worldbfreebase
06-10-2020, 03:18 PM
I was asked by another member to give a full review.
This is going to be a long read so if you are not interested in this cooker, I would probably move onto a different thread.
I have done zero mods so this is from experience using it out of the box.
Overall Design & build:
I purchased this from Cabela's. They offer free assembly and since I am having treatments on my elbow, I took advantage of it. Their assembly was very poor. I got home and discovered several things were loose and the grates would not fit properly. I discovered the cooking chamber was skewed and the hood didn't line up properly either. Manufacturing or assembly? I am leaning toward assembly but can't be sure. Cabela's swapped it out with what was going to be the floor model. That assembly was even worse. Nearly every screw was loose. I got home to discover two screws had rattled out of it and were lying in the bed of my truck, one of which held on one of the tool hooks and it was gone. This is Cabela's issue not MB.
Got everything tightened up and good news, everything seemed to be assembled correctly and I didn't have any issues like I did with the first one. Beware of free assembly, however, YMMV depending on the employee putting it together.
I feel the overall construction and design is very good. The cooking chamber is sturdy. The hood is fairly stout. The “thermometer” in the hood is worthless. Not sure why they even put one in it considering it is electronically controlled. I got caught in the rain doing the seasoning and moisture got in it.(BTW held temp great in the rain).
The base and legs are sturdy. For now I have to move this in and out of a shed so I will probably have to keep an eye on screws coming loose on the side shelf. I think they also should have added a handle. The caster wheels could be stouter. The fold out drawer is kind of gimmicky but it does hold the power cord, which is a much higher quality on the 1050 than the 560.
The charcoal hopper is open for debate. Overall I think the design is fine and mostly well-constructed. The paint on the underside of the hopper lid did peel off as well as on the top of the hopper. Let me restate that. Paint definitely came off the top of the hopper, I think paint peeled on the bottom of the lid but I didn’t really pay attention to whether or not it was painted. I believe this is an issue of creosote eating the paint up. Where there has been no creosote buildup the paint is fine. Ran a couple cooks with aluminum foil in the lid, discovered moisture build up and ditched it. Now it gets coated with veggie oil and is nice and seasoned. The gaskets on the hopper and ash door are not great. I don’t see them lasting long, at least not on the hopper lid. Will probably add lava lock or replace with lava lock. (Considering that for the hood as well) This will improve some small leaks. There are a couple screw holes in the flange where the top hopper attaches to the bottom. I thought Cabela’s left them out so I disassembled it to discover there were no holes in the bottom. The bottom of the hopper is a hot topic. Pretty much everyone has had the metal plates burn out in the bottom near the grate. I had burn out after the first cook. MB states these are just shipping plates to hold the insulation bricks in place and it is a non-issue. Based on the fact that everything on this thing is pretty much replaceable as individual parts and these plates are not in the parts list or on the diagram, I am going to give MB the benefit of the doubt, for now. There are a couple guys making sleeves to replace them. The insulation bricks are food grade and I can replace them 3 or 4 times for the cost of the mod sleeve if/when they wear out. I am not convinced the sleeve is the right way to go.
The quality does seem to be better than the 560 model. One specific design improvement in the 1050 is they integrated the vent slot into the top of the cook chamber with the door. On the 560, the slot is located lower on the back and I question if you get good smoke and temp cooking on the top rack. I have contemplated as to whether or not the slot needs to be as big as it is and choking it down. There are some theories that this is needed for flow for the high temp cooking so some guys are experimenting with a mod to put a restricting slide on it which will hopefully help with holding temp and reducing fuel consumption. If this does not create a quality or quantity of smoke issue, I would be all for this mod. It makes sense.
Another design improvement is the hopper lid. The 560 lid folds back over top of the hood. The 1050 folds directly backward. This is an improvement that you are not folding it back over a hot hood. The hinges are a little weak and they have a stop on them to hold the door up. I foresee this being an issue and the door snapping off. I intend on adding a lid stay to prevent it from traveling too far back and breaking the hinges off.
The manifold slides in and out easily for cleaning. Based on some temp readings and the smoke coming out pretty evenly across the back slot, I would say it is designed pretty well. The manifold itself isn’t the easiest thing to clean. One of the mod guys is making a cover for it which I think is supposed to help drippings from getting inside the manifold therefore making the cover even easier to clean and not having to really clean the manifold. I will wait for more feedback from users before rendering an opinion on this mod.
The grates. I haven’t really used the grates much and I currently only have one of them installed. I have had it that way since I seasoned it. I think the fold up grates is also gimmicky. If you are going to use them, just take them out. I could see them flopping back down and getting in the when you are trying to maneuver stuff around.
Fold out front shelf. Great concept, kind of poor execution. There is not much room between the shelf and the hood handle and it is nowhere near deep enough.
