MES 30 first smoke with q view

[njfoses]

Rubbed and ready for the smoker.

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• njfoses
• Oct 15, 2012

Just before taking them out.

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• njfoses
• Oct 15, 2012

Smoked some split chicken breast's tonight for my first smoke on the mes 30.  I brined for a little over an hour with the slaughterhouse brine reduced for the smaller pieces vs whole bird.  Used Bubba Chix poultry rub i found on this site with a few modifications.  Used one row of the amnps with half maple and half cherry.  Took about 90 min to reach an internal temp of 165 at about 250 deg according to my mav 732.  The mes was set at 275 but topped out at about 272 according to the controller and the element was on most of the smoke which seemed a bit odd as it was about 60 deg and little wind during the smoke.  The mes averaged about 20 deg higher on the controller vs the mav.  I preheated for about an hour and the mav read 320 deg vs 275 on the mes.  Once the food was in it seemed to flip the other way in regards to temps.  I was a bit disappointed the mes would only get to 250 with food vs 320 without food.  Chicken was good but a bit dry.

 

[deltadude]

How was the skin of your chicken, rubbery or crisp?

Personally I haven't had good luck using the MES for chicken, unless I use it only to get smoke smoke in the bird, cooking for an 60-90 min with smoke at approx 180º then finish off on the bbq grill.  (I have only done this a couple of times.)

Instead I use my weber kettle for whole chickens (Indirect method), it cooks them perfectly with the right amount of smoke, taste as good as any store bought cook roasted chicken.  The skin is perfect and the meat falls off the bone.

 

[njfoses]

The skin was a bit crispy in a few spots but was a bit rubbery overall.  My biggest disappointment is that the temp would only get to about 250 or so with food vs 330 without food.  Next time i may spread the breast's out over 2 shelves instead of cramming them a bit on one shelf to see if that makes a difference.

 

[smokinhusker]

Looks pretty good though! 

Chicken pieces I do like DeltaDude - smoke it then grill it.

How did you get the MES up to 330*? Mine has been about that hot but never stays there since the highest temp it will go to is 275*

 

[njfoses]

Looks pretty good though! 

Chicken pieces I do like DeltaDude - smoke it then grill it.

How did you get the MES up to 330*? Mine has been about that hot but never stays there since the highest temp it will go to is 275*

I would have finished them on the grill to crisp them up a bit but it started to rain and i didnt feel like messing with the grill in the rain.  I had the smoker at the front of my garage so the rain was a non issue for the smoker.  When i preheat empty for an hour or so my mav which is accurate according to the boiling water test reads abour 325 deg or so.  Yesterday was the first time i loaded food in and the element seemed to be on just about the whole time and it maxed around 250 according to my mav.

 

[deltadude]

Your MES 30 has an 800 watt element, my much older MES 40 has a 800 watt element, I have done heat calcs on my MES 40 and 800 watts is plenty of heat to achieve 300º, it should be the same for yours as well, even with a load in it.  Since I mostly smoke at 225-230º I can't honestly say if mine will achieve 300º with say a 8 lb pork butt,  but I know I have walked out and found it at 270º.  My preheat when set to 270º is always around 300º.

You said the element was mostly ON, you might want to do a test, take a pot of water (1/2 or 1 gallon) let it sit at room temp for an hour, then put it in your MES  (bottom shelf) and see how long it takes to get to boiling.  Preheat for 2 hours.

[font=Arial, Arial, Helvetica]Water density is 8.3 lb/gal.  To raise 1 gallon of water (1 x 8.3 = 8.3 lbs) from 70 to 212 deg F in 1 hour you will need 8.3 x 142(note142= 212-70º) = 1,178.6 BTUs.[/font]

You should be able to calc the btus, then convert to watts.  Your MES at 800 watts puts out 2729.6 BTUs, however there are some inefficiencies.

Actually Masterbuilt should have some tests along these lines, thus an email with results should give some indication if your MES is defective.

GL.

 

[njfoses]

Your MES 30 has an 800 watt element, my much older MES 40 has a 800 watt element, I have done heat calcs on my MES 40 and 800 watts is plenty of heat to achieve 300º, it should be the same for yours as well, even with a load in it.  Since I mostly smoke at 225-230º I can't honestly say if mine will achieve 300º with say a 8 lb pork butt,  but I know I have walked out and found it at 270º.  My preheat when set to 270º is always around 300º.

You said the element was mostly ON, you might want to do a test, take a pot of water (1/2 or 1 gallon) let it sit at room temp for an hour, then put it in your MES  (bottom shelf) and see how long it takes to get to boiling.  Preheat for 2 hours.

[font=Arial, Arial, Helvetica]Water density is 8.3 lb/gal.  To raise 1 gallon of water (1 x 8.3 = 8.3 lbs) from 70 to 212 deg F in 1 hour you will need 8.3 x 142(note142= 212-70º) = 1,178.6 BTUs.[/font]

You should be able to calc the btus, then convert to watts.  Your MES at 800 watts puts out 2729.6 BTUs, however there are some inefficiencies.

Actually Masterbuilt should have some tests along these lines, thus an email with results should give some indication if your MES is defective.

GL.

I appreciate the detailed scientific reply.  When i was loading the chicken i had to keep the door open much longer than i anticipated.  Lesson learned, to have the meat probe in the meat before hand and then just plug the probe into the unit vs fussing with it when loading the meat.  I also had to open the door 20 min after loading due to the amnps not staying lit.  Im thinking these factors combined with a total smoke of only 90 min is the reason the element was on a majority of the time.  Im not super concerned since i wont be smoking above 250 with anything besides chicken and it seems many members here with the mes 30 can only achieve 250-260 on their mav when the mes is set to 275.  If i perform the test you mentioned i will post the results.