Masterbuilt 20077515 Front Controller Electric Smoker with Window and RF Controller, 30-Inch

I received my smoker 2 weeks ago. My husband and I live in a loft in the downtown "Strip District" of Pittsburgh, PA. We have a 10 X 26 foot terrace. This smoker complements our Weber Summit grill. Party's On! One of the cooking grate supports (attached to the wall of smoker and holds the water pan and racks) was broken off at the bottom which holds the water bowl. I emailed Masterbuilt and registered my unit online over the weekend and called them Monday. You MUST call customer service with your model & serial number for service. They shipped the part right out. I got a response to my email several days later telling me to call them. The part arrived in 4 days.My remote control gives me meat probe temp, "set time", blinks between "set temp" and actual temp unlike some of the reviews I've read, my remote gives me all the info that's on the machine. I must have a new model. It's great.Smoking meat has a learning curve! The first thing I smoked was a a chicken. I brined it overnight, rubbed it the next day and smoked it. The rub recipe I used was a little too harsh/ spicy for my taste. I'm thinking chicken, fish need a lighter touch. The smoker is easy to use and worked well. Slight adjustments of the vent easily regulate the smoker temperature. Adding wood chips (apple with a little hickory) is a breeze, just be careful, cause the loader tray gets very hot, the handle stays cool however. The next day I smoked a 7.5 lbs pork butt. This was a 3 day proposition. Again, I brined the butt overnight, rubbed and refridgerated the butt for another day, up at 4am, remove butt from fridge, soak the wood chips, smoker on, took 25-30 minutes to get smoker up to 225, load chips, load meat, insert thermometer *( the thermometer fits very tightly in it's holder. I suggest you remove it and place it lightly on the holder for easier insertion before you plug in the smoker ie. while it's cool to touch.) I learned this the hard way with the chicken. I couldn't get the darn thing out of it's holder, and now it's a hot thermometer and smoker , a messy chicken in the way, well you get the picture. Iwas surprised at how cool the outside/ top of the smoker stays. It also holds quite a bit of food. Unless your feeding hundreds this 30 inch model should be fine.Back to the butt, low and slow 225 adding chips approx every hour for first 5 hours, and again for the last 2 hours I when added some sweet italian sausage links. 11 hours total to an internal temp of 190. YOU CAN OVER SMOKE. So at the 4 hour mark, I opened the door to peek and noticed a nice crust/Mr. Brown starting to form, I left it in another hour, hour 5 ,it looked like all the youtube videos and pictures of a perfect smoked butt, nice and crusty all over. I quickly removed the butt, placing the thermometer probe lightly on its holder (of course), and wrapped the butt in heavy duty aluminum foil, returned the meat to the smoker inserted the probe, which I checked against my instant read thermometer, it was true, and let cook 6 more hours. As I said, I rubbed some sweet italian sausage links with olive oil and set that rack under the butt for the last 2 hours. I let the butt rest 30 minutes, covered in foil, before I pulled it. Wow, I was sooo excited to have pulled this off for my 12 memorial day guests. They were impressed with how delicious the pork and sausage was! I'm a pretty good home cook so I enjoy the process. It takes thought and preperation. So, what are you waiting for? Get your smoke on!!

I've used this particular smoker twice so far and the results have been pretty awesome. The only issue I've had is with recipes I've tried online (NOT THE SMOKER). First use was a combination of brisket, beef ribs, pork ribs, salmon and carne asada. The salmon recipe ended up being too salty for me (still came out good) but everyone else loved it. The brisket recipe came out dry but again very tasty.2nd use was 2 whole chickens. They were probably done at 5 1/2 hours but I kept them going longer. They were cooked through, outside almost looked over done but they were juicy on the inside with excellent smoke flavor. I only used one set of wood chips for the entire 6-7 hours.One tip: you don't need a lot of wood chips. The one cup recommended by the instructions is probably enough for 2-3 hours of smoking if not longer. The unit itself contains the smoke very well (just don't open the door). There is an air vent but I've left it closed both times and worked great.Something to watch for when setting up is the wood chip insert is on the right side (when facing the unit) and you need some room to pull it out and put it back in so consider that when deciding on location. Also, if the unit is not tilted slight towards the back some of the juices might miss the drip pan and come out the front. Easy mitigation is put long sheet of foil from left to right just under door seam.Remote works really well especially with the included meat prop for temp.10/15/13 update: A few other minor points I'd like to publish....When tilted the unit rolls very nicely, however, tilting it must be done from the back. This isn't a negative just a bit of info. It's very stable when not tilted so no worries about it rolling when you don't want it to. I've seen other questions about the window on the front, I don't really see any good utility for the window. Once you've used it a while or it's cooking it's extremely difficult to see through the window and I doubt you'll be able to judge anything going on at that point so I'd recommend not using the window feature as a discriminator when making a decision. Overall, still very please with this smoker.11/26/13 update: I "play" with 2 of these now, one at my friends house and one at mine and am very happy with the results. I did run into a minor issue with the remote control feature where the remote would not synch. Looks like it was the control unit attached to the smoker where the problem was happening. I contacted Masterbuilt through their website (didn't bother calling due to other reviews of calls) and they responded quickly. Originally sent the wrong item, then a new remote and finally a new remote/controller combo. Bottom line, they were very responsive to my emails and sent replacement parts quickly with no issues. The entire issue I had was resolved in just over a month (mainly due to my delay in contacting them). I did upload a video to show I followed the instructions and the problems I was having even though they didn't ask for it (I think it helped). As for the performance...I've been smoking whole chickens once a week now, bacon, beef and a brisket. Internal probe works great. Smoking a 13lb turkey for Tday this week....although I'm not 100% certain it will fit since I didn't check first. Definitely recommend this product at this point in time.2/11/2015 update: Still really enjoying this smoker. The only thing thing I'm not 100% happy about is if you do Chicken or Turkey it will not get crispy on the outside which isn't surprising at all...just finish off in the grill. I've done a number of briskets, ribs, chicken, Turkey and even bacon and all have turned out great as long as you pay attention. Brisket I've done up to 12 hours and it's been great. 3-4 hours for chicken and ribs. Had it for a few years now and it still works great. The window on the front is pretty much useless though so if you're trying to figure out window or not it really doesn't matter. Unless you're always cleaning it after a few uses you can't see through it anyway. The internal probe works really well but then you can't remove the meat without removing the probe. Much easier to use a wireless one.