Masterbuilt® - 40 Inch Digital Electric Vertical Smoker with Window and Legs, 970 Square Inch Kitchen Side Loader, Wood Chip Side Charger, Chrome Smoking Racks, Smoking Board

Great smoker

Set the temp and load for smoke. You can smell the results Masterbuilt will help you achieve.!

The smoker works great very happy. Unfortunately it showed up with damage. Their is a dent in the top where the electric controls mount. The control box cannot be Installed into the keyway slot provided because of the dent. The box had damage on it like it had been dropped or hit or something. Great product just wish it showed up in mint condition for the price.

First of all, the directions say it takes about 25 minutes to assemble. Don't believe a word of that. The only way it would take 25 minutes is if you have had practiced multiple times and used a few power assistance tools. Using just an adjustable wrench and a Philips screwdriver per the instructions, add about 3 hours. In another words, take your time and assemble carefully per the instructions. As you can see from the photos, it didn't fare undamaged from the shipping aspect. The shippers/FedEx dumps it off on your doorstep and escapes before you can get to the box. I was just hoping the internals had fared better. Once I got the box opened and its contents out, I could see that the backplane took some light damage to where a couple pop rivets 'popped'. For the price, I took the gamble that there wasn't more internal damage and this was just cosmetic. Of course the wife says to send it back after I spent the three hours assembling. I wasn't about to reverse the entire assembly process to do so. Follow the instructions on the initial curing process. My first venture was to do baby back pork ribs. I decided to follow a 2-1-1 hour, 250 degree, recipe process. You basically add more flavored wood every 30 minutes for the first couple of hours. Very simple to do. Oh, you just program your cooking temp and forget. No messing with charcoal/etc. and readjusting the temp. At the end of 4 hours, I had the best ribs I've ever cooked. They were so juicy and smokey. So if you want to venture into smoking foods, this unit is simple to operate, thus a good starter system for a low initial cost. Just pray that it survives the shipping. The box could have used some additional internal protection.

Since it arrived, in late May. I've managed to smoke 3 or 4 briskets. But only after switching to using pellets in stead of wood chips. Pellets burn just hot enough to add to the temperature. With wood chips, and the smoker set to 275 degrees (the maximum this can be set to), it would struggle to get to a temperature above 200. With 3 different ambient temperature probes, all of which were within a few degrees of each other... so I trust them more than the Masterbuilt builtin one. Once did the forbidden thing and tried wood pellets from a pellet smoker, in this one, the temperature managed to get to just above 230 degrees, set at 275. That's JUST barely above normal low and slow temperature of 225 degrees. Two of the briskets turned out very good, the other two? I couldn't get the smoker hot enough to get past the stall point at around 160 degrees fast enough, on wrapped in foil at the stall, the other in butcher paper at the stall. They both turned out extemely dry even spritzing every 15 minutes with apple cider vinegar and water. The temperature control is NON EXISTENT. The two that turned out good, were because I wrapped early, at 140 degrees and bypassed the stall at 160 to 170 altogether. BUT... that meant only around 3 hours of smoke infusion, reducing the already questionable smoke flavor even more. I'm smoking my final brisket on this smoker. Which I don't have one single prayer for. It stalled at 172 degrees, already wrapped, and stayed there for the past hour and half, finally just now rising to 174 degrees. The smoker is set at 275 degrees... and the top vent is closed down all I can close it to, and the ambient temp is only 198 degrees. I can already guarantee it's dry as a bone and tough as nails, but I'll pull the brisket at 175, to try to salvage it. I just can't anymore after this. Briskets cost too much to take the chance on having it ruined by shoddy workmanship. I have ordered a pellet smoker from one of the other brands of vertical smokers. and a smoke tube for pellets to add smoke flavor since pellet smokers are notorious for not producing as much. I can't, in good conscience, recommend this smoker. Absolutely not. And this is the second Masterbuilt I've had. The first one was ok, but it only had that electric skillet temperature dial on the side, and not removable wood chip replacement tube. So you had to open the door, take out the wood chip tray, fill it, and then open the door again to put it back in, losing every bit of heat.sa