MES 800 upgrade to 1200 & ADD 800??

[rvrivalkc]

I have a couple of questionss

1. Has anyone upgraded an 800w unit to the 1200w  AND installed the 800w unit to left of

chip box. Of course this would be on a seperate 110v input.

This could be controller via just on/off, a thermostat control OR

question 2.

Second heating element controlled by PID controller if offset is more than 'x' degrees.

Thanks for you input.

 

[deltadude]

That answer to your question is in this thread which documents all MES Mods..

However I have no clue why you would want more than 1200 watts, the cabinet metal with too much heat will start to buckle.

Plus go to google and search for heat calculator that coverts whats to btu, and can size the BTU's necessary to maintain Xº, you will find that 800 watts in the 40" is very adequate, 1200 watts is like over kill,  2000 watts well if you like your meat charred blackened, that should do it.

I have an older 40" with 800 watt element, when my wiring connection / connector on element finally fails, I intend to replace all the wiring with heavier gauge, replace the 800 element with a new 800, but add a secondary 300 or 400 watt element, it would all be controlled by PID.  The idea is the 2nd element would only kick on when the MES temp drops below 15º of set temp, and then would cycle off when the temp gets within 5º as the 800 watt can easily overcome the 5º. 

I have been told that simply using the PID with 1200 wattt would would achieve the same thing, so am researching that too.

 

[ryanhoelzer]

I didn't realize that if it wasn't in the mod thread that no one had ever done it..