MES130B uneven heat inside

[smksignals]

Hi everyone. Just picked up the masterbuilt 130B and tried making ground beef jerky for the first time. All the meat on the right side was more done than the meat on the left side. I’m sure it’s from the element being on the right hand side and the damper being on the top right hand side also.

Any tips on how to create a more even heat inside the smoker? I’ve searched some threads and seen some discrepancies and I’m not positive what to do. Some people say use a ceramic tile, other people say do not do that.

Im thinking maybe put a metal tube inside and redirect the vent from the right hand side over to the left. I did that once on an offset smoker many years ago and it seem to help regulate temp. Anybody here tried anything like that?

Any help is appreciated. Thank, Kurt T.

 

[JLeonard]

Bearcarver is the MES guru. Hopefully he'll wander by and have some input for you!

Bear's "Step by Step" Index

Bear's "Step by Step" Index I made this index, because a lot of guys use my "Step by Steps", and I couldn't get them all in my Signature. Then I'd have to find the one I had that best suited what they were wanting to do. At times it has taken me forever to find one of my Step by Steps that...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Check out this link. . He has lots of info on the MES.
Jim

 

[dr k]

I flipped the element in my Mes 40 since I don't use chips just the pellet maze tray for even heating so it doesnt matter what side the vent is on. With your 30 you don't need to flip. I wish it was in the .middle. So with all the chip housing gone and just the element I put in the bottom rack and an alum disposable baking sheet for a drip pan. I leave 2.5 open grate rung spaces on the left and 1.5 on the right since the loops of the element are now facing left ( hotter.) There is space all around the sheet pan so don't block heat on back wall to the controller sensor. My Gen 1 40 and 30 came right side vent and element as well. Now both sides are within 10 degrees of each other and heat rises to the door and back over your food being the largest space around the pan. It's always rising to the top and cascades back down over your food you can see with the smoke through the window before ultimately heat stacking its way out the vent. You need to move the rising air left out of the corner. You can make a false sealing with a 3" hole cut in the center of a baking sheet fitted to the ceiling so heat leaves the smoker in the center of the ceiling and moves right to exit the vent. I haven't needed to make a false ceiling after flipping the element. Plus I like the probes down the vent vs through door but shouldn't make a difference. I don't like the design of the element overheating the right corner insulation. Lots of pics with the chip housing, trapping heat with chard insulation and burning smell over the years.

 

[smksignals]

Thanks for the detailed note. I figured there’s got to be a way to help regulate the temps inside. I mainly bought this for making jerky, smokin cheese, sausages. Lower temp cooks. It was a little disappointing to see how uneven the jerky turned out.

I have a GMG for larger cooks so I’m not afraid to tear into this and do some mods.

 

[smksignals]

So I dug into my MES130. Your picture above looks like it’s probably the 40 inch. This element looks pretty centered? I definitely can’t flip it. I might figure out some sort of rack system with a tray on top, maybe put some sand in it to help as a damper.

Any other ideas to help with even heat while I have this torn apart I would appreciate it.

 

[tallbm]

Hi everyone. Just picked up the masterbuilt 130B and tried making ground beef jerky for the first time. All the meat on the right side was more done than the meat on the left side. I’m sure it’s from the element being on the right hand side and the damper being on the top right hand side also.

Any tips on how to create a more even heat inside the smoker? I’ve searched some threads and seen some discrepancies and I’m not positive what to do. Some people say use a ceramic tile, other people say do not do that.

Im thinking maybe put a metal tube inside and redirect the vent from the right hand side over to the left. I did that once on an offset smoker many years ago and it seem to help regulate temp. Anybody here tried anything like that?

Any help is appreciated. Thank, Kurt T.

I tried something like that a long time ago. The 1 thing that helped the most was flipping the element over so it was more center aligned. Now the left side of my smoker gets hotter than my right side as the element is more left-center oriented but it was a huge improvement over how right side oriented it is.

Next big improvement was installing an oven convection fan.

Simplest medium-big improvement was buying a half sheet of untreated Beech wood and cutting a rectangle that would sit ON TOP of the smoker racks. When smoking on only 1 or 2 racks (bottom going upward) I slide that in on the lowest possible position and it traps a ton of heat closer to the meat since I am "cutting down" the volume of the smoker space. Really everything travels around the board but the board holds it up nicely so even things out and to speed up cooking by not letting heat and air and smoke escape so easily upward where the meat is not sitting.

In all, I've never had much luck with deflectors and rerouting vents, etc. and I tried a lot of those options and a lot of variations of them.
Any one of the 3 changes above did more then all of the other mods/hacks combined. So if you don't want to try any of the things I mention above then you may just have to live with what you have.

I hope this info helps :)