I’ve been wanting to get into smoking sausage and the Bradley that I have has smoked nothing but fish for years (http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/265678/opinions-on-fish-and-meat-in-the-same-box) so I was looking for another smoker that would fit into my setup. It looked like a 30” MES would fit the bill for about $140 so I got one. I use a PID controller so I modified the MES by cutting out the OEM controller and connecting the PID directly to the heating element. While there are several ways to do this I wanted to do it at the site of the element connections behind the 6-screw plate on the back. I needed a big electrical box to cover that hole and a normal 4” square didn’t work so I got a 4x6x3” on Amazon for about $9 () and cut out the backside and drilled 6 holes to attach it. The OEM power cord is rated for 221*F so I planned on using it with the new electrical box. I cut the high temp leads that attached to the element and butt-spliced them to the power cord. Completed, I did the initial 3-hour burn-in at 275* but watched the temperature inside the electrical box. At 1 hr it was 113*F and at 3 hr it was 113*F. Ambient temp was 75ish. This is quite a bit lower than I anticipated so my heat concerns are gone.
So if you have a PID this mod. can be done very inexpensively and it works great.
So if you have a PID this mod. can be done very inexpensively and it works great.