Old school MES 40 VS 60 pounds of meat

[psychobrew]

So I smoked about 60 pounds of meat overnight (2 packers, 1 flat, and two picnics). Although it eventually came within a few degrees, the MES 40 (old style) never reached the set temp and was much lower until this morning (after 10 hours). Now I sit here watching the temps drop lower and lower. It appears it's giving up, ready to retire

. Although the meat never got to the internal temps I wanted, it was still falling apart (tongs broke through the meat like a spoon in ice cream) so I'm not going to bother putting it in the oven.

Winner: 60 pounds of meat, by a knockout.

Truth be told, I've only used the MES 40 a handfull of times. Even though I love the output I'm not impressed by the quality of the unit. It costs way too much money for the number of times it was used.

 

[fishawn]

Sounds like (unfortunately) you may need to join the quite a few of us here that have had to learn MES repair skills. I experienced the same temperature drop like you did when mine was loaded with Butts. One of the terminal connectors in the wiring to the heating coil fried. I drilled out all the aluminum rivets in back, stripped the fried wire, put on a new connector & plugged it back in & it works just like new. Oh, used SS screws to re-attach the back, so if it ever happens again, which it probably will, I can have the back off it in about 1 minute with a cordless drill. There are some MES repair threads in here somewhere, I think. Sorry to here, but good luck.

 

[beer-b-q]

Bummer,,, at least the meat got done first...

 

[psychobrew]

How do you drill out the rivets? Do I need a soddering iron? What size replacem,ent screws do I need to buy?

Sorry for the questions, but this is well out of my area of expertise and I don't want to end up looking like this guy -->