Ok Bradley or Masterbuilt.

[viper1]

Well not convinced yet but leaning that way. Give me a shout when he sales it I may be interested. STill trying to get answers and still thinking. Their both good smokers. I come here and most love them and go their and most live them. I keep watching on people having troubles and both have had their share and both say their fixed now. Cant find anything to completly turn me off on either. So I figure I need to figure how Im going to set it up and see what fits better. Thats why Im asking all the questions. I dont mean to belittle or put down either,I dont know enough about them yet. Shure wish I could see both in action but havnt yet. So if I ask some thing its just comparing.

 

[Bearcarver]

I payed $156.00 for my masterbuild 30 and don't regret the purchase one bit. My friend owns a Bradley and when it is cold out he can add 3 to 4 hours to a comparable smoke in my masterbuilt. 

His Bradley will be up for sale soon if your convinced you need one...he is getting a masterbuilt 40 after watching my 30 in action.

Hmmm, let's think about that for a moment----If it takes 4 hours longer in a Bradley, and you want to use smoke during that time, that means Bradley can sell 12 more of their expensive pucks for that smoke. Kinda makes you wonder if there's a method to their madness?

Bear
 

 

[viper1]

Seems like a good product. I also may  find it to fit my needs. We ussally use a small pan with damp saw  dust and set on burner now. It provides ample smoke for our needs. But we do sausage and sticks mostly. Trying to get away from that so amazn might be the way to go.
 

I used my MES40 with A-Maze-N for a couple of smokes and it did fine. Got A-Maze-N for cold smoking and convenience. Thing Bradley is a bit more money as well for the same size box.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Well its my turn.

I have 3 Bradleys and have ZERO problems. Wood pucks? No biggie cuz i use chips and pellets in them and my AMZN. Customer service at Bradley A+++

MES...POS Customer service Oh just cut the cord off and send it to us. Receive replacement. Ok cool....Hey wait what do ya mean refurbished? WTF

I have has 3 one being SS.

As you can see one makes a good testing platform.

One i cut the heck out of just for the vent to use on my proofer/smoker. I think this was the only good thing from the mes.

And the SS MES is just sitting outside by the garage waiting for me to take the door lock off and scrap pile it.

No Bradleys were harmed in this posting......

 

 

[SmokinAl]

WOW Nepas you are one of the only people I know to have a negative experience with a Masterbuilt & Masterbuilt customer service.

 

[Bearcarver]

Well its my turn.

I have 3 Bradleys and have ZERO problems. Wood pucks? No biggie cuz i use chips and pellets in them and my AMZN. Customer service at Bradley A+++

MES...POS Customer service Oh just cut the cord off and send it to us. Receive replacement. Ok cool....Hey wait what do ya mean refurbished? WTF

I have has 3 one being SS.

As you can see one makes a good testing platform.

One i cut the heck out of just for the vent to use on my proofer/smoker. I think this was the only good thing from the mes.

And the SS MES is just sitting outside by the garage waiting for me to take the door lock off and scrap pile it.

No Bradleys were harmed in this posting......

 

You must have had MES a couple years ago. Their Customer Service used to suck---I agree.

Lately they are only second to Todd & his A-MAZE-N-SMOKER.

It's easy to see that Masterbuilt's customer service is now great, when you look at the hundreds of guys on here who can't believe how good it is.

We aren't all lying---We are just talking about the present day Masterbuilt.

Bear

 

[gotarace]

Hmmm, let's think about that for a moment----If it takes 4 hours longer in a Bradley, and you want to use smoke during that time, that means Bradley can sell 12 more of their expensive pucks for that smoke. Kinda makes you wonder if there's a method to their madness?

Bear
 

You hit the nail right on the head Bear...and the crazy thing is... most of the time these pucks don't come close to completely burning up. Then you have to open the door to remove a half burned pile of pucks from their ash pan during the smoke. This adds to their lack of recovery time to reheat the smoker. Their tiny heating element along with the total lack of insulation in the walls makes smoking in cold weather a nightmare. Every long smoke he has done in cold weather has been finished in his oven... so this 4 hour difference could be much longer if he had the gonads to finish the meat in his smoker. In my humble opinion ...they are weak at best...and it took my buddy quite a while to eat crow and admit it also.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

Yeah mine were like some of the early models. After 3 bad ones i said heck with em and went bradley. As you all know i use my old 4 rack as a cold smoker only, sometimes i hook a vent hose from my Traeger to my 4 rack for super smoke. My 6 rack i use for sausage which has served me well. I have done butts, briskets, fattys, ABT, MoOinks and other things with great success in the 6 rack. 

