Suggestions for Regulating Temp or New Smoker?

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TO19

Newbie
Original poster
Nov 18, 2018
4
0
Please read and offer your thoughts...maybe this will help others who are flying blind like I was. I have a Masterbuilt 30" Elec Digital Smoker. I've always "trusted" the temp settings and, honestly, had mixed results. I previously used a meat thermometer only in the meat but recently replaced / upgraded my thermometer with a 4 probe ThermPro. Smoking salmon today and have a probe each in 2 pieces of salmon and 2 probes to measure the air temp...which is the first time I've done this. What a surprise. Set the smoker for 160 and the temp shot straight up to 250. I dialed it down to 145 and the air temp slowly dropped to 155 or so. i thought I'd tweak it up to 150, hoping to maintain around 160 in the smoker. When I did it shot up to 210 before I turned it back down. What I think I'm seeing is that the Masterbuilt smoker is on full bore, or it's off and slowly dropping. Anyone else ever noticed this? I am very comfortable with the meat thermometer readings as they are very close together.

So, do I live with the run up and run down in temps? Any way to steady the temps? Or, is it time to look for a different smoker? If so, what do people recommend? Being able to reliably regulate the temp is important to me. Appreciate any feedback.
 
All smokers will swing temps, most of the time it wont make a lot of difference, it can average out and you might never know the difference imo.
 
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Has the food been coming out alright? Like Mike said the temperature on all units will swing. If you’ve been happy with the food I wouldn’t stress over it. If it’s causing trouble that’s another thing. 160 to 250 is a huge amount. How long did the swing stay that large? I’ve also noticed keeping temps below 220 can be difficult and more prone to fluctuate. See if it has similar fluctuations at higher temperatures. A lot of devices have a delay after they turn on or off before they can switch back to try and avoid burning out. This smoker just might not be able to hang at that low of a temp.
 
The huge swings will affect things a lot like doing fish, jerky, and sausage,( fat out). Like chopsaw chopsaw said, $150 auber PID and you will have an awesome smoker. I use my MES 40 way more than I use my RT 590 pellet.
 
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I'm not using a masterbuilt but the temp controller seems a bit touchy. A new pid would take care of these problems. Electric smokers are going to overshoot the set temp a few times before everything settles down.
 
How long are you waiting before you adjust temps, it does take a bit for my master built 30 to dial in , it will over shoot temp then come back down, it will do this several times , over shooting less every time until it settles in ,maybe over shooting by 10 degrees. Yes I think your right that either it's on full bore or off.
 
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Please read and offer your thoughts...maybe this will help others who are flying blind like I was. I have a Masterbuilt 30" Elec Digital Smoker. I've always "trusted" the temp settings and, honestly, had mixed results. I previously used a meat thermometer only in the meat but recently replaced / upgraded my thermometer with a 4 probe ThermPro. Smoking salmon today and have a probe each in 2 pieces of salmon and 2 probes to measure the air temp...which is the first time I've done this. What a surprise. Set the smoker for 160 and the temp shot straight up to 250. I dialed it down to 145 and the air temp slowly dropped to 155 or so. i thought I'd tweak it up to 150, hoping to maintain around 160 in the smoker. When I did it shot up to 210 before I turned it back down. What I think I'm seeing is that the Masterbuilt smoker is on full bore, or it's off and slowly dropping. Anyone else ever noticed this? I am very comfortable with the meat thermometer readings as they are very close together.

So, do I live with the run up and run down in temps? Any way to steady the temps? Or, is it time to look for a different smoker? If so, what do people recommend? Being able to reliably regulate the temp is important to me. Appreciate any feedback.

I added this. Was easy to put together
Please read and offer your thoughts...maybe this will help others who are flying blind like I was. I have a Masterbuilt 30" Elec Digital Smoker. I've always "trusted" the temp settings and, honestly, had mixed results. I previously used a meat thermometer only in the meat but recently replaced / upgraded my thermometer with a 4 probe ThermPro. Smoking salmon today and have a probe each in 2 pieces of salmon and 2 probes to measure the air temp...which is the first time I've done this. What a surprise. Set the smoker for 160 and the temp shot straight up to 250. I dialed it down to 145 and the air temp slowly dropped to 155 or so. i thought I'd tweak it up to 150, hoping to maintain around 160 in the smoker. When I did it shot up to 210 before I turned it back down. What I think I'm seeing is that the Masterbuilt smoker is on full bore, or it's off and slowly dropping. Anyone else ever noticed this? I am very comfortable with the meat thermometer readings as they are very close together.

So, do I live with the run up and run down in temps? Any way to steady the temps? Or, is it time to look for a different smoker? If so, what do people recommend? Being able to reliably regulate the temp is important to me. Appreciate any feedback.

Not sure if this will help since you have a digital one.

For my analog one I did this:


I bought this (Be careful this is the 30 amp one you'll probably want. They have a 10 amp one also and it wasn't obvious)


I bought the box he had as well off Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/your-orders/...Id=1&asin=B0002BSRIO&tag=smokingmeatforums-20

Note: I found out later that I could have gotten a braided cord instead for a few extra dollars instead of the one I got. But mine works fine.
 

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