Dave's Masterbuilt 1050 Gravity Feed Experiences


 
I've been quite happy with my Masterbuilt 1050. I don't find anything wrong with the cast iron grates. I've smoked and seared a bit of things, though I did modify the heat manifold, which is similar to what Char-Griller did. I may pick up the 980 just for the fun of it, but my patio is back to being full of cooking equipment. Something has to go and after how pissed off I am right now at my Smokefire EX6, it may be my next CL ad!
 
Joe Anshien said:
OK Now after reading through the whole thread I realize that Dave did a whole section on modifying the MB for a Ribolator. But I do have what may be a stupid question. If you want to just put something on a spit most grill setups have slots, so you can truss and spit your bird or what ever else you want to put on the spit inside the house, then just lay it into the slots and motor. The MB has one hole and a bracket. Does that mean you have to spit and un-spit the chicken in the grill and put the motor on the spit last? Am I missing something? Shouldn't there be a slot instead of a hole?
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Not sure I'm understanding, but if you use the OEM Rotisserie from MB, you install your food on the shaft/forks and insert the shaft through the leff-side hole, into the motor and then sit the other end on the right-side bracket. The Rib-O-Lator never worked right - just too tight on tolerances, but it was fun to try to make it work. It does work but I just don't like it. If the grill was a 1/2" deeper, it would have been perfect.
 
Dave - Unixadm said:
Not sure I'm understanding, but if you use the OEM Rotisserie from MB, you install your food on the shaft/forks and insert the shaft through the leff-side hole, into the motor and then sit the other end on the right-side bracket. The Rib-O-Lator never worked right - just too tight on tolerances, but it was fun to try to make it work. It does work but I just don't like it. If the grill was a 1/2" deeper, it would have been perfect.
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I think I get it. I am used to preparing the chicken and getting it on the spit in the house and bringing out on the spit to the grill. I would think it would be tougher to fork it and then slide it on at the grill but I have never tried.
 
Joe Anshien said:
I think I get it. I am used to preparing the chicken and getting it on the spit in the house and bringing out on the spit to the grill. I would think it would be tougher to fork it and then slide it on at the grill but I have never tried.
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You can prepare everything inside and then put it into the 1050.
 
Dave - Unixadm said:
Let's get that insulation installed. The interior cook chamber front panel is removed in this sho
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What type of insulation did you use? That looks like regular (fiberglass?) house wall insulation with foil facing?

I've been looking at doing something similar but am concerned about things like strands and fibers getting loose and into the cook area, as well as things like outgassing of bad stuff when the material is heated past 'room temp' (not to mention up to 500+ F!).

FWIW right now l'm using a carbon welding blanket from Amazon that I throw over the top of my 560. I also throw it over the top of my propane grill when I use it. But that can get awkward.

Thanks! I am really enjoying reading what you've tried and done.
 
This thread has pretty much convinced me to buy a 1050, I was looking at a pellet, then saw this model and have been thinking ever since. One question I do have is, what is recommended, just putting wood in the ash pan or intermixing it with the charcoal?
 
I have the MB560 and I do both. But I'm still learning. I think I've been not putting enough wood in the smoker, fearing over smoking the meats.
 
My problem with this smoker, has been what some might politely call " flare ups " , I call them " grease fires " . I don't try to use it for grilling. I like my Kettle better anyway. But a couple times when I've tried reverse sear, I've gotten huge " flare ups " when I crank up the temp to sear.

I bought a mod that may help with that, have yet to try it. But I did not buy the mod for this purpose, I bought it to be able to put a drip pan under the bottom grate.

I don't smoke on this without a drip pan, too easy for a spark to fly into the cook chamber and set grease on fire.
 
I keep my 1050 pretty clean so no real grease fires. As for where to place the wood chunks? I prefer the pan method. It allows you to regulate the smoke better versus putting it in the chimney. A lot of times I’ll wrap at a certain point, so burning chunks at that point is a waste as well.
 
Dave - Unixadm said:
I keep my 1050 pretty clean so no real grease fires. As for where to place the wood chunks? I prefer the pan method. It allows you to regulate the smoke better versus putting it in the chimney. A lot of times I’ll wrap at a certain point, so burning chunks at that point is a waste as well.
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I keep mine clean also. I line the grease tray with foil. And was covering the manifold with foil till I bought this new mod. I also vacuum out the ash inside the manifold. It takes a lot of cleaning .

My grease fire issues have been from grease dripping DURING the cook, that I can't do anything about.

I don't like searing steaks with a grease fire. Some do that, I prefer not to.
 
Dave - Unixadm said:
UPPER AND LOWER GRATE TEMP TEST....

I was contemplating cooking ribs but I decided to hold off a day and check the temperatures in the 1050 one more time just so I know where things stood. After checking the side to side temps in earlier posts, I decided to do a typical 250 degree smoke test. This is when I'd find the temperature variation important, because I may be cooking the same items at multiple levels. After putting a probe dead center in the bottom grate and another probe in the front center of the upper grate, I fired up the 1050 with a set point of 250 degrees.

After it settled in, there was around a 5 degree difference from the bottom to the top grate. Initially during heat up, the variance was +30 degrees or so, but once the pit settled down at the set point the temperatures came into near alignment.

