Masterbuilt 30 Electric Smoker at a Glance
A great looking smoker with a glass door in front so you can see the magic happening without needing to open the door too much. Well insulated, with plenty of interior room (read: you can fit two decent sized turkey in it as once!) Digital temp controls on the top and even a remote control.
Size
Great mid sized smoker, with 4 racks and enough space to cook a full turkey. Somewhat low to the ground, so you will want a stand to put it on.
Price
Mid range price-wise. I bought it for about $250 but prices can and will fluctuate buying online these days. There is also a model with the same features which doesn't have a window for about $50-$75 less.
Performance
We were able to cook a turkey with no problems. There is a glass window to sooth your curiosity and prevent some people from opening the cooker too early to check.
Use
This smoker ran great, we smoked a turkey in 9 hours and the temperature gauge worked correctly. The remote temp management came in handy meaning less time directly supervising the cook.
The Good
Mid sized smoker with 4 racks. Big enough to cook a turkey. Solid construction and digital temp gauge with remote control functions so you can cook from your lawn chair with a beer in your other hand!
The Bad
Doesn't have a built in water pan and the wood chip box seems flimsy. I've seen the digital thermometer isn't accurate in some other reviews, but I found it to be spot on when comparing to a digital thermometer I have. You need to open the door to add more chips which can cause temperature fluctuations.
Why I Chose This Smoker
I've been trying to get my dad into smoking for a couple years. He swears he can get a good product on his propane grill using 2 zone heat. While he has been able to create some decent ribs and chicken I really wanted to show him what he was missing and buy him a smoker. I've heard good things about the Masterbuilt model and wanted to review it so when his birthday rolled around last month this was delivered to his house.
I went to visit him a couple weeks later and it turned out he had set it up immediately and had already done two cooks! Because of his enthusiasm I wasn't present to do any of the assembly, but he assured me it went smoothly and only took an hour or so.
- Height: 33"
- Width: 19.5"
- Depth 18.5"
- Weight 49lb
- Number of cook racks: 4
- Watts: 800
- Temperature Gauge: Yes
- Built in wood chip box
- Does not include built in water pan
Other features: Total of 730" of cooking surface. Remote control which monitors functions of temp, time, and meat temperature.
This smoker sits relatively low to the ground, which we remedied by putting it up on two cinder blocks (how my dad had been cooking with this thing at ground level for so long boggles my mind), but having it on blocks made it a comfortable height.
We decided to cook a 15lb turkey my mother had bought the week before and they had already thawed in the fridge.
Performance:
This smoker ran great and we had a good cook. We used a slightly hacked version of my turkey recipe since we didn't have enough time to brine the turkey for a full day, but it still came out great. It was a little cold (about 40 degrees outside) when we cooked the bird and I did notice when we opened the door to add more wood chips the temp did drop a little. The heating element is only 800 watts compared to some other models which are 1500, so its important to keep the door closed as much as possible with this model. In some other reviews I had read that the digital thermometer did not give an accurate reading, so I used my Charbroil digital thermometer as well and I found both reading to be very similar. Aside from opening the door it held a constant 225 degrees all day, and 9 hours later we had a perfectly cooked turkey.
Things I don't like:
There were a couple small items I would like to have fixed on this smoker to make it a little better, but overall I really did like it. The biggest issue is that it seems very under powered. An 800 watt heating element is very low for a cooker this size, that fact that it is able to hold temperature shows how well constructed and insulated it really is. I would also like to see an exterior wood chip feeder, which would mean there would be no reason to open the door until your food is cooked. As I discussed before it does sit very low to the ground, so getting a stand or even some cinder blocks will set up up at a workable height.
Here's a quick video showing the unboxing and set up for the Masterbuilt 30" Electric Smoker
Summary:
A terrific smoked with a couple drawbacks that are easily overcome. If you are smoking in warm/cool weather this is a great rig to own. If you are doing a lot of winter cooking you would be better served to get something with a bigger heating element.
Gobble Gobble!