The electronics. Very simple to use. Does a great job of holding temps. The control temperature sensor seems pretty accurate, at least in mine. Guys have talked about major differences in the 560, I don’t think I have heard much about that on the 1050. What I was pleasantly surprised about was my meat probe was within a couple of degrees of my thermapen. At least once it was fully inserted. Some users have not reported the same success. The hood sensor tends to not signal well if you gently close the hood. When I get the open error, I just raise the hood a couple inches and drop it. Usually does the trick. The receiver for the power cord just hangs there. It is good that it is under the shelf in case of rain but I would have like to have seen it be more of a rigid mounted receiver instead of a hanging dongle. I am considering installing corrugated plastic conduit to protect all the wiring.
The App. P.O.S. At least for android. Some people have had success on apple but I have not heard of anyone really having much success getting the WIFI to work on android. I can get the Bluetooth to connect but the range is limited. Spotty if I go in the house. Have to hit the connect button on the controller to reconnect after opening a door. That’s a little annoying. The have released new firmware but since it won’t connect to the wifi you can’t update it. This is a major issue in my mind and a lot of other people’s. One of the greatest reasons I bought it, like everyone else, was to be able to have the set it and forget it convenience of a pellet pooper but be able to actually smoke meat. I understand bugs have to be worked out and I knew going in this issue existed. The problem is their customer service is not responding or communicating anything. Before I even purchased mine I knew I may end up going the fireboard route. I haven’t really set an end date, but more than likely I will get a fireboard by the time labor day rolls around. Still want to give them a chance to get it right.
Received the cover the other day. Very well made.
The Food:
I have done the following cooks in this order: baby back ribs, chicken wings, spare ribs, beer can style chicken, reverse seared ribeye, brisket. I have also grilled asparagus after cranking the heat up. Corn on the cob and baked potato while smoking other food.
Both runs on the ribs were solid, spares probably a little better. Controlled the smoke better.
Chicken wings were awesome. Being able to smoke them for an hour and then just crank up the heat to 500° to crisp the skin is a game changer.
Beer can chicken. Bought one of the cheap racks at home depot. In researching recipes I came across an article debunking this cooking method and it made total sense. So I didn’t use a can, I just put the chicken on the can holder to keep it vertical and put it in a disposable aluminum tray with some seasonings and, of course, beer. That liquid did steam and was able to travel into the cavity of the bird. Again, cranked it up to crisp the skin. Delicious.
Reverse seared ribeye. Overshot my IT mark of 105° before searing. Had a cast iron skillet in the cooker the whole time, cranked up the heat to 650° and seared a pretty good crust at two minutes a side. Came out medium. I am more of a on the rare side of medium rare type so I was a little disappointed in that but that wasn’t the equipment’s fault. I will say, it was by far the most flavorful and juiciest medium cooked ribeye I have EVER had.
The Brisket. I am not going to go into all the details of the cook, but I will say I knocked it out of the park for my first ever brisket, even with some mistakes being made. Brought it to a gathering and everyone raved about it. Not sure if I will be able to reproduce the results but there is no way I would have pulled off a brisket this good without having this smoker. The temp control and meat probe thermometer, along with a couple of good how to videos, made it nearly impossible for me not to make a solidly good brisket. This was also the only cook that I only put the wood in the ash can.
Lighting:
I use rutland starter squares and a map gas torch. I leave the doors open until I get some good coals started(~5 minutes or less) then I close the doors and bring it up to 275°. By this time, I usually have some coals I can knock into the ashcan. I then add wood, drop the temp control to desired cooking temp and put the meat on.
Shutting down:
I typically crank it up for a burn off. I have towels in a bucket of water that I ring out and rub the grates and manifold with. Then I turn off the controller and insert the slides. Eventually it shuts down and cools off but I feel like I lose a charcoal because it doesn’t cut off the oxygen well enough. I already have a pretty good gauge on how much charcoal I need to use for each type and length of cook.
Wood Placement:
I am still experimenting with this. On the brisket cook, I didn’t want to be too heavy on the smoke so I opted to not put wood in the hopper, I only put it in the ash can so I could control it better. I feel like I got better quality and more consistent smoke this way and virtually no creosote buildup on the lid. Downside to this is you have to keep adding wood to the ash can so it takes a little away from the set and forget.
Capacity:
I haven’t really used the grates but I am guessing I could probably fit 3 briskets, maybe 4 depending on thickness at the point. 2 on the main grates, and then one on each elevated grate. I don’t need the additional space of the 1050 for my normal usage, however, I opted for the larger model because I will occasionally host a large cookout, the build quality seemed to be a little better than the 560, and I hate cooking with food crammed in.
Mods:
As I mentioned before,I am not convinced the firebox mod or the manifold mod are necessary. Guys are also doing mods to the charcoal grate. Again, not sure I am convinced this is necessary or helpful. If you are going to run wood in the ash can, you want some larger coals to fall through.
