MWS140 need help temp issue

[jackson808]

I have an MWS 140 electric pellet smoker, after a couple hours it decides to drop temp and I can’t get it back up. It’ll be untouched and approximately after 3 hours it drops to 150-175 range. Wanted to smoke for thanksgiving this year and that’ll be a serious issue. It is about 7 months from time of purchase used maybe 6 times and only started doing this recently.

 

[bill1]

Sure you're not in smoke mode instead of cook mode?

 

[jackson808]

Sure you're not in smoke mode instead of cook mode?

Those two things are separate they can’t go at the same time?
I just moved off an offset smoker where keeping smoke and heat at the same time was simple so maybe that’s what it is I have to smoke then cook

 

[bill1]

It's two different things on your pellet smoker, as on most pellet machines. Some brand new models are eliminating that feature, because it's confusing to so many.

Cook mode thermostatically controls temp to a set point by feeding potentially large amounts of pellet and running fan high for lots of O2. Your pellets provide the most heat (but not smoke) that way. (Some smoke, but mostly fire and heat. It has to do with the chemistry and thermodynamics of wood.) In fact, if you set your Cook mode for temps over 300F, you'll probably detect quite little smoke flavor. Set it low, and you'll get more smoke. But not as much as in....

...Smoke mode...which feeds pellets at a slow rate so they simmer, producing the most smoke. However your temperature will slowly drop that way. With my MB (using stock fan speeds and box insulation, which I have since mod'ed) I could only run in smoke mode for a half hour before the temperature dropped to a point I felt was compromising food safety. So I'd repeatedly set it for 15 minute smoke mode runs. Not a problem if you get distracted, because when the timer runs out it reverts to Cook mode controlling to your set point. When I dont' want to do much baby-sitting, I just set cook mode to 180F of so for several hours, then up it to 260F or so to finish off the meal.

I set my Cook mode time to >10 hours because I don't want it just turning off before the meat is cooked. Instead I use meat thermometers with a remote display to let me know when it's time to pull the meat.

How to set Cook and Smoke modes is all described in the MB manual. Info too on customizing Smoke mode via P-settings too. Hope I've motivated you to hunt yours down (or download another) and read it.

 

[bill1]

Addendum: On most of of these MB pellet machines, there are 3 lighted icons on the top left...
The thunderbolt says the thing is plugged in and powered on.
The S-shaped "ghost" says you're in Smoke mode (see above)
The 3 flames-over-the-grill says you're in Cook mode.

The numeric display toggles between the temperature of the air inside and the time remaining in whatever mode you're in.

Hope this helps.

 

[jackson808]

Addendum: On most of of these MB pellet machines, there are 3 lighted icons on the top left...
The thunderbolt says the thing is plugged in and powered on.
The S-shaped "ghost" says you're in Smoke mode (see above)
The 3 flames-over-the-grill says you're in Cook mode.

The numeric display toggles between the temperature of the air inside and the time remaining in whatever mode you're in.

Hope this helps.

This all was extremely helpful I was under the impression the settings were concurrent so I definitely have to give the manual a read. I read the how to operate but not the appropriate use. So I need to do some research on how to use it properly. I appreciate all your explanations this mb is much different than the offset I used to have.

 

[bill1]

Yeah, offset smokers are last millennium technology. Pellet smokers are only last century.
Most of the pellet machines are slowly upgrading to wifi/bluetooth, somewhat 21st century, but I'm happy with just remote thermometers that are cheap enough you just throw them away if they get flaky. Kinda' hate carrying an expensive cell phone with me anyway during most weekend chores and the whole point of the pellet technology is to allow you to mow the lawn and change the oil while your dinner cooks .