MES 30" electric model#

[geerock]

Mole
The exhaust goes directly into the hole left when you unbolt the stock exhaust vent. No cutting.

 

[themole]

Geerock, mine is not the new model, it's 2011 model. Mine exhaust out the top right. I'm just thinking that if flow is better out the left as yours does, I'll block the existing exhaust and punch a hole where yours is.
 

 

[geerock]

Your model has good flow. And its a good design. I had the older 40 for almost three years and loved it. Element went so I got the newer model. All kinds of changes....most of them bad.
But look around on the forum. There are a few mods you can do to make it better.

 

[themole]

geerock, thanks for your patient advice. It seems as though I overwhelmed myself with information about these units, causing confusion on my behalf. I will do the exhaust stack mod for more pull through the box. I have so much to learn about this smoker. Next step is to break it in, then I will be gone for the weekend. Gonna take my grandson to Disney for his 6th birthday. That, is much more important to me than my new smoker.
 

 

[pc farmer]

Have fun a disney and worry about smoker when you get back. Priorities.

 

[themole]

CFarmer, thanks for the reinforcement. No pleasure of mine will come before my family. Especially, my grandbabies. Priorities set!

Life has been good to me, but I couldn't have imagined how good until my four grandbabies came along. I believe my children would tell you, I've been a good daddy, but I'm a very good Granddaddy. Life experiences, introspection and wisdom  make this so.

Again, preciate the reinforcement!

 

[geerock]

Damned right....forget about the smoker and get a hold of some memories that you and the grandson will remember forever. You never know if the natural order of things will get turned around on you and that adventure you put off until next month can never happen. I have my grand daughter but her father (my son) is already gone. So grab life by the neck and wring everything you can out of it. I was ready to ramble on, but 'nuff said.

 

[themole]

geerock, first, I can't imagine loosing a child. I'm truly sorry for your lose. Doesn't matter how old they are, they are still our babies. My youngest is 30, he was a stem winder for about twelve years.

All he knew was Z71 pickups and all nighters in the boonies, nothing really major, he just refused to get serious about his future.. He couldn't get enough of it...until he got swept off his feet by a little cowgirl type he met at the U of F. They married and gave me my youngest Granddaughter. He's been nothing but what his mother and I hoped he would be ( a good daddy & husband to his wife). I'm really proud of him.

My daughter never gave us a moments trouble, she was wise beyond her years and gave us our first three grand babies... So, we will load up tomorrow afternoon after we eat, two grandma's & two grandpa's, two sets of parents of the grand babies and drive the two hours to Orlando to Animal Kingdom for my 6 year olds birthday. This ole grandad will just grin and bear it, he doesn't care for the place. Like his son, he would rather be out in the boonies, where things are real.

Back on topic, I got the smoker cleaned and seasoned this afternoon. I washed her down with liquid Dawn real good (Dawn leaves no residue) and sponge rinsed it, dried it down.

I don't know what the Chinese use for coating the bright work on the inside is, but it smelled like what I think whale fat would smell like. It had fishy smell to me. Anyway the liquid Dawn cut it off.

I just stuck the new flue piping right over the exhaust damper temporally. Also stuck a flue cap on it. Over all it's about ten inches high.

Another thing I observed is the amount of heat at the base of the flue pipe, where it comes out of the top of the cabinet. It's hot! Of course the box was operating at 275 + deg. The controller case is only a couple of inches away from the exhaust port. Anyway I felt the side of the base of the controller and it was cool. There was no signs of heat danger with the new flue pipe in place.

Kinda got me to think, without the pipe it would allow the hot smoke to wonder aimlessly and could heat the controller case more than it was designed to take over the time it takes to smoke a butt or a brisket.

The hickory smoke about drove me out of my mind, knowing it was just air cooking in that cabinet. Everything went well, about two hours in, it got a little hot, the smoke went from TBS to grey. The breeze had picked up to + five mph so I choked her down with the damper a little and TBS came back to see me.

I didn't follow procedure and kept chips burning the entire three hours. Thing had the prettiest plume of blue smoke coming from it, and smelled so good, I saw no harm in letting it have it. It shut down like it was programmed to do, went through cool down. I inspected the cabinet once it had cooled. The inside had a nice honey gold hue to it and smelled of hickory. I'm thinkin that's a good thing.
 

 

[geerock]

Themole
Thanks for the kind thoughts.

As for your mes, sounds like a good start to what will be some good smokes in the future. Teach those little ones about bbq and have them cook for the "old man" when they're ready.