CH 1 = Bottom Grate, Center/Center
CH 2 = Top Grate, Center/Front

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I was using some Kingsford hickory briquettes which were sitting around opened for I don't how long. Even though I said earlier that I had charcoal sitting around, I still went ahead and bought plenty of new stuff just in case. It was only a partial bag but I got around three hours out of it at 250. The temperature control is pretty consistent. I had left the house when it ran out of fuel, so I just let it do its thing until I got home.

I also had a delivery show up from Amazon with a few things, one of which was for the 1050. I bought a replacement high temp 900 degree dial thermometer for the lid, since the stock one is completely useless. No mods were required to install this:
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Lastly, since we're in the middle of the worst heatwave we've had in quite a while (they say once in a decade), I bought a misting fan. It works so good and I'm kicking myself for not ordering one years ago. I got a Lasko 7050 Misto. Plug it in and connect it to a garden hose. That's it and you have patio cooling while cooking or hanging out. It's not going to cool a huge area, but it would easily cool a space around my six person patio table. I sat with that thing blowing on me for about an hour this afternoon and really didn't realize how hot it was (110 degrees) until I got up and moved away from the fan/misters. I also got a little misting stick but it was pretty weak. I'd use it in a pinch or perhaps if I was a hot woman sunning in a bikini, but that's about it. The fan is where it's at!

If the upcoming cooks come out good on this pit, I honestly could see parting with my pellet grills which is crazy. I've had a pellet grill on my patio since 2010 and most of the time I've had several. This thing is easy to use, heats extremely fast, has far better temperature control and temperature evenness than any of my pellet smokers and runs rock cooking temperatures. The proof is in the pudding though. If I can brave the heat, I think it's going to be that ribeye cook I've been talking about. It will also be the first time I'll run the 1050 on lump charcoal, since I've used up most of the open bags of other stuff I've had laying around. I'm planning a reverse sear with pecan or oak - just a couple of small pieces in the ash pan. I'm looking for that wood fired taste more than anything.
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Do you remember the make of the new gauge?
 
Did not take me long to find a MB grease fire. I went to the Facebook Masterbuilt Gravity Series Fans group, and very first post was a grease fire due to putting two pork butts on the 1050.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/gravityseries

I would never attempt a pork butt. I have a stick burner for pork butt, I've got two on it now, but even if all I had was a MB GF, I would not do it. Complicates the problem is on the 560, there's no way to cut off oxygen, the back vent is permanently open.
 
DaveMc said:
Do you remember the make of the new gauge?
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Sure do. Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XX9T9F7/?tag=tvwb-20

Lynn Dollar said:
I keep mine clean also. I line the grease tray with foil. And was covering the manifold with foil till I bought this new mod. I also vacuum out the ash inside the manifold. It takes a lot of cleaning .

My grease fire issues have been from grease dripping DURING the cook, that I can't do anything about.

I don't like searing steaks with a grease fire. Some do that, I prefer not to.
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Ah. Well I think any grill running 550+ is going to have flare ups. That's the nature of cooking on an open surface, versus something like a griddle.

Lynn Dollar said:
Did not take me long to find a MB grease fire. I went to the Facebook Masterbuilt Gravity Series Fans group, and very first post was a grease fire due to putting two pork butts on the 1050.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/gravityseries

I would never attempt a pork butt. I have a stick burner for pork butt, I've got two on it now, but even if all I had was a MB GF, I would not do it. Complicates the problem is on the 560, there's no way to cut off oxygen, the back vent is permanently open.
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There can be grease fires in any cooker. I have smoked a boat load of stuff in my 1050 and have never once had a grease fire. The only mod I have is the stainless cover over the manifold. I don't know what temps people are cooking at, but when cooking around 250, it's a pretty sedate fire. If you left the lid open for a long time, I could see it having an issue. In addition, you can always cook on the second shelf and put catch pans on the primary grate. Most of the time when cooking butts, I do cook them in small steam table pans because I like to retain the juices for later. I've also done plenty of reverse sears with no real issues to report. I've found the 1050 to be pretty much my favorite cooker and the one I use the most.
 
Well, spend any time at the two MB gravity feed FB groups. and there's fires galore. I would not trust this 560 with any fatty cook WITHOUT a drip pan, and I would not do pork butt, period. I would put it on my Kettle first.

I just bought that manifold cover from LSS, but I bought it to get the drip pan holders. Not tried it yet.
 
Something I've discovered about putting wood in the chute or the hopper , whichever term to use , is that wood will burn a lot faster than the charcoal.

I've put pieces in vertically, that look like in this pic. They're roughly 2 X 10. I stand them up in the hopper and put charcoal around them. I've found that the fire will travel up the wood a lot faster than the charcoal. So it burns faster.

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Here's the manifold cover and drip pan mods I bought from LSS. I really only wanted the brackets to hold the drip pan, but had to buy the cover. I was putting a drip pan on the bottom grate and cooking on the middle grate. I like this better, I don't think it will interfere with air flow , like it does on bottom grate. It will now sit right on top of the manifold, really out of the way of air flow .

I don't see need for water pan, just put water in the drip pan.

 
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