Hi all, I have a MES 130P from Lowes, it has the top heat element for searing, Am I able to do a rewire with this option? Is there a PID out there to control that element also? Not sure if I can post links but here is the model.
Thank you
https://www.lowes.com/pd/masterbuil...MIj4HX5qTr4QIVDY7ICh1jyQ7kEAQYAiABEgKZxPD_BwE
Hi there and welcome!
So there are a few answers to your question and you will want to consider what behavior your are looking for in the end.
Answer 1: Yes you should be able to do the rewire the same way as in my post BUT you would lose the use of the broiling element if you did it the exact way as in my post.
Answer 2: I don't think there is a PID designed specifically for dealing with the broiler element separately. In theory you could just run 2 PIDs, one for each element but I imagine running 2 PIDs in this fashion would be a chaotic tuning nightmare hahaha.
More Answers and Approaches: You should be able to do a number of different things with your wiring to work with the 2 elements
but it all depends on the behavior you want.
dr k has mentioned an approach for you to take that would work.
Another approach I would pitch would be to rewire so that both elements run off a single PID. This means that when you set your smoker to 250F that the PID would feed power to both elements at the same time and you would get both top and bottom heat!!!
Then when you want to broil you just up the PID temp to like 500F (or whatever the supported broil temp is) and you get a broil from both directions!!!
The downside (if there is one) is that you get two elements always working at the same time vs being able to control each element individually. Also I'm not sure what the Amperage pull would be when running both elements this way but there is a chance that this approach simply pulls too much power and flips the breaker or needs NOTHING but the smoker running on that breaker.
Another approach I'll mention is to wire up the broiler and the smoker cooking element up so that the PID feeds power to them BUT also wire in a switch to direct which element will get the heat. This approach means you only ever run 1 element at a time but when you want to broil you just flip the switch to direct power to the broiler element and you then increase the PID temp for broiling and now the top element is running to broil while the bottom element cuts off.
Really your wiring configuration options are not limited by anything but what the smoker temp limits are and what the Amperage pull is for the breaker the smoker is running on.
I like all the flexibility you have to work with and I think you can probably get the behavior you are looking for!!! Let me know if this makes any sense and gives you some ideas on what is possible.