This is where we are all different with many pros/cons on items. What works good for one guy might not work good for the other guy.

Besides if i get into a smoker jam i always have backups 

So i'm done with mines better than yours blaa blaa blaa. So lets get on with our hobby.....SMOKE ON And post them pics with whatever yer smoker.

 

[djm3801]

Recent MES owner and customer service was great when i called twice. Once for information about the product and then, when I got my new unit, I called and asked if it qualified for the free upgrade (5 minutes to install) and they said yes, free, shipped to my home in 3 days. I do think you have a large contingent of happy MES owners here. I cannot comment about the Bradley. MES works fine with chips I can get from Home Depot or with A-maze-N. I belong to a couple of forums and MES's are well thought of.

 

[Bearcarver]

Yeah mine were like some of the early models. After 3 bad ones i said heck with em and went bradley. As you all know i use my old 4 rack as a cold smoker only, sometimes i hook a vent hose from my Traeger to my 4 rack for super smoke. My 6 rack i use for sausage which has served me well. I have done butts, briskets, fattys, ABT, MoOinks and other things with great success in the 6 rack. 

This is where we are all different with many pros/cons on items. What works good for one guy might not work good for the other guy.

Besides if i get into a smoker jam i always have backups 

So i'm done with mines better than yours blaa blaa blaa. So lets get on with our hobby.....SMOKE ON And post them pics with whatever yer smoker.

Yup, Here's the reason I knew what you meant about the customer service (in the past):

My Son had one of the first MES 30s that didn't smoke at all below 200˚.

I was pizzed, because I had bought it for him for Christmas!

I knew we weren't doing anything wrong, because I already had one, and it worked fine.

I called Masterbuilt, and all I got was a little girl on the phone, reading me stupid things off of a list she had----Extension cord, wet your chips, don't open the door, etc, etc.

I told her I'll call back later, and maybe get someone who knew more. I called back again, and I swear I got the same girl, using a different name. She had the same voice, same bad attitude, and same dumb answers. My son ended up taking that one back to Cabelas, and an MES 40 followed him home. Since that Masterbuilt found out that lack of smoke thing was a design flaw, they got a guy named Darryl to take over customer service, they began sending out FREE retro-fixes, and they have cleaned up their act to the point that causes just about everybody that deals with them to be shocked at how helpful they are.

I almost bought a Bradley, but I didn't want to pay a fortune for pucks, and since I wanted to make things like Briskets in the same one, instead of only sausage, I didn't feel 500 watts would do the job.

Like 99% of MES owners on this forum, I totally love my MES 40 (1200 watt), and my AMNS.

Bear

PS:  This thread was started by a guy who wanted to know which was better, so I don't consider these posts as "mines better than yours blaa blaa blaa".

 

[uhmgood]

i have the MES30 , i love it !! so easy to use , no smoke loss around door like one of the other posters said plus there is an adjustment on the door if you have to tighten it up . love the way you add chips , never have to open door , and when you do it only takes 6 or 8 min to recover

 

[sawzall]

Another happy MES 30 owner here.  I was very happy with it from day 1 even though it has had some trouble getting the smoke rolling sometimes.  I finally received a retro kit through MBTechguy here on the forum as I did have some trouble getting one sent through the usual channels...I live in Canada and was originally told to deal with their Canadian warranty company, Winners.  I got ran around by them for almost a month before they told me they have never heard of the retrofit kit.  The forum rep here helped me out in less than 1/2 an hour.  He sent me a kit right out.  Then I ordered an AMNS and love it even more now!  It smokes consistently, long and the perfect amount of "thin blue smoke" is produced! I gave my old original Bradley away to a buddy who wanted it. If you're looking at a Bradley, Bubba pucks and a Pid, it will add up to quite a bit more than either a 30 or 40 MES and AMNS.  An Auber PID is what, $100 or so on it's own?  The MES units already have the digital controller built in.  The newer models have a remote as well.  They also have a meat probe.  The only thing they won;t do is turn the unit off at a set internal temperature.  It will shut off based on time though, up to 24 hours.

