Let's Talk BBQ
General => General Discussion & Topics => Polls => Topic started by: old sarge on January 09, 2013, 11:12:56 AM
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What do you like or dislike about it?
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I have had a few of them Sarge....
Pro: Cheap
Con: poor reliability. They have revised, and revised again the electronics....I am still not convinced that it is fair, or reasonable to expect reliability of such a "feature rich" unit for this cost. Lot's of promise, but - again, reliability issues seem to nag the products. Sure - there are some folks that do have good luck with them, and I believe this is a result of extra care - and great luck on their part.
Better option?
A Smokin' It, or a Smokin' Tex brand of cabinet smoker.
Reason: NO moving parts or fancy electronics. Pure and simple. Load wood chips/chunks int he tray, close the door, turn the knob to the temp. you want.
Done.....
As well - the Smokin' It and the Smokin' Tex units are REAL commercial weight and quality stainless steel inside and out. THe insulation of them is far superior to the Masterbuilt. The build quality is so good - that there is no door gasket required! The latching mechanism is tough and commercial quality...and so on.
The price? About the same as what you will pay for a Masterbuilt......
Not a slam, just an abservation based on several years of experience with Masterbuilt, Bradley, and Smokin Tex units ;) ;D
T
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The MBs do seem to have their problems, as well as a fairly strong following.
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The MBs do seem to have their problems, as well as a fairly strong following.
It is easy for us to buy cheap.. I mean - it makes us feel that we "got a deal". And, the promise of products that offer a lot of features for a low cost is very enticing. It is just not typically practical to expect reliability from low cost, complex pieces of equipment such as this.
But, sometimes "there is nothing so expensive as a cheap deal".... ;D
I think the same thing can be true on the other end of the financial spectrum tho. The most expensive items in a category are usually not a good value either.
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I had a Masterbuilt.
First the product it produced was not as good as my charcoal/ wood cookers.
Mine shorted out about 1 month out of warrenty.
My nephew & I replaced the wiring ( the factory was cheap stuff!) but it was hard took a whole six pack & was very dirty.
By this time I as so disgusted I gave it to my nephew.
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I was going to buy a Char-Griller years ago and I read about how there are web-sites with all the mods needed to make it a good smoker. I got to thinking if a entire site is devoted to mods, this pit was not designed properly in the first place.......now lets say for the Weber Smokey Mountain, there are a bunch of mods for it as well, but the WSM works perfectly on its own and the mods are more of a luxury than a necessity.........just sayin..................