Ordered my New (old style) MES 40!

[deuce]

First of all let me say I was not really looking for another smoker, but I was looking at Craigslist the other day and I always do and came across a used MES 40 1 year old only used twice for $300. Didnt seem like too bad of a deal so I checked Cabelas (another website my wife says I spend too much time and $ on) and found the MES 40 for $299. Like I said I wasnt even looking for another smoker so I decided to think about it for another day. The person with the used smoker wouldnt budge much from asking price so I decided to buy the one from Cabelas since it was down from $430 or whatever the original price was but when I went back on the website it says they were SOLD OUT

. I was BUMMED! I emailed Cabelas customer service and they told me there were none left online or at any location. I called the closest one to me and they were totally out of the MES 30 and MES 40, I called the next closet location and the same thing, and he said they already took the model number off the website so he couldnt look it up. He was nice enough to take a walk through the storage area and when he came back he had good news, he found one last MES 40!! I brought that sucker right then! I got free standard shipping with my Cabelas card but still had to pay $18 since it was an oversize item but I could not have drove 2 1/2 hours each way for that price. I also purchased the extended warranty for $36 just in case. It should be here in a couple of days, I am looking forward to a new toy!

The hard part was justifying another smoker to my wife....

 I explained to her that this would be much easier to make hot sticks and sausages, etc. in since I can hold a lower temp, and was not sure if I could maintain temps that low with my LP smoker. I also explained that I would be losing money if I didnt buy it since I brought a cheddar polish sausage kit on clearance for making 30# and I would not be able to use it with my current smoker so I would be out 9 bucks! Im pretty sure she does not understand my logic or ways to justify things, but im still alive to type this so it worked out

.

I have been looking at all the different mods and am planning on doing a few. I am working on a powered vent for in the garage so I can smoke inside in the winter or rain. If it works I will post pics when its done, if it doesnt, I will post pics of my new garage.

One question I have not found the answer to is: I will be using my AMNPS a lot and I see that the water pan should be left empty when using this, does the meat tend to be a little drier without any water in the pan or is there no real difference?? I understand why no water should be used with the AMNPS, but am not familiar enough with how these smokers work yet and dont want to dry out what I am smoking. I know I can spray with apple juice and usually do, just not sure on recovery time and probably dont want to be opening the door all the time. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[deltadude]

Todd's instructions are to NOT use water in the water pan.  I have both the AMNPS & the original AMNS, I also have been using a MES40 for over 5+ years.  I must be clear my MES 40 is only 800 watts, yours is 1200 watts, however temperature is temperature I smoke at 225-250º, water boils at 212º. My element stays on longer thus heating the water longer, so in theory mine should make more steam, but someone with better understand of the science involved will have to step up and make a clear case.  I can say with confidence that you can use water in the water pan provided you have a decent protective cover over your AMNPS, a decent cover the heat inside will be enough to keep it dry.  Here is what I use:

awnpscover2.jpg

• deltadude
• Sep 4, 2012

awnpscover1.jpg

• deltadude
• Sep 4, 2012

This is one of those disposable alum pans you can buy at the grocery store.  This one happens to be the proper width to fit over the AMNPS but it's length was too long so I cut it and folded the edges.  If you look close on the top right you can see the over lap.  On the other end is two 3/4" round holes.  The square opening is always placed toward the MES door, the side with the holes place toward the back and that is the end which the AMNPS is lit.  I can burn saw dust, pellets, even wood chips and they stay ignited and smoking just fine.

I believe the height of the cover is important, if the height is not enough then the heat from the burning ash will reflect back and the combustion rate will be to hot, even causing the whole bed of dust or pellets to ignite.  The holes on the opposite end are for drafting, at least that is the idea, if it works that way I don't really know.  The fact that it works with water pan filled with water is proven by the burning of wood chips, which is the harder than either pellets or dust to keep lit and burning.

Ok so at least one MES owner has his MES 40 & AMNPS working just fine with water in the water pan, does it matter?  YES!  It is no secret that many competition BBQ teams even using wood smokers have a water pan, even large commercial smokers use a water pan, WHY?  It is known that moisture on the meat surface helps in the transfer of smoke flavor into the meat.  I have a friend his job is to sell his company's liquid smoke system to commercial kitchens that mass produce smoked meats for commercial sales.  His system will turn out great tasting BBQ in normal cook times instead of low and slow.  The essence of that system is a very light mist spray that sprays the liquid smoke onto the meat during the cooking process the moisture facilitates the transfer into the meat.  His masters is in food-science, we have discussed no water vs water used in smokers a number of times, and he is absolutely certain it is important to the transfer of smoke flavor.

