List Price: $299.95
Sale Price: $177.00
Today's Bonus: 41% Off
The Masterbuilt smoker is a wonderful product for the price. Whether you're new to smoking, or an experienced smoker who wants a less hands on, labor intensive smoke, this is simply the best you can get for the $$.
Pros:
1. Digital thermometer: If you've smoked much, you know keeping the smoker at the right temperature is often what takes the most attention. As an electric smoker with a built in thermometer, you can set your preferred temperature and then just focus on keeping the woodtray filled, the contents mopped, and you're good to go. (You will still want to use a digital thermometer on the meats themselves to check their internal temperatures, but that's a different matter.)
2. Well insulated: Unlike a traditional side smoker, bullet or most other form factors, the masterbuilt is nicely chunky and really doesn't care overly what the outside temperature is at (within reason)
3. Capacity: Four racks (though with chickens, big roasts, shoulders and ribs you may only end up using two at a time. Still, I've loaded it up 30+lbs of meat at a time which for a product that often drops under $200 when on sale, is not bad at all.
4. Economy: It runs on electricity and with small amounts of wood relatively speaking. Rather than going through large amounts of wood and charcoal, you have a much more affordable smoke, which if you want to smoke regularly (or smoke small batches) is great.
5. Customer Support: You'll find repeated reviews of this online, but Masterbuilt's customer support is second to none. Its hard to find companies that stand behind their products the way Masterbuilt does. If something is defective, they will fix it with little to no questions asked.
So why don't I give it a 5 stars?
1. Size: Masterbuilt has a 40" version, but it is very hard to find. Really, if they made the 40" the standard, that extra little bit of space would allow you to use all four racks more often even with larger cuts.
2. Temperature Range: The Masterbuilt only goes up to 275. This is excellent for red meats which will often cook between 220 and 250 and fish, but not as good for poultry, where you want it up to 350 to get the fat in the skin to render (and avoid chewy skin).
3. Power: The Masterbuilt's electric heater sometimes doesn't seem to have quite enough oomph if you really load it with meat. I've had a hard time keeping the temp up when its full. There are people online who add their own heating elements to help boost it.
4. Needs direct plug: Masterbuilt requires you plug directly into an outlet. So, given the relatively short electrical cable that means you need to install an outdoors outlet if you believe them. I did use it fine with an industrial extension cord, but talking to their customer support, they felt it might be a reason for problem #3 above.
So, what do you have? A great form factor for a smoker, with good capacity, that maintains a set temperature, with multiple racks for different products, and that gives a consistently result. On the other hand, they have a slightly larger product that is only distributed much more limitedly, and they have odd limitations on the product based on max temp and wattage to the heating element. Given the price difference between the Masterbuilt and its nearest competitors, perhaps these limitations are forgivable. I still regularly recommend it to friends, and have many, including some who run a couple of well respected restaurants loving the products that come out.
Things I'd love to see from Masterbuilt as aftermarket products or even just upgrades:
1. External smoke box that attaches to the wood feed hole, so that you can do cold smokes for sausages, cheeses and salmon and other products.
2. A higher wattage heating element that can be swapped out for the standard one.
3. A higher max temperature so I don't need to take the chickens and game hens out 30 minutes before done and toss them in the oven to crisp the skins.
Regardless, to come full circle. If you want to dabble in smoking and are intimidated (which is easy), this is a perfect smoker to make things easy. And if you are experienced in smoking and just want to have either a more affordable smoke so you can do it more often, or a less labor intensive one, once in a while, this is the perfect supplement to your existing set up.
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A friend of mine has a Masterbuilt smoker that looks very similar to this one and it works very well. His experience, along with everything I've read is very positive for all Masterbuilt smokers, with the notable exception of heating element replacement. Given that, my decision on which model to purchase will be based on whether the heating element can be replaced without replacing a large segment of the smoker.From my research it seems the heating element is the one part that's most likely to fail, so you'd expect them to be replaceable. After reading in these Amazon reviews that the heating element of this model may not be replaceable, I swapped e-mail with a Masterbuilt rep and here's what I found.
