it was only getting up to about mid 280's with the thermostart set at 275.  It was just like a scene out of the movie "Backdraft".  Looked and sounded pretty cool, but was wondering if this was normal?

I haven't used wood chips in my MES in years but when I did this never happened. But I keep the top vent wide open. Way do you keep it 1/2 way closed? I don't think that's what caused the blow back but I'm no expert. Call Masterbuilt and ask them about it. Option B would be to PM Todd Johnson. Bearcarver, or Chef JimmyJ since they're the MES 30 0910 experts.

 

[Bearcarver]

I wonder what temp the flat button safety sensor gets tripped at? Also, once the circuit opens on the safety sensor does it reset itself or does it have to be replaced. If the max the Mes controller goes to is 275*F, you may be pushing the limit on the safety sensor when your reliable therm is reading over 300*F.
-Kurt

That's a good question, but I would say it's quite a bit over 300° because many go over 300° on any start-up set at 275°. Some as much as 350° without tripping.

Bear

 

[Bearcarver]

Had another thermometer (mechanicle) in the smoker that was through the top vent that was positioned about 3rd rack from the bottom. Temperature was tracking pretty close to MES. The only time Temperature spiked to 300+ was about 15 - 20min after adding chips - otherwise temp was between 270 and about 285 with MES set temp at 275. Chips were dry and not soaked.

Thanks for replying to my question.

In that case I would say it was just from the fact that your chip dumper was pulled out, allowing more air flow than normal, and the chips were igniting pretty good.

Like I said above the only time I ever had blow-back was when I blocked the air flow above the heating element, but I never used my MES Gen #1 with my Dumper out of place.

They warn us not to leave the door open, because the extra air flow could ignite the chips, so I would imagine that same thing can happen when the dumper is pulled out partly or fully. 

This is my theory anyway.

Bear

 

[hawk2000x]

Blow back happened 20 - 30 min after chips added with chip tray fully seated. Used the chips as only part of the seasoning process. Vent / damper half way closed just to retain more smoke during seasoning

 

[Bearcarver]

Blow back happened 20 - 30 min after chips added with chip tray fully seated. Used the chips as only part of the seasoning process. Vent / damper half way closed just to retain more smoke during seasoning

Maybe I've been confused by your terms.

The chip tray is inside the smoker, above the element (Looks like a little drawer).

The Chip Dumper slides in and out on the right side & dumps your chips when you rotate it 180°.

Are you saying both your Chip tray and the Chip dumper were in place when this Puffing happened?

Bear

 

[hank2000]

That is what it sounds like. What would make that happen?

 

[siege]

In my gen 1, I use either the chip loader, OR the amazn peller smoker, but not both at the same time. I always keep the top draft control wide open. To increase draft, and promote better air flow, you can add a chimney. I just use an empty can that sits on top of the vent. If you don't count the cost of the beans, it's a free mod :-)

 

[hawk2000x]

 
Maybe I've been confused by your terms.

The chip tray is inside the smoker, above the element (Looks like a little drawer).

The Chip Dumper slides in and out on the right side & dumps your chips when you rotate it 180°.

Are you saying both your Chip tray and the Chip dumper were in place when this Puffing happened?

Bear

Sorry Bear - meant to say Chip Dumper.  Yes both (tray and dumper) were in place when the puffing happened. On one occasion - the dumper was "blown out" about 2 inches from its fully seated positon about 20-25mins after adding chips into the tray.  Thats when I noticed that temperature had spiked to 300 (maybe more - since thermometer on MES maxes out at 300).  I did not have the secondary mechanical thermometer in place at the time - but as previously stated - the mechanical and MES thermometers tracked pretty close.  I only added one dump of chips for the seasoning process, so don't know if it will do it every time I dump in more chips.  I will likely be using the AMNPS instead of the chip tray when I smoke, so I'm not too concerned about it.   I may fire it up again today in a test run to see if it happens again when I dump in more chips - just for curiosity's sake.  Thanks for your help.

 

[brickguy221]

 
Sorry Bear - meant to say Chip Dumper.  Yes both (tray and dumper) were in place when the puffing happened. On one occasion - the dumper was "blown out" about 2 inches from its fully seated positon about 20-25mins after adding chips into the tray.  Thats when I noticed that temperature had spiked to 300 (maybe more - since thermometer on MES maxes out at 300).  I did not have the secondary mechanical thermometer in place at the time - but as previously stated - the mechanical and MES thermometers tracked pretty close.  I only added one dump of chips for the seasoning process, so don't know if it will do it every time I dump in more chips.  I will likely be using the AMNPS instead of the chip tray when I smoke, so I'm not too concerned about it.   I may fire it up again today in a test run to see if it happens again when I dump in more chips - just for curiosity's sake.  Thanks for your help.

