MES Mailbox Mod! for use with AMNPS

[johnmeyer]

You are using a plastic mailbox??? That is a really bad idea, and a good way to get poisoned. Plastic will release fumes that will mix with the smoke.

As for "self-igniting" I assume you mean that it began to flame. It obviously is ignited, if it is smoking. Flames usually only happen when there is a LOT of air flow, meaning that there is a real breeze going over the pellets.

BTW, there is absolutely nothing magic about a mailbox, and there are far better enclosures. By better, I mean enclosures that are not painted, not plated (no zinc) and not containing plastic. Also, while the AMNPS width matches the width of a small mailbox, there is actually no advantage to that. The only thing that matters is that the AMNPS is able to fit inside.

I used a popcorn tin, but there are lots of other alternatives. If you end up building another enclosure, I encourage you to use something other than a mailbox, and to look for something that has a LOT more surface area than a mailbox. More surface area will condense more creosote, something that is really important to remove prior to the smoke going into the MES.

Finally, I am currently trying to find out what the optimal amount of air might be, not only for getting good flavor from the pellets, but also to increase the air turnover in the MES. I just ate some ribs from a professional smoker, using an offset smoker, and the taste was infinitely better than what I am able to get with my MES. No matter whether I use the chip tray (the original smoking source for an MES); the AMNPS inside the MES; or the AMNPS in the external smoking mod, the taste doesn't hold a candle to what I tasted yesterday.

I once again am thinking of giving away my MES. It is clearly incapable of producing flavor that is anywhere near what you get with a more professional setup.

 

[patinlouisiana]

You are using a plastic mailbox??? That is a really bad idea, and a good way to get poisoned. Plastic will release fumes that will mix with the smoke.

As for "self-igniting" I assume you mean that it began to flame. It obviously is ignited, if it is smoking. Flames usually only happen when there is a LOT of air flow, meaning that there is a real breeze going over the pellets.

BTW, there is absolutely nothing magic about a mailbox, and there are far better enclosures. By better, I mean enclosures that are not painted, not plated (no zinc) and not containing plastic. Also, while the AMNPS width matches the width of a small mailbox, there is actually no advantage to that. The only thing that matters is that the AMNPS is able to fit inside.

I used a popcorn tin, but there are lots of other alternatives. If you end up building another enclosure, I encourage you to use something other than a mailbox, and to look for something that has a LOT more surface area than a mailbox. More surface area will condense more creosote, something that is really important to remove prior to the smoke going into the MES.

Only the latch was plastic. Mailbox is metal.

 

[johnmeyer]

Only the latch was plastic. Mailbox is metal.

If it were me, I'd remove the plastic latch.

 

[daveomak]

With the smoker temp at 240, 2 things are happening.... The fat on the meat is melting and that makes the smoke stick to the outside of the meat... 2nd, the temp in the smoker is causing a tremendous chimney effect causing an extreme draft....
Try running the smoker at 140 ish until you have enough smoke on the meat... Then crank the temp up to finish the cook....
When I finish adding smoke and crank the temp up, I close the exhaust about 90%... That does 2 things... Slows or stops the evaporative cooling effect and speeds up the cooking due to lack of air flow/wind inside the smoker... AND reduces the bark/case hardening....
That should stop your pellets from bursting into flame also...

 

[daveomak]

I removed all the plastic from my MB....

 

[patinlouisiana]

I removed all the plastic from my MB....
View attachment 405261

My plastic is all gone now!

 

[tallbm]

PS flame up melted all the plastic

Sometimes if you open the door of the smoker it causes a suction/rush of air and will cause a flame up then or a few minutes from then.
I generally try not to open my smoker once it is going until the end BUT Labor Day weekend I did 2 Chickens, 2 racks of St Loius ribs, and a Pork belly and caused 2 flame ups opening the door tending to 3 different meats since they didn't all come off at the same time.
Having a high temp alarm lets me know when I have a flame up since the temp in the smoker rises quite a bit.
It's part of the package and this is why you cannot just leave any smoker completely unattended. You gotta be able to detect an issue and get to it within 10 seconds or you may be calling the fire station :)

It seems the flame up solved your plastic parts issue for you, so no worries of much melting in the future :D

 

[patinlouisiana]

BTW, there is absolutely nothing magic about a mailbox, and there are far better enclosures. By better, I mean enclosures that are not painted, not plated (no zinc) and not containing plastic. Also, while the AMNPS width matches the width of a small mailbox, there is actually no advantage to that. The only thing that matters is that the AMNPS is able to fit inside.

I used a popcorn tin, but there are lots of other alternatives. If you end up building another enclosure, I encourage you to use something other than a mailbox, and to look for something that has a LOT more surface area than a mailbox. More surface area will condense more creosote, something that is really important to remove prior to the smoke going into the MES.

