Newbie MES 40 owner ?

[Mofatguy]

OK, just got a black friday special MES 40" from Sam's Club. Never used a real electric smoker, just own a Big Chief smoker which is only good for cold smoking, sausages, fish, etc.

With the MES, do you leave the top vent open all the time you are smoking and cooking? Or are there times when you want to shut it down?

Thanks. Can't wait to get this thing put together and get started learning to cook on it.

 

[Winterrider]

I leave open all the time to let moisture and stale smoke escape. Congrats...

 

[creek bottom]

I leave open all the time to let moisture and stale smoke escape. Congrats...

Ditto this... I leave the vent on my MES 30 open when cooking. You definitely want to let the moisture out or you won't get a very good bark...

 

[Mofatguy]

Is this with all type of cooking? Sausages, bologna, polish, etc. Pulled pork, beef, chicken, turkey etc?

 

[smokerjim]

I leave mine open all the time no matter what i'm smoking.

 

[cmayna]

Agree with the above. Don't be surprised if you get to thinking about a Amaze-N pellet tray or tube in your MES to eliminate having to refresh the chip tray all the time. Lots of threads about this mod plus others.

 

[Mofatguy]

Agree with the above. Don't be surprised if you get to thinking about a Amaze-N pellet tray or tube in your MES to eliminate having to refresh the chip tray all the time. Lots of threads about this mod plus others.

Already have both a tray and tube frim my big chief smoker!

 

[mosparky]

The only time I close mine is maybe in the case of a 10 hr cook that only applies smoke for the first 6 hrs. In that case I wait til the chips burn out then close the vent to conserve the heat. Other than that, Only when I shut it down to keep bugs and vermin out.

 

[ol curt]

Already have both a tray and tube frim my big chief smoker!

I don’t understand the desire for this. I didn’t particularly care for the smoke from pellets. Heck, why wouldn’t a person just purchase a pellet smoker if they were going to add pellets?

 

[Mofatguy]

I don’t understand the desire for this. I didn’t particularly care for the smoke from pellets. Heck, why wouldn’t a person just purchase a pellet smoker if they were going to add pellets?

Some like Chevy Some like Ford. Get my drift? Whatever you like is fine.

 

[ol curt]

Some like Chevy Some like Ford. Get my drift? Whatever you like is fine.

Sure, I get that. I just wouldn’t buy a new Ford and then stick a Chevy intake on it.

 

[Cattoon]

I can’t speak for everyone but I wanted an electric smoker to do sausages and longer smokes without having to adjust the charcoal/wood smoker that I have. I used chips with my electric and that works pretty well but still required loading chips about hourly. I read about the pellet trays and bought an amazen tray to try. I like it for the consistency and the fact that I can generate smoke for as long as I like. The pellet smokers are interesting but I don’t have any desire to own one. I can’t tell a difference in the taste of the smoke from pellets vs wood.

 

[ol curt]

I can’t speak for everyone but I wanted an electric smoker to do sausages and longer smokes without having to adjust the charcoal/wood smoker that I have. I used chips with my electric and that works pretty well but still required loading chips about hourly. I read about the pellet trays and bought an amazen tray to try. I like it for the consistency and the fact that I can generate smoke for as long as I like. The pellet smokers are interesting but I don’t have any desire to own one. I can’t tell a difference in the taste of the smoke from pellets vs wood.

Makes sense