Newbie Smoker......Help please !!

[freelance]

 

[WV_Crusader]

Need help with what? Just see pictures, sorry my friend.

 

[freelance]

Brand new out of the box MasterBuilt MES 130B. Seasoned according to manual 2 days ago. First smoking session was today. 2.5 lbs of beef striploin. Trying to give you as much info as possible.

Outdoor temp was 5 F
Preheated smoker to 250F with water pan filled with room temperature water (and onion and garlic cloves)
Reduced heat to 225F
2.5 hrs smoking resulted in slighly over-cooked (well done) strip loin however still tasted excellent !!
Added wood chips twice, plenty of smoke, wood chips were burnt and reduced to ash. Top vent was closed during smoking
Only opened the door once during entire process as wood chips load externally from the side.
No extension cord used

Here's the questions:

When the temp was reduced to 225F, the red light indicating the heating element was working turned off, and other than a half second flash occassionally, it never came back on. The digital read-out never went higher than 170F after that. If I increased the temperature setting to above 250F the red light would come back on and the read-out would IMMEDIATELY show roughly 240 - 245F as it climbed. Reduce the temp back to 225F and the light would go out and IMMEDIATELY the readout would say 160-170 F. Is this normal ?? How am I to read the temp accurately ?? Is the red light and/or element supposed to go out once the pre-desired temperature is reached and if so why would the digital readout say 160F if it really was 225F inside the box ?? Is there something I'm missing ? Is the outside frigid ambient air playing tricks with sensor ??

Don't know what I'm doing but it sure tasted good even if it was well done !!
Please help your newbie smoker !!

TIA

 

[old sarge]

I don't have a MB smoker. Try the search feature for the MB smoker model you have; also try searching for MB controller.. Seems some models work fine out of the box while others require a replacement controller with some folks opting to install a PID. Wish I could help more.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Invest in a good digital probe thermometer. Pull the meat at desired internal temperature. Never trust the read out of any cooker and never cook for time. Always cook to internal temperature (IT)

 

[WV_Crusader]

I fully agree, there are many companies suck as Inkbird who is a sponsor here and ThermoWorks who I already bought before I knew about inkbird...sorry inkbird!

 

[freelance]

So does that mean my digital thermometer /readout is faulty right out of the box ?? If I had stuck with my original plan of 2 hrs it would have been perfect but because of the weird readout and the fact I opened the door I added time. When I finally used the meat probe it was clear it was beyond time to take it out. Lesson learned.........use probe often.

 

[WV_Crusader]

It is know to happen, as much as it really makes you mad. But the onboard meat probes as only worth a toothpick to me. I run probes that are calibrated to within less than 1F. But I only cook for my wife and kids so I’m just a little obsessed with perfection too lol

 

[freelance]

So does that mean my digital thermometer /readout is faulty right out of the box ?? If I had stuck with my original plan of 2 hrs it would have been perfect but because of the weird readout and the fact I opened the door I added time. When I finally used the meat probe it was clear it was beyond time to take it out. Lesson learned.........use probe often.

How about the outside ambient temp being so low.....5F ?? Would that have any influence on the digital readout ?? It certainly didn't have any effect on the temp in the box.

 

[bill1]

what

... wood chips were burnt and reduced to ash. Top vent was closed during smoking...

The part about the vent certainly caught my eye. Any device that heats things needs to be vented, otherwise it's a bomb. Thankfully your cooker is vented at the bottom so that's not a concern here. And if you just want an oven, that's all you need for an opening to the outside world.
However if you want to smoke, you need air (and smoke) to flow, in the natural way heated air wants to flow, namely in the rising direction.
I think a lot of your observations might have been different if you opened your top vent a bit and encouraged the smoke to flow up and out.
And ideally you want your chips to be reduced to largely charcoal-like leftovers...that's a sign you're getting the most (and best) smoke out of them. When you've burned them all the way down to nothing but ash, that may save you a little electric power but it's not what most electric smoker people do.

 

[SmokinEdge]

So does that mean my digital thermometer /readout is faulty right out of the box ?? If I had stuck with my original plan of 2 hrs it would have been perfect but because of the weird readout and the fact I opened the door I added time. When I finally used the meat probe it was clear it was beyond time to take it out. Lesson learned.........use probe often.

Yes, that said, first learn your pit. This takes time and a lot of meat not so perfect. In time you will know what to do with all the various cuts and varieties of meat. To get there use a little gut instinct and a lot of probing with a hand held thermometer. You can buy all the fancy WiFi type therms and all, but over time I have learned that for me, learning my pit through repetition and using a hand held, no wires and no Bluetooth, thermometer I get very predictable results.

 

[WV_Crusader]

I missed the part of the vent closed, good catch!

 

[freelance]

what

The part about the vent certainly caught my eye. Any device that heats things needs to be vented, otherwise it's a bomb. Thankfully your cooker is vented at the bottom so that's not a concern here. And if you just want an oven, that's all you need for an opening to the outside world.
However if you want to smoke, you need air (and smoke) to flow, in the natural way heated air wants to flow, namely in the rising direction.
I think a lot of your observations might have been different if you opened your top vent a bit and encouraged the smoke to flow up and out.

That's excellent information.....thanks. For some reason I thought vent closed meant more smoke in the box.

 

[chef jimmyj]

All good info above.
Yes, the light indicates the coil is heating. When a sensor on the back wall, sees the programed temp, 225, the coil and light goes off. The controller is not a precise instrument. What ever the setpoint is, you will see 20° swings either direction.
Don't trust the meat probe and set your temp to a known accurate therm with the probe on the same rack as the meat. DON'T CHASE THE TEMP. Set the MES to the desired temp. Tweak to get desired temp, at meat level and be patient. We want the Average temperature to be what you want. Say 225 with 20 degree swing is Normal!

Leave the top vent open while making smoke. You want convection and fresh smoke contacting the meat.

The MES is Tight and holds moisture, most of us don't add water to the pan. Foil wrap to keep it clean. Some guys add Sand as a Heat Sink to moderate those temp swings.

Feeding Chips every 30 minutes gets old on a 16 hour overnight smoke. Get an A-MAZE-N AMNPS Maze or AMNTS Expandable Pellet Tube Smoke Generator. Load with pellets get it smoking, put it in the MES and get out of the weather! Also look at the Mailbox Mod, very popular.

Get some Chicken to play with until you get your smoker dialed in. Good luck and Welcome to SMF...JJ