Side by Side Comparison of: Masterbuilt

This is a fantastic smoker! It arrived 3 weeks ago and I have smoked, ribs, brisket, butt, shoulder, duck, sausage, pork loin and pork belly and they all were wonderful. It is easy to use and easy to clean. The temperature stays on point, the wood chips are easy to load and the rack hold a lot of whatever you are smoking!

I highly recommend - in fact a great friend of mine ordered one the day after i did and loves it too! Your smoker friends will give you grief because it is not "real" smoking and all I have to say is I am not staying up all night trying to maintain the temp and load wood and when it's time to eat all I hear is compliments.

I bought this for my mom, as she was not so subtley dropping hints this was what she wanted at Christmas time. I surprised her with it as she came home. She immediately went out and bought meat and wood and has smoked something in it every Sunday since she got it. It is VERY easy to use and understand. It is a great size for a small family. She's a single mother so she cooks a whole weeks worth of food in there at one time. I'm considering getting my boyfriend and I one as he is EXTREMELY jealous when I get some of her cooking and he doesn't, it's just that good. She has it down pack and the meat just melts in your mouth.

A friend told us that you only use fruit woods, and stick an open can of beer in there for the moisture. It has worked every time!

I cannot say enough good things about this unit. It is consistent, it is simple, it is easy to use, and practically worry free. This is not even mentioning the glorious smoked foods it can produce.

This in mind, there is a small learning curve involved. Electric Smokers are like Convective Crock Pots, so getting foods to 'bark' (That crust we all think about when doing barbecue) properly can be a little bit of a challenge. The key to it is the Vent and Water Pan. With the vent fully open, it allows full heat, airflow, and smoke to create the charring; it creates a delicate smoke flavor that is earmarked by that earmark red smoke ring about a 1/16th of an inch below the surface of the food. This also means the water evaporates a little more quickly. This also necessitates one to pre-soak wood chips in water for 30 minutes, then drain and pat dry before using. Doing this extends the time it takes between loads to roughly one hopper-full (which equates to about a cup!) every 2 hours. Also, do not fill the water pan with too much water - about half full beneath particularly savory meats will do. Add more for meats that may dry out quickly. Less for extremely fatty meats.

It is efficient, consistent, and simple to upkeep - a good machine for the novice smoker to start with, or for old pros looking to not spend every hour or two peeking under the hood. :>

Assembly wasn't difficult. The adjustable screw legs on the bottom could use some improving, but that's a small gripe. As for operation this smoker makes life very easy. The digital display on top gives you a great idea of your current temperature, especially for those of us who start our smoking before the sun comes up. The setup for inserting more wood chips is fantastic. You get a nice consistent smoke. I've cooked 4 chickens, 3 pork roasts, a brisket and 4 racks of ribs in this smoker and everything came out perfect.

I purchased this unit when it was on sale for just under $140 and man I can honestly say I would pay $250 or more for this unit. First of all I am not new to smoking, I actually have a horizontal charcoal smoker that I have been using for the past 3 or 4 years.

The charcoal smoker is great and I love it but I wanted something that I could cold smoke cheese and salmon in so when I saw this bad boy on sale for $139 I bit the bullet and bought it along with the cold smoke attachment. I figured I was just going to use this for cold smoking and the charcoal for hot smoking, but one day I found myself wanting to smoke some ribs and forgot to pick up some charcoal when I was at the store so I decided to use the masterbuilt instead. Turns out the electric smoker is SO MUCH easier to maintain a constant temperature, no more lighting more charcoal and dumping it into the smoke box every few hours. All I had to do is turn it on and set a temp and thats it. The only thing I have to do is feed wood chips into it when i start seeing the smoke die down and thats it!

I have not touched the charcoal smoker since because the electric masterbuilt is some much less of a hassle to work with and the outcome taste just as good as charcoal. The only downside to electric is when you cook chicken I cant seem to get it as crispy as I like it with just the smoker alone. Its not a big deal because what I end up doing is after I'm done cooking the chicken in the smoker I fire up my small propane grill and crisp up the chicken and its good as gold.

The build quality of this unit is great and if you are on the edge and thinking of pulling the trigger, I would urge you to bite the bullet and add this sucker to your cart and checkout. Nothing beats the taste of smoked ribs or chicken or brisket and this smoker will give you that satisfying taste you are craving with you meats (and cheese if you buy the cold smoke attachment).

I would consider myself a beginner to intermediate when it comes to smoking. I've owned Brinkmann water smokers in the past and they are OK for small loads of meat. I wanted an insulated electric smoker so that I could still smoke meats during an Iowa winter. This unit satisfies that need.

When it arrived very little assembly was required, I had it up and ready for seasoning in 15 minutes.

