This is a sort of heads up to others, because I would normally have just carried this out to the curb when it stopped working. Basically, I got good product support from Masterbuilt and was quickly, easily, and cheaply able to get my conked out smoker going again.
I have a 30 inch Masterbuilt electric dorm-fridge type smoker model 20070910 that is about 3.5 years old. When I tried to turn it on recently, it would immediately trip the GFP on my outside plug. (It had tripped in the recent past after the unit was on for some time, which did not make the unit unusable. But the immediate trip did make it unusable.)
I just going to take it out for the refuse people to pick up--it was not all that expensive and I had gotten good use of it. I think these things ostensibly have a 90-day warranty! But I ran some Google searches and found that folks felt they were getting great product support from Masterbuilt for this and similar problems for units way out of warranty. So I called Mb, got someone on the line pretty much right away and they diagnosed a bad heater element--even though the element looked fine to me. They sent me a new one for around $14, as I recall, I assume plus some shipping that I neglected to ask the cost of. It came quickly with good instructions, and was fairly easy to install. Unit works great now. A very satisfactory experience.
By the way, there on some You Tube videos on replacing heater elements in 30 inch Masterbuilt units, where the process seems quite elaborate. I do not know if those are other model numbers or what, even though the units look like mine. What I did was simple in every respect. Anyway, I would not be scared off by those videos. In a potentially similar vein, Amazon seems to still sell this model number and what it calls the newer model 20071117, the latter at about $10 less than the former. They look the same from the outside, but from what I have read, folks do not like some of the tweaks Mb has made in the newer model and think the older model is better.
Anyway, I thought I would pass this on, FWIW. I realize not as cool as a charcoal or even gas-fired model, but it has done pretty well by me.
I have a 30 inch Masterbuilt electric dorm-fridge type smoker model 20070910 that is about 3.5 years old. When I tried to turn it on recently, it would immediately trip the GFP on my outside plug. (It had tripped in the recent past after the unit was on for some time, which did not make the unit unusable. But the immediate trip did make it unusable.)
I just going to take it out for the refuse people to pick up--it was not all that expensive and I had gotten good use of it. I think these things ostensibly have a 90-day warranty! But I ran some Google searches and found that folks felt they were getting great product support from Masterbuilt for this and similar problems for units way out of warranty. So I called Mb, got someone on the line pretty much right away and they diagnosed a bad heater element--even though the element looked fine to me. They sent me a new one for around $14, as I recall, I assume plus some shipping that I neglected to ask the cost of. It came quickly with good instructions, and was fairly easy to install. Unit works great now. A very satisfactory experience.
By the way, there on some You Tube videos on replacing heater elements in 30 inch Masterbuilt units, where the process seems quite elaborate. I do not know if those are other model numbers or what, even though the units look like mine. What I did was simple in every respect. Anyway, I would not be scared off by those videos. In a potentially similar vein, Amazon seems to still sell this model number and what it calls the newer model 20071117, the latter at about $10 less than the former. They look the same from the outside, but from what I have read, folks do not like some of the tweaks Mb has made in the newer model and think the older model is better.
Anyway, I thought I would pass this on, FWIW. I realize not as cool as a charcoal or even gas-fired model, but it has done pretty well by me.
(i see the silicone gasket)
