Electric and smoke.
Hmmm? I thought if things electric or electronic smoked you needed to call an electrician or a service technician.
Having said that, how big of a whole hog will this thing smoke? I just smoked a 98 pound whole pig on New Years Eve with real wood on a real smoker.
I got the 30" windowless model as an early Christmas present and here are my $.02 for anybody that cares. There’s been a couple of comments about the unit shutting off in the middle of a smoke. Mine did this as well. Talked to a tech at Masterbuilt and he said it was a wiring issue inside the box, not with the control panel. I was hoping to just have a new control panel mailed to me because I had already seasoned and cooked in it. Told me to take it back to store and get a new unit. The unit is still well worth having one that works!
On the issue with the small wood chips I solved this with the a-maze-n pellet smoker. The 5x8 fits perfectly on the 2 metal wires beside the chip tray and smokes as long as you want it to. Some useful advice if going this route:
If you follow those steps you will never use wood chips again and no, I do not work for them. I learned all this thru reading smoking blogs and trial-n-error. You’re welcome!
I have a model similar to the model with the smaller window. It is 10 years old and still going strong. I use a wireless thermometer that tells me when my meat hits the optimal temperature.
It smokes my meat perfect every time! Even a brisket, which can be difficult. I love doing Jerky and summer sausage as well.
It will take any wood I put in it. Pellets, wood chips, chunks of cherry wood from a tree my dad cut down. It doesn’t matter! I can’t say enough great things about this smoker.
I wanted to put my 2¢ in. I own the 20076314R. That’s the one with the front controls. I have used it for over a year now and there are some little issues I wanted to bring up. First, let me say I LOVE this thing. I have done a 18lb turkey, 2 racks of ribs, 12 chicken quarters and had room for stuffeld jalepenos. I bring it outside to use it then I clean it and cover it and store it in a garage after each use. Recently it was shutting off after a few minutes. I then noticed the device was not getting hot. I looked online and see the the company has had issues with the control panel and will send you out a new one since it was a big issue for them. I was unable to get them on the line and this was 6am Thanksgiving morning. I decided to open the back where the element attaches to the wiring (4 small screws over a rubber insulated casing) and noticed that the spade terminals that attach the wire to the element had melted the plastic and corroded. Problem is, I never use and extension cord with this device and make sure to use a plug that is 20A and runnig 12 guage wire that is roughly 50 feet from the fuse box. Inside the box was enough wire to pull some through and attach new termindal ends to it. Once this was done, it came on and worked just fine. Another issue I have is the tube that you use to add new wood to the tray gets jammed and the handle tends to come loose. Looking in where the tube slides in, there are some threads that can easily bend and cause this. I have found that a quick open, pull the tray and close the door to refill the tray before putting back in does not lose much heat and the temp is back up quickly. the newer models now use bluetooth to sync the temp of the device and meat, but I have an iGrill Mini that makes the bluetooth temp probe I picked up from Lowes for about $39.99. Anyway, hopefully this help with those looking to purchase one of these. Granted, mine is over a year old and I’ve gotten a LOT of use out of it, if it goes out again, I’m going to buy a newer model from the same manufacturer.
I would skip this one guys… while it’s about $50 less as a refurb having a window becomes useless after one or two smokes and they aren’t as insulated. Buy the same functioning 30 inch smoker directly without the view window for about $27 less including the Woot shipping.