The first thing I smoked was a 12 pound pork butt. It was a snowy day, but the smoker got up to temp inside of 20 minutes. At 12 pounds this roast was huge as a first try on a new smoker, but it was what i had. It took over 14 hours for the roast to hit 200+ degrees. Given the humidity and the size of the roast I'm not surprised.

The first butt was a success as were both of the next roasts that I've smoked. While the smoker can handle almost any size, I prefer to keep the starting weight at around 7 to 9 pounds in order to keep the cooking time reasonable.

The smoker's digital thermostat isn't particularly accurate since it is located at the top of the box rather than beside the smoking rack. I found it to be reading about 12 to 15 degrees high compared to a digital thermometer probe right of the rack. I strongly recommend a remote digital like the Maverick ET-733 ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00P2RDIFK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ).

I also purchased the smoker stand to get the unit up off the ground and at a more convenient height.

I've only used it once so far, but the results have been excellent. The cooking and flavor is up to you, so I'll just review the hardware.

It's lighter than I expected, but certainly durable. You can adjust to seal the door tighter if you like. It didn't get as hot to the touch on the outside as I thought it would. So, accidental burns shouldn't be a worry from the outside. Read the safety precautions and instructions. They are very clear on what you should and should not do. (Especially on how to set time and temp because you must do both at the same time.)

The racks and internal stuff are a bit thinner/more lightweight than I expected, but not flimsy. It's still durable, but light enough to help with the overall weight of the unit.

Cleaning is a bit dirty, but it is what it is. Don't hose the unit, but you can take the drip pans and stuff out and hose that off.

Honestly, the biggest negative is the digital display is super hard to read in daylight. You have to block the sun to read it. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but it is what makes this unit only 4 out of 5 stars.

I find it regulates temp well. It'll go high and low depending on opening and steaming, etc. But, it recovers just fine. It takes 20-30 mins to preheat.

I cooked 2 different meats on it on one day and I am very satisfied. I have only used it once, so take this review for what it's worth.

So I know there are durability questions about this smoker, I cannot address that yet as I first used it this last weekend. What I can say is that it smoked some amazing ribs with almost no trouble. I don't get ribs this good at any local place. Putting wood chips in the housing is a little tedious. They have to fit all the way in so that compartment will close fully. Adding chips is easy. The temp is pretty close on the digital LED compared to my calibrated thermometer. Heat is fairly consistent top to bottom. Lined the bottom drip pan with foil and it cleaned right up. Water pan stayed full with drippings and water for the 6 hours at 220 I used for the ribs. Made lots of smoke with just a few chips. Don't soak them. If it lasts I will use this smoker a lot since it is so easy.

In general the smoker works well. I've smoke ribs, brisket, and chicken so far. The design for loading wood chips is excellent. It comes up to temperature quickly and holds it real well. The window, light, and meat thermometer are nice features but if I were to buy another unit I'd look at just the basic design, including the analog temp control. The digital control and remote were very "temperamental" right out of the box. The digital control constantly shuts off if you do things like toggle the temperature up/down to fast, try to view the heat thermometer, or turn the light on/off. Its good once you final get the temp and time set but its frustrating to unplug and plug it back in several times before you get there. I have it plugged directly into a 15amp GFI. The GFI never trips, its the controller that shorts. Its to bad the digital control real sucks because the units pretty good.

I followed up masterbuilt customer service and they were very helpful. They said the problem I was experiencing was not the controller but a wiring problem and offered to replace the unit since it was still under warranty. The customer service rep (Tiffany) did a great job handling my problem. I'll buy another from them just because of the customer service experience.

I had a Bradley electric smoker for about 7 years and I had dropped it and broke the control panel. I chose this to replace it and have only used it once but seems to do the job. I do prefer the interior of the Bradley (shelves etc.)...maybe because I am used to it. With the latch on the Masterbuilt it is more difficult to open the smoker with only one free hand. I preferred the automatic wood pucks in the Bradley since I could leave it overnight without having to add wood. But It does seem that the MB is smokier. I also think the Masterbuilt heats better (may just be that it is newer) and I like the digital readout. With the Bradly you set the temp from low to high and then monitor the thermometer adjusting higher or lower until it gets where you want it and leave it there (of course if it gets colder overnight outside, for instance, you may need to adjust again). With the MB you set to the digital temp you want and it will strive to keep smoker at that temperature. In that sense the Bradley is like a car A\C (you constantly adjust the fan speed/temp if you get too hot or cold) and MB is like the Thermometer for your house A/C...set it to the temp you want and it will try to ensure it stays at that temp.

Disappointed! Not only did the item take longer than advertised to arrive (even as a Prime member) when the smoker did finally arrive, the box showed signs of significant damage. Didn't see any damage to the actual box, but after plugging it in, the display didn't display the temp correctly. It appears that "some" of the numbers are missing sections. Overall, I like the smoker but I am disappointed with the quality controls at the company.

