MES 30 Gen 1 Mailbox Mod setup

[Southern_Saint]

Howdy yall, I have been combing through the collective wisdom found here on how to make my MES 30 punch above its weight class. So far I have been able to make some 6/10 bbq but I know it can be better. So, I went through with a few mods, testing, and buying the AMAZEN Maze to hopefully get this thing running well. I followed daveomak 's advice on a lot of this mailbox setup and I am super grateful. I used a 3 inch hole saw and vented the top right corner and sealed the edges with high-temp RTV, should have done it in the middle but hindsight is a killer, and plugged the stock vent with a bolt/nut and lock washer. Also used the hole saw to cut the port in the side of the smoker, in the absence of a tube chip loader, and attached the down-facing elbow there. Tried to make a heat shield out of two cookie sheets but will probably have to get some sheet metal and shape it. I had a cake pan that was "smoke sacrificed" so my wife let me keep it. Filled it with bluestone gravel for heat retention and more even heat deflection, although the chunks are larger, I think I will find some smaller size.

I was having the worst time keeping my "homemade" maze lit or it would just fire all the pellets at once and "white smoke" everything. Sooooo the AMAZEN Maze is honestly far superior and should have not wasted time in the first place. I tested one lane, around the bend, and half way again, and I got about 7 hours of perfect TBS. I nearly cried when I saw it still running at 5 hours with no issues. The "almost" total burn could be because I do not have enough O2 coming to the bottom of the Maze. I repurposed the legs of the smoker as elevation until I can find a substitute.

So here are the issues. As with all MES 30 smoker, there are temperature issues. Below are some numbers that I recorded with my temp probe. The front thermometer on the smoker was reading consistently around 220-230 throughout the smoke. Every time I opened the door to move the temp probe, I left it alone for about 10 mins between checks so that I could get a more precise reading.

Questions: Do you all have any collective wisdom as to how I can solve the 10 degree average temp between the top and middle racks? How can I adjust the hotspots in the cooker? Do you have any thoughts in general about the setup?

Before the rocks/cake pan were added:

middle rack:
Back right: 230
Back left: 290
Front left: 253
Front right: 230

After the rocks/cake pan

Top rack average: 248.5
back right: 261
back left: 244
front left: 250
front right: 239

middle rack average: 258.5
back right: 253
back left: 264
front left: 253
front right: 264

 

[Winterrider]

Have the 40 not the 30 but mine is similar as far as where racks are placed. The closer you get to the element the warmer it is going to be. if doing jerky or such, i always rotate racks . I'm assuming your top vent is fully open? You could play with that a bit but may need to add a stack to maintain a good draw to avoid stale smoke if closing somewhat. Others may have different tricks to share.

Edit: mailbox mod is great so that the door doesn't have to be opened to Check on pellets or dust.

 

[Southern_Saint]

Top vent is fully open 3 inch elbow pipe lol. I dont know that I would rig a vent close on it as the draw is really nice at the moment. I have never done jerky but I have venison that I would like to experiment with so thanks for that info! I never thought to rotate racks. Would you do the same thing for smoking two pork shoulders?

 

[SmokyMose]

Looks like the rock pan helped a little. In my offset the temp at the firebox end runs 20 to 30 degrees higher than the other end, even with baffles. 10 degrees isn't that bad.
Like Winterrider said, you learn to work with it.
Tidy set-up you have going!

 

[Southern_Saint]

Looks like the rock pan helped a little. In my offset the temp at the firebox end runs 20 to 30 degrees higher than the other end, even with baffles. 10 degrees isn't that bad.
Like Winterrider said, you learn to work with it.
Tidy set-up you have going!

Thanks man it's taking me a while to plan everything out. After reading from so many others experiences I felt like I had at least somewhat of a design in my head about what could work. An ideal world I would like to take it completely apart and put high temperature insulation in the walls of it. But ain't nobody got time for that right now. I do think the rock pan helped even it out. And I have to keep it tidy because my wife likes the back porch lol.

 

[smokerjim]

i wouldn't worry at all about 10 degrees, but i still would rotate like mentioned.

 

[Southern_Saint]

i wouldn't worry at all about 10 degrees, but i still would rotate like mentioned.

Are the temperature variations too much from corner to corner though? I will totally be rotating my meat from now on though.

 

[smokerjim]

Are the temperature variations too much from corner to corner though? I will totally be rotating my meat from now on though.

not sure you can do much about it, i think most smokers have hot and cool spots i know my mes 30 does, i just learned to live with it. i've seen people talking about adding a little fan inside maybe that would circulate it better.

 

[Southern_Saint]

not sure you can do much about it, i think most smokers have hot and cool spots i know my mes 30 does, i just learned to live with it. i've seen people talking about adding a little fan inside maybe that would circulate it better.

Never would have thought about adding a fan. Thats an interesting idea. Thanks for confirming the MES 30 has its problems with hot spots. I have not read enough to know if mine was more problematic or not.

 

[daveomak]

5 -10 deg. variation from the average is pretty darn good....
Drill more holes in your smoker... Try adding 4 each 1"-1 1/8" holes in the top of the walls on the side of the smoker... Then plug that 3" hole in the top.... Lay a lid from a tin can on it.... That will distribute the air flow more uniform throughout the smoker...
Add 4 each holes at the bottom of the walls for a uniform air inlet...



I can't tell how you did the rocks for thermal mass and uniform air flow ....
This is what I had in mind...... Drain rock.... about 3 rocks thick....



Looks like a good burn on the pellets...

 

[daveomak]

Love all the information you listed so folks could make an educated guess to help solve your problem.....

 

[Southern_Saint]

Love all the information you listed so folks could make an educated guess to help solve your problem.....

View attachment 490025

A lot of the other MES30 posts I read did not have a lot of quantitative info so I thought I would give as much as I could to help out! I like the idea of the multi holes instead of the larger stack on top. Thankfully the smoker was only $40 from FB marketplace. I can take a better picture after the smoke is over on the rocks. But they are in a cake pan with larger rocks arranged as tightly as possible and smaller gravel to fill in the gaps in between the larger ones. The specific rock type is bluestone which is a sandstone/quartz mix and holds heat really well. I had a driveway covered with it when I was a kid and practiced "walking on coals" in the summertime lol. I will attach some other pics below of what it was looking like this morning when I began my smoke.

I deboned an 8lb pork shoulder and tied it together with butcher twine. Used the suggested recipe for Amazen bbq rub and used a mustard base as binder.

 

[Southern_Saint]

5 -10 deg. variation from the average is pretty darn good....
Drill more holes in your smoker... Try adding 4 each 1"-1 1/8" holes in the top of the walls on the side of the smoker... Then plug that 3" hole in the top.... Lay a lid from a tin can on it.... That will distribute the air flow more uniform throughout the smoker...
Add 4 each holes at the bottom of the walls for a uniform air inlet...

View attachment 490024

I can't tell how you did the rocks for thermal mass and uniform air flow ....
This is what I had in mind...... Drain rock.... about 3 rocks thick....

View attachment 490022

Looks like a good burn on the pellets...

Also, are you putting those rocks in the bottom of the smoker around the heating coil? That looks to be far smarter than what I am doing with the cakepan...