I am not an expert but a consumer that does a lot of research before buying something like this. This model has many improvements over the "Non-RF" model:1) Wheels that work when the unit is tilted, (caveat: the slide on grease drip tray must be removed before you can tilt and roll.)
2) A light inside the unit, (caveat, It's a little hard to see the meat with the smoke and smoke "grim" on the inside of the huge window but still very nice feature.)
3) The meat thermometer. It is a real needed item on this type of smoker. You never have to open the door to check the temperature. *I double checked it against my own digital thermometer and it runs true within a degree or two.
4) A handheld remote control. No AAA batteries included, (2 req.) You can program the time & temp as well as check the meat probe temp & switch the light on & off. You cannot see the current temp of the smoker, i.e.; watch it rise to the temp you set. To do this just look at the display on top of the unit for this info. Speaking of the top digital unit; it automatically alternates between the time left on the smoker and the current temp of the smoker. To see the meat probe temp, just push the temp button once.
The unit is well insulated and comes up to temp well within a reasonable time, (outside air temp = 46 degrees. The smoker came up to temp of 225 degrees within 17 minutes.) The unit appears well built and of solid construction. I did have a small warpage of the bottom back portion of the back metal panel. This impeded the grease tray a little. This could have been due to the shipper, (Fed Ex) but the unit very well packed. Assembly took 15 minutes. Very simple. The chip tray feature will lock in place after you dump a load into the smoker and the alignment mark for new chips is an easy step to miss when reloading, no bigge. It uses no more than one cup of chips at a time and seems to take a while at 225 degrees to burn them. The racks, water pan, grease pan all are easy to remove and somewhat easy to clean. The nice feature of the bottom grease pan is it is tilted to the back grease trap and comes out for easy cleaning. Overall, I like to keep my tools clean and I spent 15 minutes cleaning this unit, not bad.
I smoked two racks of baby back ribs last night and the unit seemed to cook it faster than expected. The internal temp was reached prior to the time I set. Of course it is not an exact science but the ribs were well smoked and delicious. I used hickory with some mesquite chips and the smoke flavor was strong. Mesquite sucks as opinionated by a lot of "experts." I also smoke some pork bellies, (bacon) that I had cured and they will be tried tomorrow after a 24 sit in the fridge. I am now smoking a brisket and we will see how it does. All in all I am very pleased with this unit and all the new features. I am really liking the fact that I can check the internal temp of the meat by using the remote. I can be doing something elsewhere and always click the "meat probe" button on the remote and know when its time to stop the smoking process. pros: all the features that you want from a smoker of this caliber, well built and good smoke. Cons, can't see the current temp of the smoker on the remote, just the "set" temp. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a smoker in this class.
I love my beef roasts rare and really appreciate how easy it is to get good results with the temp control and the internal meat probe this unit has. The remote control allows me to keep a close eye on things without being tied to the thing. A very nice feature.
I feel that this was a good purchase and represents an excellent value. It will see a lot of use!
***I just wanted to add a quick edit*** here to address what some others have been saying about the remote control.
While it is not obvious, you CAN get the temp reading for the inside of the smoker on the remote and it can be done in two ways:
Either push the temp set button twice which will cause the readout to flash between the temp setting and the actual temperature inside the smoker for ten seconds or so.
The other and best way is to press the meat probe button once which will cause the meat probe reading to be displayed and then smoker temp set and actual smoker temp reading to alternate on the remote display. It does not matter if you are actually using the meat probe for this to work.
The issue of the window getting too dirty to see through is a bit over blown. I find it easy to clean with some warm water and mild dish soap. The grime softens as you repeat the task of wiping it down a few times. The same thing for the light.
Hope these tips are helpful for everyone to fully enjoy this gem of a smoker. I love it more with each use.
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Step 1:I thought it would be cool to do a step by step assessment of this product. Sometimes I love something the first week and it sucks week 2.
OK, for the unpacking and assembly of the unit. 15 minutes. No screws missing, good instructions, no misalignment of screws. No "what the heck is THIS for?" Well packaged. Good assembly instructions.
Seasoning. Cooked for 3 hours at 275. Took about 30 min to reach that temp. Added wood at about 2.50 hours. Everything went perfectly. Smoke started within 3 minutes (dry hickory chips).
Reviewers note: I own a Masterbuilt electric turkey fryer. I only use it to steam fish, lobster and other seafood. It works great with turkey. It is just I cannot stand the smell of the oil. Most people cant smell it. I can. Buth the unit works perfectly.
BTW, the BBQ guy, John McLemore pushes his recipe book everywhere in the purchasing process. Normally, I find this stuff worthless, but John works up some really good recipes, from Low Country Boil stuff to smoked Prime Rib. $19.95 at my pals at Amazon. Worth the investment.
This weekend, doin ribs.....wish me luck y'all! Will report back.
Step 2: Smoking
I did two slabs of ribs. The unit worked perfectly. The remote control is awesome! I was controlling things from 80 feet away, checking on temp etc. I used MUCH less wood chips than I did my trial run and the taste was fabulous. Less is more when it comes to how much wood to use. I used two tray fulls of hickory. You can always add more flavor later with hickory sauces or salt, but if you use too much smoke.....yuck. Takes some experimenting, and what is so cool with this unit is that it is soooo easy.
Warning: the remote has an on/off button. I thought it was just for the remote. But if you press it, it turns the UNIT on/off in addition to the remote. The instructions never told me this.
Cleanup: the only thing I clean up is the drip pan, water pan, the racks and the glass. Have to do this anyway with any other grill, except the glass. I squirted windex on it and voila, good as new.