Flavor is key, but too much smoke flavor is not good, if you taste even a hint of bitter flavor then too much smoke was used. TBS "thin blue smoke" is essential to good quality tasting BBQ.  Last Thursday, the wife, daughter and I went to Reno's National Rib cook off.  24 teams from around the country which have to be invited participate.  I sampled 10 different pit's ribs, and NONE had too much smoke, some didn't even taste like they were smoked however you could clearly see the pinkish meat from the smoke, and NONE had even a hint of bitter taste.  I mention this because TBS is critical, and I think it is a challenge using the AMNPS to have consistent results without any hint of bitter taste.  I am happy to announce my ribs hold up, I can honestly say I ate two samples which were really close to what mine taste like, the wife & daughter of course confirmed my conclusion

 

[tjohnson]

Some guys can get along with water in the water pan, and others can't

If you think you need to use water, get a small disposable loaf pan and place it on the lowest rack

The water pan in the MES just has too much surface area, and creates waaay too much steam

If you notice in their latest model, the water pan is very small

my 2 cents

 

[deuce]

Deltadude thanks for the info and detailed pics, I will give that a try since you have luck with it. Todd, thanks for the info also. I will see what works best, like I said I have not used this smoker yet and still waiting for it to arrive, I just wanted to get some input on the water pan. I am looking forward to many good smokes with this unit!

 

[deltadude]

The water pan in the MES just has too much surface area, and creates waaay too much steam

If you notice in their latest model, the water pan is very small

I'm not sure you can use a design change as evidence to support your statement.  Rem, Masterbuilt also changed the chip tray making it smaller and added a piece of metal that results in inconsistent smoke.  You of all people should thank them for this error otherwise you wouldn't have designed your AMNS to overcome the re-design flaw!  People have been complaining about water streaming down the sides of the MES window, yet to the best of my knowledge no one has said there is a pool of water in the drain pan.   If you take out the window, will the complaints stop?  While everyone seems happy when the MES 40 went from 800 watts to 1200 w, because initial heat up and recovery time was shortened, however did it really cause more problems than it solved.  Do a heat calc on a MES 40 and you will see that the original design 800 watts is way more than enough to properly heat and maintain temps from 225-275º.  I think the extra btus burns through wood chips faster making true TBS hard to achieve and maintain, again another boost for your product.

Lets see how a smaller water pan works out, will it require refills during a long smoke?  Will less moisture work as effectively when you are doing 12 racks of ribs instead of 2 or 3 racks, or 6 pork butts instead of one?  New MES owners will have to let us know, if this is a successful design change or not. 

For me my old ALL stainless inside & out, no window, 800 watt, no meat probe or remote sensor (I use a Maverick I bought from you

)  has worked just fine for almost 6 years.  I expect the wiring to fail in the near future, but that is just an opportunity for me to upgrade the wiring and connectors, and keep smoking until I'm too old to make the effort.

 

[deuce]

Just unboxed and put the smoker together and hour ago, this sucker is the size of my recliner! Got it outside seasoning it now after wiping out with soap and water. I ran it for 35 minutes at 275 until it stopped smoking then shut her down and sprayed the inside with Pam Spray and fired it back up again to 275. I will wait 2 1/2 hours and toss in a handfull of chips the last 30-40 minutes. The only prob I had is a mysterious extra silver bolt in the bottom of the unit after assembly, that turned out to be from the light socket mount inside. I found this out when my light did not work so I took off the cover to find that the light socket has apparently broken free of the mount and is laying loose. No way without drilling out the 2 rivets holding the shroud in place to replace the missing bolt. No huge deal, i tightened the bulb and the light now works so Im gonna leave it alone unless it gives me trouble then I will drill out the rivets and fix it the right way. Other than that I couldnt be happier!

MES40.jpg

• deuce
• Sep 5, 2012

 

[smokinhusker]

Congrats!!!!