I have been thinking about what you said and I think I might make me a "Smoke Box". I'm thinking about a box about 12" wide x 12" deep with vertical baffles alternating being attached to the top & the bottom making the smoke travel about 2 or 3 feet over & under the baffles before entering the MES opening. Do you think this will reduce the residual creosote from making it's way into the cooking chamber?

 

[johnmeyer]

I have been thinking about what you said and I think I might make me a "Smoke Box". I'm thinking about a box about 12" wide x 12" deep with vertical baffles alternating being attached to the top & the bottom making the smoke travel about 2 or 3 feet over & under the baffles before entering the MES opening. Do you think this will reduce the residual creosote from making it's way into the cooking chamber?

I think it sounds like a great idea.

If you read the posts in this forum about various people's "mods" for the MES, you'll find that many of them add design features that will help reduce the creosote that enters the food chamber. The three ways I've seen this done are:

• Add huge lengths of conduit between the smoke generator and the smoker.
• Use a really large enclosure to hold the smoke generator (AMNPS). This adds more surface area.
• Add some sort of filtration material, like the baffles you are considering.

I did two of these things in my design, which I posted about in this thread (I apologize for linking to this again, because I know some people have seen this before):

Mailbox (Popcorn) Mod (with a small twist)

My popcorn tin has a very large surface area compared to a mailbox. I added a metal mesh filter in the conduit between the popcorn can and the MES, which does indeed fill up with gunk.

I was planning on adding a few feet of conduit, but bought the wrong stuff (lined with plastic), so I couldn't use it. I then did dozens of smokes with my contraption, without the extra conduit, and realized that the long conduit was probably not going to be effective, because even with the 2-3 feet of conduit I have, the smoke deposition falls off rapidly after the first foot or so.

Having said that, there was one person in the forum who added something like twenty feet of conduit. However, the reason I think this is probably overkill is that the creosote gets taken out of the smoke via condensation. Thus there has to be a temperature difference between the metal surface and the hot smoke. However, as the smoke cools, such as when it passes through a metal conduit, it quickly gets close to ambient temperature. I would guess that very little gunk gets deposited after the first few feet of conduit.

You might want to add a little more conduit than what I show in the pictures in the post I linked to, but I don't know if you need more than 2-3 feet, especially if your baffle idea works.

 

[daveomak]

I have about 3' of dryer duct, (flexible aluminum) and no discernable creosote on the meats I smoke...
Yesterdays bacon after 2 full trays of pellet dust... about 9 hours of smoke..





The rigid all aluminum type....

 

[patinlouisiana]

Here is my conceptual sketch of my "Smoke Box"

 

[dr k]

I found with hot smoking if I made the mailbox vent long, just two feet, I wasn't getting enough smoke flavor with 12 hours of continuous Amnps smoke. Creosote condenses as high as 250°F. So instantly it sticks to any exterior smoke generating set up. With stick burners and burning 100% wood in a separate grill and shoveling 650-750° chard wood, embers and coals into the firebox burns up creosote that harbors favorable organic aromatic compounds that are released as alcohols, phenols and syringols that favorably impact the smell and taste of the smoke to the nose as you eat it. This is drastically different than smouldering chip/pellets in/outside an electric smoker so some of us want to condense it out before the product chamber. So a short run hot smoking is just fine for condensing and a longer run for cold smoking. If you generate smoke your generating creosote and if you don't have all ash and you made charcoal then you didn't burn up as much creosote as you should because the lack of air to make more heat to burn up creosote. There have been more issues with amnps burning pellets with a top center vent mailbox mod vs. A linear mailbox standard mod or a vertical mod.




Plugged all the bottom mounting holes/corners with magnets and rubber goop glue around them on the outside of the magnet half inch circles, except the two holes closest to the door and made a third pencil sized hole in the middle, one for each row. Plenty of air comes in at the bottom door hinge and flows below/over amnps with lighting hole above it's corresponding pencil hole. It all burns to ash. Yours may have been a vacuum cleaner stoking it up when the burn got just below the vent opening sucking air from underneath the amnps. Mabe cap the top center mailbox hole and make one on the top rear and play with it, elevating the amnps and let that surface area work for you to condense incompletely burnt volitiles before totally redesigning. I don't think your baffles need to be so deep 10". If they overlapped 1/2" it may breathe better with the same results. Play with your current set up linearly since it's there.

 

[raselkirk]

Hi All,

I got here from another post. Since my Masterbuilt cold-smoke box burned up, it was recommended to do the mailbox mod. Now that it's done, I have a couple Q's I didn't see answered here in this mega-thread.

I've removed (but saved) the chip tray and loader. I see some have also removed the element cover, is there a downside to drips on a hot element? I'm gonna leave mine on for now, but maybe down the road?

My smoke tube is due tomorrow and I'll do a U-bolt on one end. I'm thinking the "cant" should be upward from the burning end toward the flue?

