Are you searching for Masterbuilt smoker parts? The parts mentioned below work not just for Masterbuilt, but other brands as well.
If you want to keep your Masterbuilt electric smoker in good working condition, then you need to clean and maintain it regularly. You should also store it in a place where it can be protected from harsh environmental elements. But despite your best efforts to take care of the electric smoker, some things may go wrong.
For instance, a certain component of the pellet grill can break down unexpectedly. The good news is that you won’t have to replace the grill even if critical parts deteriorate. You just need to know where to find them.
Pellet grill owners will be glad to know that leading manufacturers, including Masterbuilt, manufacture plenty of spare parts, which are easily available in the market. This way, pellet grill owners will not be left stranded if only one part fails.
As a Masterbuilt electric smoker owner, you should know about the parts that power your amazing barbecue machine. Besides just adding to your knowledge, this information will also help you to zero in on the faulty part in case the appliance malfunctions.
By learning more about the parts involved, you can understand how your electric smoker operates and what will be the approximate cost if a single part fails.
As with all machines and appliances, electric smokers too comprise several parts working in synchrony with each other. All electric smokers have at least these basic parts: smoker racks, heating element, smoking chamber, drip pan and wood chip tray.
Let’s take a closer look at all of these parts.
Smoking Chamber
This is obviously the biggest part of them all since it is going to house all other parts of the electric smoker. This is the chamber where you smoke your food to get that wonderful smoke flavor and aroma. Keep in mind that some electric smokers have drip pans outside of the smoking chamber.
There is more to an electric smoker chamber than just aesthetics and durability. It has to be made from high quality insulating material so that less heat is lost to the environment. Insulation helps because it enables more heat from your wood pellets to remain inside and go into the food.
This way, you will be able to cook more food from a given amount of wood pellets. This is a great way of saving money since wood pellets don’t come cheap.
Wood pellets are, in fact, the main reason why pellet smoking is more expensive than other grilling methods, despite its great taste. By increasing heat efficiency with good quality insulation, you will be able to reduce the consumption of wood pellets and save money in the process.
Besides high quality insulation, the parts that comprise the smoking chamber should be well-fitting and must have tight tolerances. Ill-fitting parts mean larger gaps will allow more smoke to escape into the surroundings.
This is something that you don’t want since you are burning expensive hardwood pellets to generate the flavorful smoke. Besides allowing more smoke to be wasted, the gap produced by the ill-fitting parts will also allow more heat to escape into the surroundings.
The large gaps will defeat the purpose of high-quality insulation. Therefore, the smoke chamber must be made from high quality insulating material and the parts must be well-designed and fabricated so that they fit well and allow less heat and smoke to escape from the interior.
Electric smoking chambers are often made from thick gauge stainless steel to ensure durability and resilience. Stainless steel is an excellent material that does not rust heavily even when it is subject to harsh weather. If stainless steel is not used, then porcelain-coated steel is utilized. The porcelain coating on the exterior imparts corrosion resistance to the steel, which would otherwise begin to rust if exposed to the atmosphere.
Besides corrosion resistance, the porcelain coating also acts as an insulating material, which reduces the loss of heat to the surroundings. The coating also lends high aesthetic appeal to the chamber with its glossy surface.
The size of the smoking chamber is based on your cooking needs and its shape is also such that it facilitates efficient convection and circulation.
Heating Element
The heating element provides energy for heating your electric smoker. It basically acts as a heat source that converts electrical energy into heat. Heating elements are normally located at the bottom of the grill since heated air expands and is, therefore, less dense than the surrounding cooler air. The less-dense hot air naturally rises upwards due to the buoyancy effect.
As the hot air rises from the element, more cool air comes into contact with the hot element. This volume of cooler air gets heated and rises upwards, thus setting up a cycle where all the cool air within the chamber is heated efficiently and thoroughly. This is how the natural convection currents of air are set up.
Due to the natural phenomenon described above, heating elements have to be placed at the bottom. If they are placed on top, then the hot air will remain on top and the cool air will remain at the bottom. In this case, the cool air at the bottom will be heated by conduction rather than convection.
But heating air by conduction is a very slow process since air is an exceptionally good insulator. So the cool air at the bottom will heat up eventually, but it will take a much longer time. Hence, this arrangement is less than efficient.
While many electric smokers have elements at the bottom, some models also have elements at the sides of the smoking chamber to heat up the air inside.
Many electric smokers do well with one element, but larger electric smokers may require two heating elements for efficient heating of the air within. In addition, the power of the electric heater also depends on the size of the smoking chamber. A larger smoking chamber will obviously need more powerful heating elements to generate more heat.
There are electric smoker heating elements that generate a rather modest 250 watts of power. The biggest ones, on the other hand, can produce up to 1,500 watts of power. These are the extreme ends of the heating range and many heating elements lie somewhere in between.
One thing to keep in mind with a small smoking chamber is that you do not want to keep a 1,500 watt heating element. You might think that this will heat up the inside quickly within a shorter time span and therefore reduce the length of the cooking session.
However, it is not a good idea because the high temperatures produced by this powerful heating element will dry out the food. The food will come out dull, dry and tasteless. For smaller smoking chambers, you will need heating elements with a lower power rating.
