MES 30 and AMZNP Help!!

[zman99]

 All right I have to come clean......I made a very bone headed mistake. I am using 2 probes t monitor internal temp of smoker. one is the units, which I never really trusted and the other is a maverick which has worked well. when I loaded meat, I set probes in with  metal clip. while I was arranging meat, I must have tugged on the wire. when I opened smoker to foil I noticed the probe shifted and stuck on the underside of the rib. Thats why temps were off.when I set it back in position it jumped high and I had to turn the smoker down from 275. Its reading well now. it reads different than the supplied probe. Im at 250 on the digital and smoker is at 230, sorry for the inconvenience you have all been a big help!

 

[mneeley490]

Ah, I see. Yeah, the most I can comfortably get into mine is 6 half racks. Babybacks, that is. Probably not spares.

 

[daricksta]

 
smoking some ribs on my smoker. First I preheated the smoker for 1/2 hour. @ 225 planning 3-2-1 method. I then loaded smoker with pork ribs as quickly as possible. Ribs been sitting thawed and room temp for at least 2 hours, dry rubbed. I proceeded to light AMZNP in the mailbox. Got her nice and cherry and it is smoking away. It has been an hour and the smoker temp is barely at 198 degrees. I have it set at 240 which has been good to keep box temp around 225-230 on this particular smoker. I am using two separate temp probes.both in different areas in the smoker. Both probes are around the same . not near set temp,but has been climbing since the start but very slowly. My question is this, if the holes in the mailbox happened to be too big could this cause too much fresh air in smoker and cause temps to stay down.? I say this because when I was drilling holes in front of box ,I kinda messed one up so I had to drill it bigger than I wanted. but the AMZNP has never gone out. If this is the cause I can close them up a bit

You've got a MES 30 Gen 1? That's what I have. I cooked two racks of St. Louis ribs a couple of weeks ago with no problem. I don't use a mailbox mod; just stick the AMNPS on the two rods to the left of the wood chip holder. I get around 10 hours of smoke and no real problems with keeping around the set point, although I do get temp fluctuations between the left and right interior sides of the smoker. Those are pretty easy to deal with.

If you only have 1/3 of the pellets left after 90 minutes to 2 hours of smoking then my guess is that there is no much airflow. However, the one time I burned through a tray in two hours or less because the thermostat wasn't working properly since I'd neglected to clean the high temp limit switch (the round, dime-sized sensor on the back wall. You also want to clean the toggle-switch shaped temperature sensor on the right side of the back wall. Many temp problems occur because those two sensors get dirty. But if you're having problems getting the heating element up to your set point, it could be because of the air coming in from the mailbox or it could be a faulty controller or a faulty heating element. But try cleaning the sensors first if you haven't done it yet. They can get pretty grimy after 10 smokes.

 

[zman99]

 
You've got a MES 30 Gen 1? That's what I have. I cooked two racks of St. Louis ribs a couple of weeks ago with no problem. I don't use a mailbox mod; just stick the AMNPS on the two rods to the left of the wood chip holder. I get around 10 hours of smoke and no real problems with keeping around the set point, although I do get temp fluctuations between the left and right interior sides of the smoker. Those are pretty easy to deal with.

If you only have 1/3 of the pellets left after 90 minutes to 2 hours of smoking then my guess is that there is no much airflow. However, the one time I burned through a tray in two hours or less because the thermostat wasn't working properly since I'd neglected to clean the high temp limit switch (the round, dime-sized sensor on the back wall. You also want to clean the toggle-switch shaped temperature sensor on the right side of the back wall. Many temp problems occur because those two sensors get dirty. But if you're having problems getting the heating element up to your set point, it could be because of the air coming in from the mailbox or it could be a faulty controller or a faulty heating element. But try cleaning the sensors first if you haven't done it yet. They can get pretty grimy after 10

did you just leave everything stock? was it necessary to pull the chip loader out a bit? also, did you cover  you're AMZNPS so that drippings don't put out pellets? and lastly, how did you deal with temp fluctuations? I used the mod that Dave used and I have to say that the ribs came out very evenly smoked. they all looked the same without having to move them around. Kudos to Dave for a simple yet effective mod. I only used one row of microwaved pellets. I have read that they should last 4-5 hours which is all I needed because I foiled. I am definitely going to clean that sensor. Maybe the 1200 watt element and wiring job will be in the near future? 

 

[zman99]

One of the things I did today was to make sure my probe was working correctly. So I boiled some water and put the probe in. It sat right at 211 degrees. my other cheapie one stayed right at 207. My question is , should I be able to trust the maverick? Its close enough right? the other one is off by too much ! The one in  the smoker is definitely off. I haven't had any problem with meat being undercooked or overcooked, so I would say its good to go.