Hello everyone. My name's Sam and I'm Southern Indiana born and raised. Just recently turned 34 and work in a GM metal foundry. I'm here today because I just recently started my smoking journey and I need a little help.
A few weeks ago I seen an ad for the Masterbuilt 35B on Amazon. Looked like it would make a nice early birthday gift and a good first smoker so I bought one. Made the rookie mistake of just looking at the ratings without reading any of the reviews and the bigger mistake of not checking out other masterbuilt's and seeing an all digital model for $50 more. Hindsight is always 20/20 I suppose...
Anyway, my first time using it was a bit cumbersome and I immediately could see the flaws which is how I originally found this forum. I found a thread from 2018 of another user's modding journey and I've been slowly copying their mods. Better thermostat, adding a damper, increasing airflow. Only thing I'm waiting for is the pellet tray as I want to use up what's left of my chips first. The one thing I haven't found a solution for is that analog dial.
Dialing in the proper temperature on that thing has been a nightmare and I can't fathom why they didn't stick numbers on it. Since this is supposed to be "Baby's First Smoker" I don't want to slap a digital controller on it that costs almost what I paid for the unit or I'll have spent as much to modify this thing as just buying an all digital. With that being the case, does anyone know if there's an aftermarket analog controller that has numbers printed on it? If not has anyone ever actually charted the temperatures on the dial themselves? Thanks in advance!
A few weeks ago I seen an ad for the Masterbuilt 35B on Amazon. Looked like it would make a nice early birthday gift and a good first smoker so I bought one. Made the rookie mistake of just looking at the ratings without reading any of the reviews and the bigger mistake of not checking out other masterbuilt's and seeing an all digital model for $50 more. Hindsight is always 20/20 I suppose...
Anyway, my first time using it was a bit cumbersome and I immediately could see the flaws which is how I originally found this forum. I found a thread from 2018 of another user's modding journey and I've been slowly copying their mods. Better thermostat, adding a damper, increasing airflow. Only thing I'm waiting for is the pellet tray as I want to use up what's left of my chips first. The one thing I haven't found a solution for is that analog dial.
Dialing in the proper temperature on that thing has been a nightmare and I can't fathom why they didn't stick numbers on it. Since this is supposed to be "Baby's First Smoker" I don't want to slap a digital controller on it that costs almost what I paid for the unit or I'll have spent as much to modify this thing as just buying an all digital. With that being the case, does anyone know if there's an aftermarket analog controller that has numbers printed on it? If not has anyone ever actually charted the temperatures on the dial themselves? Thanks in advance!