I've had this smoker for 2 years, it worked great up until this year in which it kept shorting out. Unforunately it seems it happens to many others who have used this model. It seems to be a problem with the heating element causing it to short and tripping the fuse. I am already out of the warranty period as I am told (1 year) so I will be looking at moving on from an electrical smoker to a more manual charcoal smoker.

I wish I had known then what I know now. Be VERY careful if you order one of these. Unpack it and check it THOROUGHLY... IMMEDIATELY. I let mine sit a few weeks and then unpacked it. I immediately smoked some pork butts, some trays of chicken wings, some ribs, some salmon... all done to perfection.

HOWEVER... the first two times, there was a small ring of residue around one of the feet. I wiped it up and thought "I must have slopped some dirty water out when I was wiping the inside down". The third time... I knew I hadn't - and the ring was more pronounced. So I elevated the unit and looked at the bottom. It appears the leg got slightly bent in transit - and leaks a little. It also does not turn (I would have realized that if the unit had come out of whack... but it was so perfectly level I didn't have to mess with the feet). So I went back to Amazon - and the unit was only covered for 30 days. Now I have to go back to the manufacturer... and most likely that will require me shipping the unit back and forth. The cost of that will wipe out the savings I got by ordering it from Amazon. I should have bought this locally so I had a local dealer to work with on the issue.

So - my rating would be a 4 or a 5 (probably should have gone propane... but that is my fault) for the smoker itself, but as is - when you average in the negative aspect of the vendor experience (although to be honest - only my second issue ever with Amazon fulfillment... and I have ordered HUNDREDS of things from them... so still not a bad track record) - I will give it a 3.

The three stars are because the unit only lasted three years before failing to report for duty this morning in time for a big family gathering. Further, the firebox is rusted out. I found the racks too narrow for full ribs. It should be about four inches wider. Other than that, with just occasional use, it worked okay. I liked the digital controls, set it and forget it. I will upgrade to a larger and sturdier unit after shopping for the next week.

I've been smoking with this model for about two years now and finally decided to post a review. For the money, it's been great. It keeps a pretty steady temp and I've not had any problems with it** (see update below). There is just one drawback - there is an area in the back right corner of all of the racks where you can't put anything or it gets turned to charcoal. The smoker box is in the bottom right and the smoke vent in the top right. I am guessing the smoke travels this path and is what's causing this phenomenon. It's unfortunate because about 1/4 of your rack space is unusable. I had never smoked anything before buying this smoker so it was a low cost way for me to experiment and dial in recipes and technique. I've outgrown this little guy and will start looking for a larger and more sophisticated smoker, but this was a great starter box.

****Update literally 30 minutes after I wrote the original review*****
I had jerky in marinade which made me think to write the review in the first place. I'll be danged if I didn't go out to turn the smoker on and it wouldn't turn on. It kept blowing the GFI. I checked all the obvious/easy things (plug, cord, control box) for exposed/shorted wires and no such luck. I looked online and have found it's pretty common for the wires inside to corrode over time. Unfortunately, my afternoon plans just became very different. The back is riveted on, so the only way to remove it is to drill the rivets out and track down the shorted wires. Reduced my review by a star.

I have had this for four years and two months, worked very well. I found that the stainless steel drip pan was a poor quality stainless, it developed a rust hole in it within six months. To me that wasn't a big deal. It worked very well for another three and half years. On thanksgiving it was exactly four wears old I was smoking a turkey. I checked on it a few times and after about an hour into smoking I noticed the temperature went way over what I had set it. I also found that I could not turn it off or reset it, I opened the door and the turkey was burned up on the outer part.

I found out the part that went out is in the bottom on the smoker and is not replaceable. This is a shame, mechanically it's well built but I can't believe they put the hart of the thing in the bottom and filled it with glue so it can't be replaced.

This is the second of their products I've owned, and they all share the same problem. Their electronics just are not made for being outside.

The rubber cover the use over the buttons will shrink and in the first weather simply detach and blow away. A cover just slows the eventual failure. Heat shrinks it, I don't store my grills in an A/C space.

Considering this is supposed to be the product for "lazy smokers" (I gladly admit I wanted a buy, use, and forget product) it's just not worth the trouble. I'm now looking at the much simpler products that use fifty year old thermostat technology and you can buy a probe to go with it.

With today's smartphones why bother with something that takes five steps to pairs on wifi and forgets every third use. Why two stars instead of one? Because the product is fine if you put it in a completely enclosed area with screened wind walls. But if you are in that world you're not buying something like this to begin with, and you still get the same benefit just setting your smartphone timer to remind you when to change the chips.