Here are a couple pix of the finished product, the box is bolted down to lag studs and all internal holes and seams are taped so only the door allows air in. I can adjust airflow by taping holes if need be. I had to "jack up" both the smoker and the mailbox, one for the flue bends to fit and the other so the door would open properly. Also found the door to be binding and hard to close, fixed that by grinding off the hinge rivets and replacing them with 10-24 machine screws, washers, and double nuts (not tightened).

Russ

 

[plume-o-smoke]

Good timing, I just lit my AMNTS tube and shut the door on my mailbox. I'm curious how yours will work. Do report back. Most people put the exhaust tube on the back near the top where it's nice and flat to cut a hole. If yours doesn't leak too much from the top vent, it seems like it should work great. It also fits *much* nicer next to your MES than mine does.

As far as the tilt of the tube, I'd use the tilt to adjust the burn rate, if you need to. I figure the lowest burn rate is when you have the 'up' side the part you light and aiming at the back of the box. Heat gets carried away from the unburned pellets, slower burn. Opposite to get a faster burn. If it still goes out, drill more air holes. I had to drill quite a few holes in the front of the mailbox to get sufficient airflow, similar to yours. That said, out of convenience or habit I toss the tube in hot side pointing to the door and it sits horizontal on top of my now retired AMNPS maze that won't stay lit at high altitude (Colorado). Stays lit a looooong time, white ash the next morning w/ a very few black pieces scattered.

 

[chopsaw]

Russ , nice work on the mailbox . Looks good .

My smoke tube is due tomorrow and I'll do a U-bolt on one end. I'm thinking the "cant" should be upward from the burning end toward the flue?

The high end on mine is towards the door .

 

[raselkirk]

Russ , nice work on the mailbox . Looks good .


The high end on mine is towards the door .

So, do you light the end towards the door? I'm thinking I'd load the tube, place it in the box, light the closest (door) end, get it burning good with the door open, then close the door and let 'er smoke. If that's doable, it would save handling a hot tube.

Do you pack the tube, or is it supposed to be loose? Also, I've got a bunch of chips left over from the MES box, can I add some throughout the tube w/o it going out?

Russ

 

[chopsaw]

Do you pack the tube, or is it supposed to be loose? Also, I've got a bunch of chips left over from the MES box, can I add some throughout the tube w/o it going out?

I put the pellets in and leave them a bit back from the open end . I don't pack them . I do add chips in with the pellets , but maybe you should try without first , so you know how it's gonna work .

So, do you light the end towards the door?

Light the open end , like this .

I put that end towards the door .
I do light it right in the mailbox sometimes .

 

[raselkirk]

Well, that was a flaming success, literally! The test burn went great, unattended smoke for 4 1/2 hrs. No fuss, no muss, had a pretty good scare though. I always leave my propane torch bottle unscrewed so there's no chance of leakage. So I'm on my knees (will be 67 in 4 weeks), tighten the bottle, light the torch with my striker, start roasting the pellets, and - whoof! Huge ball of flame rolls back in my face. I think,, WTF! did they soak these pellets in some kind of accelerant? I pull the torch out and the fireball comes with it - nope, not the pellets at all, but the torch. Tossed it on the ground, got the hose and put it out. Checked everything and it all seems good, so glove up and try it again. Same result. Apparently the packing around the valve is completely gone. Lucky just a small blister on my thumb and planning for a new torch...

Russ

 

[Bearcarver]

Well, that was a flaming success, literally! The test burn went great, unattended smoke for 4 1/2 hrs. No fuss, no muss, had a pretty good scare though. I always leave my propane torch bottle unscrewed so there's no chance of leakage. So I'm on my knees (will be 67 in 4 weeks), tighten the bottle, light the torch with my striker, start roasting the pellets, and - whoof! Huge ball of flame rolls back in my face. I think,, WTF! did they soak these pellets in some kind of accelerant? I pull the torch out and the fireball comes with it - nope, not the pellets at all, but the torch. Tossed it on the ground, got the hose and put it out. Checked everything and it all seems good, so glove up and try it again. Same result. Apparently the packing around the valve is completely gone. Lucky just a small blister on my thumb and planning for a new torch...

Russ

Could be from screwing it & unscrewing it between every cook.
I read where they recommend not taking the nozzle off the tank at all, and that's what I've been doing for 10 years. Never had any problems & they're in my unheated garage all Winter & Summer.

Bear

 

[raselkirk]

Could be from screwing it & unscrewing it between every cook.
I read where they recommend not taking the nozzle off the tank at all, and that's what I've been doing for 10 years. Never had any problems & they're in my unheated garage all Winter & Summer.

Bear

Hmmm, never heard that before! This torch was pretty old, prolly why it leaked all my gas out between uses. A new one should be good for my lifetime...

Russ