Don't get me wrong by the title. I like the MES. The 30 and the 40in. What I don't care for is a company that puts out units that have on going issues. Even with good reviews, bad ones still hurt a company no matter what. Bottom line. Shows how much pride in their units they have as a whole. Now this is on the electric ones. Not gas as I don't own the gas versions. Now my MES30 is awesome. No issues so far. Going on 6 years and still strong. Now my newer version the MES40 Sportsman Elite. This is a different story. Being in this site for many years. I have read the horror stories of other people's units. Always thanking god my unit is not showing any signs of issues as others here have had. Well things have changed. I got my 40in last year during the early spring. Did all my testing on it figuring out what temp/shelf position actual/average. Things were going good. Unit working good. No signs of issues. Then one afternoon I was smoking some meat during a storm. The start of the issue began that day. My unit was running good. After a couple hours of running my Fireboard started alerting me of my temp in the unit. I thought my probe was wrong. The fireboard was saying that my MES was at 375. I thought no way can it be that high. It has to be the probe. So I went and looked in on it. Sure as heck. It was now up to 380. The heater was stuck on. I grabbed the plug and pulled it out. Waited a few and plugged it in and reset everything. Finished with no more issues. Next 2 smokes. No issues at all. Ok. This was a fluke. So I thought. Then I was smoking in it again. Had the fireboard going everything going good. And then out of the blue. My Fireboard started going off again for too high of heat. Ran out there and watched as the heater never turned off. Setpoint was 220 and the unit went as high as 285 before I unplugged it and waited. Set it back up and no other issues. Next smoke. No issues. At this time I'm watching it more closely every time I run it. So now this last time. I was doing my pork butt. Everything was going good. 12 hours into it and still ok. Then the fireboard goes off alerting me of my temp inside the unit. Run out to it and again its not turning off the heater element. Do the same thing and back up running finishing off the butt. All I can think of is I Got A Bum Unit. So after thinking about it long and hard. I looked at the issues others have had dealing with customer service and still having problems. If a company keeps putting out units that have known issues and they are not doing anything to correct it. That shows how much they care for improvements in finding and fixing common problems with them. The CEO and shareholders need to get some pride and prove their units are just as good as a $1200 unit made by a company that does use good parts and listen to their customers. So now I wait. I ordered my new PID, new rollout switch and the stainless steel connectors. Have a roll of 12 gauge High Heat wire already. I guess I could have done like a lot of others have done and called customer service. But would I ever trusted this unit again? Heck no. Last thing I need is to burn down my garage. So for piece of mind. I went with a mod. Sure I spent close to another $180 bucks on an unit that is still considered new. But in my eyes and mind. I am making a good unit even better. My new PID is much better then what Masterbuilt could ever put in their units. Adding in a better rollout switch then what the unit has. Knowing that if it does overheat. It WILL shut down.
It's just sad. I love the brand. They just need to improve. I would rather spend a little more knowing everything is made in the USA. Then seeing it say,
Made In C-H-I-N-A on the parts.
And at this point. I would like to thank the people who have put all the needed information on getting the parts in threads in the site. This is what makes this place so damn good. And even Jeff sees the need for improvements and he listens to his people and makes adjustments as needed. The bigger companies need to look at the smaller ones and see how the real world works. Customer care, pride in your company. Its not all about the profit to be made.
Rob
MI
It's just sad. I love the brand. They just need to improve. I would rather spend a little more knowing everything is made in the USA. Then seeing it say,
Made In C-H-I-N-A on the parts.
And at this point. I would like to thank the people who have put all the needed information on getting the parts in threads in the site. This is what makes this place so damn good. And even Jeff sees the need for improvements and he listens to his people and makes adjustments as needed. The bigger companies need to look at the smaller ones and see how the real world works. Customer care, pride in your company. Its not all about the profit to be made.
Rob
MI