This interests me because my former 40" Gen. 2.0 blew my chip dumper out a couple of inches or so 2-3 different  times also when smoking something.

 

[hoity toit]

 
Stick with the Masterbuilt digital electric smokers. The temp controllers work differently and better than with the analogs. I think the interior designs are better too. You want to stick with Generation 1 or Generation 2.5 models. After you do some research just post a question with model numbers you're interested in and you'll get feedback on which are the best choices.

I own a MES 30 Generation 1, what I call the basic black model, no bells & whistles just a really good little smoker.

the little black one cooks a lot better than the 40 in my opinion, and I have both, both have their places on my patio.

 

[Bearcarver]

 
Sorry Bear - meant to say Chip Dumper.  Yes both (tray and dumper) were in place when the puffing happened. On one occasion - the dumper was "blown out" about 2 inches from its fully seated positon about 20-25mins after adding chips into the tray.  Thats when I noticed that temperature had spiked to 300 (maybe more - since thermometer on MES maxes out at 300).  I did not have the secondary mechanical thermometer in place at the time - but as previously stated - the mechanical and MES thermometers tracked pretty close.  I only added one dump of chips for the seasoning process, so don't know if it will do it every time I dump in more chips.  I will likely be using the AMNPS instead of the chip tray when I smoke, so I'm not too concerned about it.   I may fire it up again today in a test run to see if it happens again when I dump in more chips - just for curiosity's sake.  Thanks for your help.

That's odd that it did that while the door was closed and the dumper was in place.

However you're doing the right things----Experiment for curiosity's sake, and when you want to smoke, get that AMNPS going.

Bear

 

[daricksta]

 
the little black one cooks a lot better than the 40 in my opinion, and I have both, both have their places on my patio.

You've got the best of both worlds. If my bank account allowed it I'd have the MES 40 as well.

 

[hawk2000x]

 
Sorry Bear - meant to say Chip Dumper.  Yes both (tray and dumper) were in place when the puffing happened. On one occasion - the dumper was "blown out" about 2 inches from its fully seated positon about 20-25mins after adding chips into the tray.  Thats when I noticed that temperature had spiked to 300 (maybe more - since thermometer on MES maxes out at 300).  I did not have the secondary mechanical thermometer in place at the time - but as previously stated - the mechanical and MES thermometers tracked pretty close.  I only added one dump of chips for the seasoning process, so don't know if it will do it every time I dump in more chips.  I will likely be using the AMNPS instead of the chip tray when I smoke, so I'm not too concerned about it.   I may fire it up again today in a test run to see if it happens again when I dump in more chips - just for curiosity's sake.   Thanks for your help.

I did another "seasoning" run yesterday to see if I could get the puffing and dumper to blow out again - I did not get it to happen !  I'm thinking that when this initially happened, the conditions inside and outside the smoker were just right to cause a backdraft and flash-over condition of the chips which resulted in the puffing and the dumper to blow out on the one occassion.  The conditions outside were a little cooler and more windy on the 2nd run.  As I said before, I'm not too worried about the puffing and blow out as I plan on using the AMNPS instead of the chip tray when I smoke.

The 2nd run also gave me the chance to use the Maverick ET-732 thermometers (which I did not have for the initial seasoning) to see if there was a side to side temperature variation in the smoker and to see how close the MES indicated temperature was to the ET-732 thermometers.  At the 2nd rack down from the top - the side to side temperature was within 3 deg F on the ET-732 probes and the MES was 10-15 deg F lower than the ET-732 probes at lower smoker temps (below 150), but seemed to track pretty close at higher smoker temps (above 200).

I also played around with the AMNPS to make sure I could keep it lit and used the AMNPS inside the MES without the MES "on" to see what the temperature rise is to see if I could use it for cold smoking.  Lit and placed AMNPS inside the MES (only had pellets in the 1st row of AMNPS).  No problem keeping it lit.  The starting temperature was 65 deg F (ET-732 probes) and final temp was 145 deg F after 3.5 hours.  Fairly linear temperature rise during the test.  Of course, actual temps with meat on the racks may very from the test.  After the 3.5 hours I opened the smoker - I only had about 1 inch of unburnt pellets left (so it looks like I will get about 10+ hours of smoke off a full tray of pellets).  Will need to look into a mailbox mod as seen in other posts.

Anyway - enough with the testing !!!  I've got an 8.8 lb Pork Shoulder seasoned up in the fridge and will get to smoking it 1st thing in the morning using Bearcarver's Boston Butt directions (great instructions by the way).  Wish me luck.