Wood Chip Tray
This tray lies at the very heart of your electric smoker since this is the container that will hold the wood chips for generating smoke. The wood chip tray is normally placed over the heating element so that heat rises directly from the element towards the tray. The wood chip tray is kept underneath the grilling grates so that smoke can rise directly towards the food. With this arrangement, you can be certain that the smoke will permeate the interior to infuse a rich smokey flavor in your barbecue.
If you want to produce more smoke and ease the smoking process, you should purchase a larger tray so that it can hold more wood chips. Of course, how much you fill up the tray with wood depends on the level of smokey flavor that you want to impart to the meal.
You should try to find a detachable wood chip tray because it will provide you with plenty of convenience. Removing and attaching such trays is much easier.
If you want to maintain a good level of consistent smokey flavor in your meal, then you should steadily add wood chips while cooking is underway. Make sure that during this process, there is a minimum loss of smoke and heat. In order to minimize this loss of heat and smoke, you should purchase a smoker that has a small door for adding wood chips during the smoking process. This way, you can minimize the loss of heat and smoke while you add wood chips to the tray.
Drip Pan
The drip pan is one of the three pans that electric smokers are equipped with. It does not do much as far as enhancing the flavor of the smoked meal is concerned. But it does have a crucial role to play in reducing the hassle of cleanup.
Almost all grill chefs will agree that cleaning up is the least interesting and the most tedious task of the entire grilling process. The drip pan is very useful in this regard because it collects grease that comes from molten fat as meat is heated to high temperatures.
Since all the grease is collected in one place, you will have less work to do while cleaning up the grill.
Drip pans are not essential since electric smokers can work without them; hence, there are some smoker models that lack these pans. If your electric smoker lacks a drip pan, then you should buy yourself one so that grease collects in one place rather than messing up the grill.
For some very obvious reasons, the drip pan will certainly be the greasiest part of the grill and therefore difficult to clean up. Therefore, to create maximum convenience for yourself and to reduce the pain of cleaning up, you should get a drip pan that is both detachable and dishwasher-friendly.
With these two qualities, taking out the drip pan and reattaching it when it is clean will be much easier and the dishwasher will minimize your workload by cleaning up the messy tray so that it is sparkling clean.
Water Pan
The smoker water pan is another important element of the electric smoker. Although it is not that important, it enhances the flavor of the food significantly. As a result, it is the favorite tool of pro barbecue competitors. You don’t want to miss out on the water pan as it is inexpensive and yet it gives great results.
In some electric smokers, the same pan serves as both the water pan and the drip tray. This is not the best arrangement because the grease will be wasted and you won’t be able to use it for gravies, sauces or other recipes.
Make sure that the water pan that you are purchasing is detachable and dishwasher safe. You should be able to remove it and attach it without a fuss. Since it is dishwasher-safe, you can let the dishwasher do the monotonous work for you.
There is one kind of electric smoker that is designed to utilize water during the smoking procedure. Such devices are called electric water smokers. These water pans are filled with water so that they give off steam when the interior becomes hot enough. The steam given off will keep the meat moist, juicy and succulent. It is great for preventing the meat from drying out, which can result in bland food that is hard to chew and unappetizing at the same time.
Electric Smoker Racks
These smoking racks have a support role in electric smokers. You can mount racks on top of the other in your electric smoker so that you can keep food on them during the smoking process. The number of racks that you can put inside your electric smoker depends on the size of the smoking chamber.
Most electric smokers have room for about 4 to 5 smoker racks. Several kinds of smoker racks are available in the market. The most popular types are those that resemble the racks in your indoor oven. These are easily removable and are very easy to work with. You can take them out without difficulty in order to clean them up.
Basic smoker racks are often supplied with most electric smoker models. However, special models of electric smokers employ other kinds of smoker racks as well. There are also specially designed racks that are used for smoking jerky and ribs.
When it comes to holding food in the smoking chamber, you are not limited to just smoker racks. You can also get yourself some hangers so that they can hold jerky and sausages for smoking. You can also get your electric smoker grill a specially-made smoke shelf or basket for infusing smoke at low temperatures into seafood and vegetables.
So you should look for smoking racks that are specialized for different kinds of foods, according to their specific cooking requirements.
Door Seal
The smoker door seal is useful for ensuring that your old smoker works just like new. The smoker door seal, as the name suggests, is used to seal the smoker door to stop the outward flow of smoke and heat, which can reduce the efficiency of your grill. In other words, it is a gasket for your electric smoker door. You can fix it easily to the door using the right sealant.
By using a smoker door seal, your grill will revert to its nearly air-tight cooking ability. The best part is that it is affordable.
Temperature Controller
There are certain electric smoker models that lack a thermostat. They are equipped with just a temperature gauge. It would be a good idea to upgrade such a low tech grill into a sophisticated unit by attaching this controller.
Of course, even if your grill has a thermostat, you may need an extra one if something goes wrong with it. The beauty of these controllers is that they are very easy to use.
Even if you are not used to working with thermostats, it is certainly a good idea to invest in meat probes to follow the temperature of that steak.
Cold Smoker Attachment
As the name implies, this is a piece of equipment for cold smoking. The key difference between hot and cold smoking is that the meat, wood chips and heating element are placed within the same chamber during hot smoking.
Cold smoking is different because it does not require the use of heat. Rather than cooking food, the cold smoking process imparts a special smokey flavor to the barbecue.
They are a great attachment for improving the flavor of your barbecue recipe.
The best unit for this purpose is the Masterbuilt slow smoker kit. This unit is great for cold smoking jerky, fish, cheese and salmon.