The rep claimed the heating element can be replaced on all of their smokers, although some require a new body assembly and replacement parts are no longer made or stocked for some of their older models. All of the electric smokers sold on their website allow for replacement of just the heating element. The heating element of this model (#20070106) requires a new body. (sixty bucks plus s&h)
The rep made it clear that model #20070910 is their newest 'standard' 30" electric smoker, and it does allow for easy replacement of just the heating element. It's hard to find on their website, so just search the web for the model #.
The rep also told me there's no way to know when a particular smoker, and thus replacement parts, will be phased out. She said some of their models have been sold for over five years, implying that's a long time.
The following models were mentioned in our correspondence.
30" Electric Smokers
====================
> Model #20070106; sold here on Amazon.
For heating element replacement, you must replace the entire body and the customer can do this. The cost for the new body is $60.00 plus shipping and handling.
> Model #20070110; smoker with window and meat probe
The heating element alone can be replaced by the customer.
> Model #20070910; standard 30" edition
The heating element alone can be replaced by the customer.
40" Electric Smokers
====================
> Model #20070710; smoker with window and meat probe
The heating element alone can be replaced by the customer.
The rep I corresponded with was very helpful, and I still plan on purchasing a Masterbuilt smoker just not this one.
Best Deals on Masterbuilt 20070910 30-Inch Electric Smokehouse Smoker, Black
Hello Folks,This used to be a five star review for Masterbuilt with me raving about the awesome customer service I received from them.
I hate to do this but times have changed and so has the service. I have read numerous accounts here and on a smoking forum I frequent of smoker owners with bad units being ignored. This is an awesome unit when it works but the weak link is the heating element and when it goes bad there is no replacement offered. This fault has been problematic since the first models and as far as I can tell not addressed. I'm guessing there are too many bad units in the field to repair now and the company is providing no solution or repair.
Before you buy check the warranty to see what the company will do for you should the element go bad. Maybe Masterbuilt will get back to taking care of the customer, I certainly hope so but seems now they have joined the majority of producers who only have eyes for the bank once the money is in their hands. Pity.
Honest reviews on Masterbuilt 20070910 30-Inch Electric Smokehouse Smoker, Black
After reading several complaints about the heating elements failing in these units and the inability to replace these elements, I was very leery about buying one.But I finally jumped in and made the purchase and could not be happier. First off, the Model number listed in the amazon listing, #20070106, is not the unit you receive. You actually receive Model 20070110. The newer model you can swap out the heating element if it fails. A huge plus.
I have had this unit for 4 weeks now and have made briskets, pork shoulder, and ribs. The unit is super simple to operate. Turn it on, set the time and temp, and add a small amount of wood chips every hour or two.
The smoker is well insulated. On a 40 degree day, it heated up to 275 degrees in about 40 minutes. I added my meat, lowered the temp to 225 degrees, and it easily maintained a temperature range of 215 to 225 for the entire 12 hour cooking period. On a 60 degree day, it preheated to 275 in about 20 minutes and again easily maintained temp even though it was very windy out. It also recovers quickly when you open the door to check on your food. The built in electronic thermometer is a nice touch. Shows you what the current smoker temp is. You can also run a remote temp probe through the vent in the top of the unit to monitor your meats internal temperature as it cooks.
The smoker puts out a moderate amount of smoke with a very small amount of wood chips. And it uses wood chips, no expensive wood disks. I choose to clean out the chip tray every 3 hours or so just to keep them from piling up in it. The smoker does a great job of hanging onto smoke too. You son't get a smoke ring, mainly because there is not enough carbon monoxide generated from the chips to pink up the outer layer of meat. Only wood and charcoal smokers will get you that. But the smoke ring offers no more flavor, just a smoke ring.
So far all the food I have made in this smoker has come out fantastic. Nice smoky flavor with very little work. You basically set it and add wood chips every now and then. The water pan keeps things nice and moist and the heating element keeps a nice even heat. Clean up is not too bad if you prep a bit first. Place foil in the water pan and in the drip pan. This will allow you to just take the foil off and give it a quick wash with soap and water. The racks do require a bit of scrubbing, nut that is to be expected. Just don't foil your racks. The interior is just wiped out with clean water, no soap.
So if you live in a colder climate, and are looking for an electric smoker, I would not hesitate to purchase this unit.
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