 

[Bearcarver]

 
I did another "seasoning" run yesterday to see if I could get the puffing and dumper to blow out again - I did not get it to happen !  I'm thinking that when this initially happened, the conditions inside and outside the smoker were just right to cause a backdraft and flash-over condition of the chips which resulted in the puffing and the dumper to blow out on the one occassion.  The conditions outside were a little cooler and more windy on the 2nd run.  As I said before, I'm not too worried about the puffing and blow out as I plan on using the AMNPS instead of the chip tray when I smoke.

The 2nd run also gave me the chance to use the Maverick ET-732 thermometers (which I did not have for the initial seasoning) to see if there was a side to side temperature variation in the smoker and to see how close the MES indicated temperature was to the ET-732 thermometers.  At the 2nd rack down from the top - the side to side temperature was within 3 deg F on the ET-732 probes and the MES was 10-15 deg F lower than the ET-732 probes at lower smoker temps (below 150), but seemed to track pretty close at higher smoker temps (above 200).

I also played around with the AMNPS to make sure I could keep it lit and used the AMNPS inside the MES without the MES "on" to see what the temperature rise is to see if I could use it for cold smoking.  Lit and placed AMNPS inside the MES (only had pellets in the 1st row of AMNPS).  No problem keeping it lit.  The starting temperature was 65 deg F (ET-732 probes) and final temp was 145 deg F after 3.5 hours.  Fairly linear temperature rise during the test.  Of course, actual temps with meat on the racks may very from the test.  After the 3.5 hours I opened the smoker - I only had about 1 inch of unburnt pellets left (so it looks like I will get about 10+ hours of smoke off a full tray of pellets).  Will need to look into a mailbox mod as seen in other posts.

Anyway - enough with the testing !!!  I've got an 8.8 lb Pork Shoulder seasoned up in the fridge and will get to smoking it 1st thing in the morning using Bearcarver's Boston Butt directions (great instructions by the way).  Wish me luck.

Sounds like your AMNPS and your MES work good together. If that's the case, which it seems to be, there's no real reason to use a mailbox. I only recommend that to people who can't keep their AMNPS going without one. Don't fix what isn't broken. You'll thank me later.

Bear

 

[daricksta]

 
I did another "seasoning" run yesterday to see if I could get the puffing and dumper to blow out again - I did not get it to happen !  I'm thinking that when this initially happened, the conditions inside and outside the smoker were just right to cause a backdraft and flash-over condition of the chips which resulted in the puffing and the dumper to blow out on the one occassion.  The conditions outside were a little cooler and more windy on the 2nd run.  As I said before, I'm not too worried about the puffing and blow out as I plan on using the AMNPS instead of the chip tray when I smoke.

The 2nd run also gave me the chance to use the Maverick ET-732 thermometers (which I did not have for the initial seasoning) to see if there was a side to side temperature variation in the smoker and to see how close the MES indicated temperature was to the ET-732 thermometers.  At the 2nd rack down from the top - the side to side temperature was within 3 deg F on the ET-732 probes and the MES was 10-15 deg F lower than the ET-732 probes at lower smoker temps (below 150), but seemed to track pretty close at higher smoker temps (above 200).

I also played around with the AMNPS to make sure I could keep it lit and used the AMNPS inside the MES without the MES "on" to see what the temperature rise is to see if I could use it for cold smoking.  Lit and placed AMNPS inside the MES (only had pellets in the 1st row of AMNPS).  No problem keeping it lit.  The starting temperature was 65 deg F (ET-732 probes) and final temp was 145 deg F after 3.5 hours.  Fairly linear temperature rise during the test.  Of course, actual temps with meat on the racks may very from the test.  After the 3.5 hours I opened the smoker - I only had about 1 inch of unburnt pellets left (so it looks like I will get about 10+ hours of smoke off a full tray of pellets).  Will need to look into a mailbox mod as seen in other posts.

Anyway - enough with the testing !!!  I've got an 8.8 lb Pork Shoulder seasoned up in the fridge and will get to smoking it 1st thing in the morning using Bearcarver's Boston Butt directions (great instructions by the way).  Wish me luck.

Haven't read all your or Bear's posts in this thread. The AMNPS works great for cold smoking in my MES 30 Gen 1. In fact, tomorrow or Sunday I'll be cold smoking sockeye salmon fillets, cheeses, and salt. However, the only time I have problems keeping the AMNPS lit is during cold smokes. But, it produces so much smoke despite that everything still turns out great. I've cold smoked 3 times with the AMNPS. I prefer having it than buying some outside attachment I'd have to position next to my MES.