Con: the only one besides the remote issue is the drip tray. You have to make sure the unit is tilted back enough to let the grease drain into the pan. Otherwise it leaks through the front. I put a 2" piece of wood on the front legs rather than try to tweak the adjustable wheels. Worked fine.
All in all, a very impressive, easy way to get into smoking!
Step 3: Smoke the heck out of it!
I have tried everything from potato salad smoking to pork loin to brisket. Unit totally dependable, remote control works flawlessly (see above) and the glass IS easy to clean with Windex. Look, I watched from afar, never thought I could smoke food. This makes me look good.
UPDATE:
I have had the smoker for several months now, and just like S&P's downgrading of the US, I must downgrade this unit. For some reason, I cannot get rid of an acrid, metallic smell to the smoke. To test, I burned the same hickory chips on my gas grill and in this unit. The gas grill smoke was true to the wood, but this Masterbuilt keeps on giving a combination smoke/metallic odor. I read somewhere someone else noticing the same thing. While it functions perfectly, I can't stand the smell it gives off. Selling it off and buying a Weber Smokey.
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This is now my third smoker, and probably my last (assuming it keeps working flawlessly as it has been). Before this I had a cheapo Brinkmann electric smoker, and then a Weber Smokey Mountain. I've only had this unit for about 3 weeks now, but I've smoked probably 7-8 different items on it, and here is my opinion on the unit itself.Pros:
LCD control makes this thing brain-dead simple to use. Set the temp/time and it continuously cycles the heat on/off to maintain this temp to within several degrees. Also has things like a light to turn on, as well as a built-in meat probe to check the temps on.
Remote Love, love, love this feature. Allows you to change the time/temp away from the unit. My favorite part of it, however, is that you can check the internal temp of whatever you're smoking if you're using the built-in thermometer. Very handy.
Wood chip side-loader why don't more companies do this? Makes it sooo easy to add chips without losing heat. My biggest frustration with the last two smokers was that you had this tiny, tiny door that you were somehow supposed to fit a fistful of chips through without burning yourself. Thank you, Masterbuilt, for being the first ones to realize this flaw.
Window I've had no issues with mine smoking up during using. I suspect people that are getting heavy grime build-up during their smoking is allowing too much smoke to be produced (you want a very thin, light amount of smoke thick rolls of white smoke will make very bitter food).
Cons:
On/off on remote this turns the actual smoker on/off itself. Once the smoker and remote are on, the controller cannot be turned off. Very annoying.. I still can't fathom a single reason why you would want to turn off the smoker from a distance, but I CAN think of why you'd want to turn off the remote when you aren't checking/changing anything.
Timed on/off for heating you have to set a specific time on the timer before it'll heat. If this timer runs out, the heat turns off. I just don't get this 'feature'. I have no idea how long something is going to take to smoke, and if I set it to 5 hrs and it takes me 6.. it'll just turn off after 5. It's just a 'feature' that gets in the way because I always set my smoker to 24 hours and then turn it off myself when it's done.
Size the length and width dimensions on this thing are spot-on, but I really wish Masterbuilt would've made it a few inches deeper. For reference, I just threw in a 13 lb turkey and that's about as large as you can fit. At 13 lbs, it's already pressed against the back wall of the smoker. Slightly disappointing for the large size as I would've liked to smoke our 18-20 lb turkeys in it.
Build quality for the price, I feel like the unit could be sturdier. Lots of parts are held together by two screws that bend when in use. The wheels also squeal after using it for a few times. Also, the seal on my door doesn't fully seal (I've adjusted the latch and door to no avail). I emailed Masterbuilt and they got back to me promptly offering to replace it for free, so +1 to their CS.
Heat retention this unit has very little in terms of heat retention. If you open the door for a few seconds to add something or whatnot, it will literally lose 50* or more (and this is on a decent day, say 50-60* outside). I wish they had lined this thing with some lava rock or something so that it would retain heat when the door opened.
Overall, I would highly recommend this smoker despite a few flaws it has (in my opinion). I've produced some great results with it, and it has immensely simplified the work needed to properly smoke something.
********************* UPDATE *******************************************
After having this thing for about two months now, I'm demoting it from 4* to 3*.
Two reasons:
1) The build quality on this thing is really suspect, as I noticed previously. The wheels now squeal terribly whenever it's used, and they're rickety. Furthermore, after maybe my 10th smoke on this thing, the light bulb has either burned out or just stopped working.
2) The unit originally came with a door seal that didn't seal the top of the door fully. I emailed Masterbuilt about this, and they told me it was normal (it's not, they lied to me). I found out it wasn't normal, they said they'd ship me a new one right away.. 6+ weeks later, no sign of it, no shipping information, no email back from Masterbuilt.
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I just bought this on Black Friday at Bass Pro Shop for 179.94 + tax. I used it to smoke a Boston Butt, Whole Chicken Wings, Turkey Legs, and Some Mac and Cheese. Everything turned out great so far.It is super easy to use. The Remote control is amazing. It allows you to monitor the tempature of the smoker plus the tempature of the meat probe. The tempature control works really well. It heated a little above 225 after I added some wood chips but the tempature was easily conrolled by opening the vent up a little. Adding wood chips are a breeze. I plan on smoking a whole turkey soon and maybe some ribs.
The internal light helps when you are loading and unloading the meat into the smoker.
The only Con is the glass window. Once you start smoking meat it gets smokey and dirty fairly fast but you can still see in.
Masterbuilt has some really good youtube videos on this smoker and some tips for using their electric smokers. Thats where I got the idea for the smoked Mac and Cheese.
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