The Texas BBQ Forum

I've seen Instagram posts here and there, but they were officially released for sale today. VERY curious how real reviews turn out. If good this may be on my Christmas list instead of a Pellet Smoker.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Masterbuilt- ... /811864559

I'm with you it will be interesting to see how these fair in actual use......

this could be a game changer if it performs, me curious and watching

Santa has one ready for my Christmas morning surprise, can't wait to see how it likes oak chunks.

We will expect a Full Report with Pics after the Maiden Cook

This is going to take a while...the box is large, heavy and full of parts...there are LOTS of parts to put together.
Not a task for Christmas day for sure.

looks like fun, only different
the reviews I read indicated 2 plus hours of assembly

More like three, mine had some hole alignment issues. Nothing major just three or four holes that were a bit harder to get threaded.
Most were perfectly aligned though and given how many screws were involved I'm not going to complain.
I found I needed a longer than normal screwdriver to reach two or three screws.
The instructions indicate double sided tape to hold a gasket in place but my gasket was soaked in oil so I tilted the main body so the gasket stayed in place while I installed the screws.
The instructions are pictorial and have almost no written instructions which bothered me at first but as it turned out are probably better than trying to describe what they they wanted to impart.
I'm going to do the burn-in this weekend but may not cook until next and may do babybacks before stepping up to a brisket.

I'm out on that. Too much assembly for me.

Just got done with the initial burn-in, 250 for an hour and 400 for a half hour.
Been shut down now for 15 minutes and it seems to shut down and kill the fire pretty fast, which was one of my main concerns in terms of wasting briquettes.
My first impression is that is has no hot spots, the cook grate temp is the same left to right.
My second impression is that it changes temp VERY quickly and holds almost exactly the temp I selected.
It was right at 250 and held 402 the whole time during burn in.
After running at 250 for 30 minutes I downloaded the aap and tinkered with higher and lower temp settings, both of which occur in no more than 10 seconds.
I think the internal temp sensor must be fairly high quality (I'm hoping that means it will last a long time) as it responds to temp change inputs very quickly, much faster than my Maverick probe rig.
The exterior does not get super hot, even on the burn chamber so it's not a hazard to humans or structures (the instructions call for a lot of space between the cooker and any structure but I'm sure they have to say that).
I have mine in a screen porch and have fans rigged to suck the smoke out of the porch and with it no more than a foot away from the porch wall and screen the temps got nowhere near dangerous. I know, proceed at your own risk gents...
Tomorrow or Sunday I'll push some babybacks through it and then later a cheap brisket before trying an American Wagyu.
Anyway, so far so good, it looks like a winner!

I finally saw one of these in person and it looks like a quality smoker for it's price range, but darn that assembly may be a deal killer for me too. I wonder if the big box stores will provide free assembly like they do with other grills.

As far as I'm concerned it's a near perfect cooker.
I wanted (demanded really) a cooker that would impart true wood smoke flavor and at the same time not require my constant attention to the fire.
This cooker does both and really well.
The wood smoke flavor is right there with my offset but the fill and forget along with the perfect temp control make this a winner.
Longevity will play out over time but it sure checks all my boxes so far.
As to putting it together, anybody can do it, it just takes the time to do it.

good reports so far, but in earlier post you eluded to using some wood mixed with the charcoal.... have you tried that yet?
and lastly what brand and type of charcoal are you feed it?
TIA

The burn-in was with lowest grade Kingsford briquettes only, man does that stuff make smoke when first lit!
The ribs shown (and the ones I have cooking right now) were on Kamado Joe XXL lump with kiln hickory and natural aged post oak.
I included roughly 4 inch square wood chunks in the charcoal feeder bin and two larger chunks of natural oak in the ash catch bin.
As the cook progressed and the wood in the charcoal feeder was consumed, I just put wood in the ash catch bucket.
Placing it there worked great, nice slow burn with clean smoke just like the manufacturer said it would.
This is the first time I've burned the Kamado Joe lump, I bought it two years ago to use in a Kamado but did not use it until this cooker and its probably the best lump I've tried, at least as good as FOGO, my previous favorite, there's no smell at all, very little smoke and minimal ash produced.