 

[Bearcarver]

Another happy MES 30 owner here.  I was very happy with it from day 1 even though it has had some trouble getting the smoke rolling sometimes.  I finally received a retro kit through MBTechguy here on the forum as I did have some trouble getting one sent through the usual channels...I live in Canada and was originally told to deal with their Canadian warranty company, Winners.  I got ran around by them for almost a month before they told me they have never heard of the retrofit kit.  The forum rep here helped me out in less than 1/2 an hour.  He sent me a kit right out.  Then I ordered an AMNS and love it even more now!  It smokes consistently, long and the perfect amount of "thin blue smoke" is produced! I gave my old original Bradley away to a buddy who wanted it. If you're looking at a Bradley, Bubba pucks and a Pid, it will add up to quite a bit more than either a 30 or 40 MES and AMNS.  An Auber PID is what, $100 or so on it's own?  The MES units already have the digital controller built in.  The newer models have a remote as well.  They also have a meat probe.  The only thing they won;t do is turn the unit off at a set internal temperature.  It will shut off based on time though, up to 24 hours.

This is a great explanatory post you made Sawzall.

I remember that, and I was glad Darryl got you fixed up!

It would be my guess that the last part you mentioned has a reason (for smokers):

If it's gonna shut off at a certain time, a guy using a smoker knows what time to be there.

If it was going to shut off at a certain internal temp, the guy wouldn't know when that would be, so he would have to be there just as much as he would have to be there if he had to shut it off at that IT.

I hope that makes sense to people other than me.

Thanks,

Bear

 

[sawzall]

This is a great explanatory post you made Sawzall.

I remember that, and I was glad Darryl got you fixed up!

It would be my guess that the last part you mentioned has a reason (for smokers):

If it's gonna shut off at a certain time, a guy using a smoker knows what time to be there.

If it was going to shut off at a certain internal temp, the guy wouldn't know when that would be, so he would have to be there just as much as he would have to be there if he had to shut it off at that IT.

I hope that makes sense to people other than me.

Thanks,

Bear

Thanks Bear.  Yeah, you're right about having to be there at the end of a smoke regardless. Your post made perfect sense. 

 

[tjohnson]

Here's my take on customer service......

The internet makes our huge world very intimate.  If a person posts regarding a product, there is a potential for "Thousands" or "Tens of Thousands" of people that are influenced by the post.  If companies don't pay attention to this, things can get out-of-hand pretty quickly.

Whether you buy a Masterbuilt or Bradley, just buy one and get smokin'!

Todd

 

[flyweed]

uh yeah.....what Todd said.....you should have made a decision a week ago, instead of back and forth on this thread, you could have had 3-4 good smokes in by now!!! :)

My wife is exactly like this...she always wants to go to down to go "looking"...I'm like..what the heII.......either you are gonna buy something or you're not...you don't need to drive around and compare at 50 different places....decide what you want, and go buy it, end of story.

Dan

 

[viper1]

While chill down. Bought my smoker back in June 1 this year and had many good smokes. I went with the Obs and auber PID is Really love it!! Not sure on service because I havnt had a reason to call. Great product up my temps are within +-0-1 degree. It really gives me complete control. I also bought a Maverick 732 remote thermometer. Gives me smoker and meat temps in the house or anywhere on my 3 1/2 acres. I installed it in my garage with a chimney. Removed the smoke generator and connected it with a vent pipe. Now no fire to catch grease on fire and it will cold smoke between 70-80 degrees. Can't think of any thing wrong to say. But sorry I didn't get back sooner. But i'm smoking venison sticks and mixing a batch of venison balonga.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[hkeiner]

My one experience with Mastebuilt customer service was very good. My controller went on the blink (stopped working) and they sent out a free replacement controller right away even though it was after my warranty period. The first replacement did not work and so they sent out a second free replacement (apparently they have different versions of controller depending for the wiring colors). The second replacement worked fine and I am a smoking happy guy with my MES40 again.

Just thought I would post a 'positive" comment on Masterbuilt customer service as they earned it in my situation. 

 

[Bearcarver]

My one experience with Mastebuilt customer service was very good. My controller went on the blink (stopped working) and they sent out a free replacement controller right away even though it was after my warranty period. The first replacement did not work and so they sent out a second free replacement (apparently they have different versions of controller depending for the wiring colors). The second replacement worked fine and I am a smoking happy guy with my MES40 again.

Just thought I would post a 'positive" comment on Masterbuilt customer service as they earned it in my situation. 

I had the same thing with my first MES (MES 30), about a year & a half ago.

The digital readout was acting up, and I made a post about it, asking the electronic genius members what to do.

That was the first time I ever saw Darryl, from Masterbuilt.

He chimed in, and said he'd really like to get his hands on my bad controller, so he could get inside it & find out what the problem was.

Would I please send it directly to him???

He gave the address, and said as soon as he got my bad one, a brand new one would be on the way.

He was right---I was back up & running in no time.

Bear

 

[jalan43]

UDS! UDS!