"Siri set timer to 45 minutes". Done.

Replacement policy is you go outside and write down serial numbers, call in to some very young men, and they waste the next thirty minutes of your time explaining why you cannot just order a replacement electronic monitor. This is the most insulting part. The monitor is completed bolted on, you connect the sensor threw a standard hole in the wall. Making me call a teenager when I just wanted a replacement unit is absurd, and don't pretend your bolt-on unit is unique from month to month. The one on my 40" was exactly the same shape and fit as the same device on my 30" I bought years ago.

Won't get fooled again. So much for buying American. By the way, not manufactured in America.

It's pretty crazy that a device that needs to be used outdoors tells you that it can't get wet! You can buy a custom cover for it, but after a local shower I found water on top of the smoker under the cover!

The nicest thing about the smoker is the insulation, so I can cook in chilly weather. The insulation has a downside though; once up to temperature the heating element doesn't run much. The element only generates smoke from wood chips when it's running for reasonable periods.

I also like the thermostatic control. On the other hand, it's real work to clean this thing. Overall, my old Brinkman cylinder smoker worked just as well.

First of let me say that say that when it works its great. With that said, I did contact masterbuilt about 40ish days after i received the item. The smoker was two major flaws. One the built in temperature sensor is completely wrong (which is what I contacted masterbuilt regarding). When I set the Smoker at 220, my first smoke was done very quickly (over cooked) I then went out and purchased a Maverick ET-733 and also used my buddies to ensure the heat readings on both were accurate. At 220 on the MES my and my buddies ET-733 where at 256 and 259 respectively. Way to hot for smoking low and slow.

The second major issue that I have is my unit powers on and off at times (usually right when I plug it in), I store it in my attached garage out of the weather, with a cover (though I don't need the cover), I have had it turn off in the middle of two smokes, luckily there were both small cuts of meat/appetizers and I was able to unplug and plug it back in. Like I said I have most issues when I first plug it in. It flickers on and off and then I have to unplug it usually 2-3 times and its good after that. I've had it less than a year and I am not 100% happy at all, hopefully I just had a defective unit, but the customer support rep I spoke to was not very helpful either. When it totally breaks and im sure it will I dont know if I will purchase another Masterbuilt, even though it has pretty solid reviews I would like to stay away from a second unit with issues.

The bad:
The product turned on and off on its own. Even when plugged directly into an outlet.
The temperature button stopped working within the 4th time smoking.
It took over an hour to get on with customer service.

The good:
The built in meat thermometer was accurate (according to 2nd device).
The MES 40 (when it stayed on) actually kept its temperature.
The customer service was pretty helpful.

Overall, these smokers are hit and miss. Of the reviews I have read, if they work then they are pretty good...but when they don't they are nothing but problems.

When I am on the market again would be more likely to get a smoker with less bells and whistles (i.e. electronics) and buy a dual thermometer and a simple gas or electric smoker. Less things to go wrong and easier to fix.

Last time I'll buy a Masterbuilt. They changed the warranty from 12 months to 90 days, and wouldn't you know it, it crapped out after 9 months.
Electric component shorted out and kicks the circuit breaker every time I try to turn it on.

This smoker has not fully functioned properly. I bought for a bday gift for my husband at the end of October and then we got busy with the holidays. We should have returned it sooner but with the warranty only being 90 days and its not something you use often we found out to late. Really disheartening when you buy a product that is shotty from the first use. It shuts off randomly and there are a ton of complaints of this same issue around the web. I wouldn't recommend it to friends or family.

Stopped working after about 10 uses. Bought Dec 22, 2014 it is now Sep 21, 2015. It keeps tripping the GFI breaker. Tried other outlets and it kept doing the same thing. Also kept under patio out of weather. DO NOT BUY.

Brand new out of box defective popped circuit breakers everytime i plugged it in. This seems to be a very common problem with this model once i search internet. Wish i had not have used reviews on amazon before purchase or i would not have bought this product. I am giving this product a second chance as i am exchanging for another one. If the second one is bad i will ask for refund. Factory that manufacturers this should plug units in prior to boxing and shipping out.

Update: Well like so many others here, my smoker stopped working last weekend after only 17 months. From reading other reviews here, I'd say it's the wiring that has burnt out as the control unit still works. Also before it died completely it was tripping the GFI outlet just as described by others here. Doesn't sound like it's worth repairing either as it will just burn out again due to poor design and construction. So disappointed as when it worked, I was able to produce some amazing product out of it. I was so happy with this smoker! I have had it since March 2012 & used it on a frequent basis and always stored it indoors when not in use. Everything that I have smoked in it has turned out amazing. It is extremely easy to use & consistent in it's results. Like wise, ribs are very easy to get perfect, as is pork shoulder.