I am interested in the slide mod to shrink the vent. It would be adjustable so it makes sense and will probably save a lot of fuel.
I am going to do a mod of some kind on the front shelf.
Lava lock on the hood and the doors will probably happen.
I definitely plan on installing a lid stay for the hopper door to prevent it from being ripped off.
If they don’t straighten out the app, then I will eventually end up with a fireboard.
All in all, I LOVE this cooker, except the friggin app. I am not as concerned about longevity as much as some other people are.
Let me know if there is anything I missed or anything else you have questions about.
This is going to be a long read so if you are not interested in this cooker, I would probably move onto a different thread.
I have done zero mods so this is from experience using it out of the box.
Overall Design & build:
I purchased this from Cabela's. They offer free assembly and since I am having treatments on my elbow, I took advantage of it. Their assembly was very poor. I got home and discovered several things were loose and the grates would not fit properly. I discovered the cooking chamber was skewed and the hood didn't line up properly either. Manufacturing or assembly? I am leaning toward assembly but can't be sure. Cabela's swapped it out with what was going to be the floor model. That assembly was even worse. Nearly every screw was loose. I got home to discover two screws had rattled out of it and were lying in the bed of my truck, one of which held on one of the tool hooks and it was gone. This is Cabela's issue not MB.
Got everything tightened up and good news, everything seemed to be assembled correctly and I didn't have any issues like I did with the first one. Beware of free assembly, however, YMMV depending on the employee putting it together.
I feel the overall construction and design is very good. The cooking chamber is sturdy. The hood is fairly stout. The “thermometer” in the hood is worthless. Not sure why they even put one in it considering it is electronically controlled. I got caught in the rain doing the seasoning and moisture got in it.(BTW held temp great in the rain).
The base and legs are sturdy. For now I have to move this in and out of a shed so I will probably have to keep an eye on screws coming loose on the side shelf. I think they also should have added a handle. The caster wheels could be stouter. The fold out drawer is kind of gimmicky but it does hold the power cord, which is a much higher quality on the 1050 than the 560.
The charcoal hopper is open for debate. Overall I think the design is fine and mostly well-constructed. The paint on the underside of the hopper lid did peel off as well as on the top of the hopper. Let me restate that. Paint definitely came off the top of the hopper, I think paint peeled on the bottom of the lid but I didn’t really pay attention to whether or not it was painted. I believe this is an issue of creosote eating the paint up. Where there has been no creosote buildup the paint is fine. Ran a couple cooks with aluminum foil in the lid, discovered moisture build up and ditched it. Now it gets coated with veggie oil and is nice and seasoned. The gaskets on the hopper and ash door are not great. I don’t see them lasting long, at least not on the hopper lid. Will probably add lava lock or replace with lava lock. (Considering that for the hood as well) This will improve some small leaks. There are a couple screw holes in the flange where the top hopper attaches to the bottom. I thought Cabela’s left them out so I disassembled it to discover there were no holes in the bottom. The bottom of the hopper is a hot topic. Pretty much everyone has had the metal plates burn out in the bottom near the grate. I had burn out after the first cook. MB states these are just shipping plates to hold the insulation bricks in place and it is a non-issue. Based on the fact that everything on this thing is pretty much replaceable as individual parts and these plates are not in the parts list or on the diagram, I am going to give MB the benefit of the doubt, for now. There are a couple guys making sleeves to replace them. The insulation bricks are food grade and I can replace them 3 or 4 times for the cost of the mod sleeve if/when they wear out. I am not convinced the sleeve is the right way to go.
The quality does seem to be better than the 560 model. One specific design improvement in the 1050 is they integrated the vent slot into the top of the cook chamber with the door. On the 560, the slot is located lower on the back and I question if you get good smoke and temp cooking on the top rack. I have contemplated as to whether or not the slot needs to be as big as it is and choking it down. There are some theories that this is needed for flow for the high temp cooking so some guys are experimenting with a mod to put a restricting slide on it which will hopefully help with holding temp and reducing fuel consumption. If this does not create a quality or quantity of smoke issue, I would be all for this mod. It makes sense.
Another design improvement is the hopper lid. The 560 lid folds back over top of the hood. The 1050 folds directly backward. This is an improvement that you are not folding it back over a hot hood. The hinges are a little weak and they have a stop on them to hold the door up. I foresee this being an issue and the door snapping off. I intend on adding a lid stay to prevent it from traveling too far back and breaking the hinges off.
The manifold slides in and out easily for cleaning. Based on some temp readings and the smoke coming out pretty evenly across the back slot, I would say it is designed pretty well. The manifold itself isn’t the easiest thing to clean. One of the mod guys is making a cover for it which I think is supposed to help drippings from getting inside the manifold therefore making the cover even easier to clean and not having to really clean the manifold. I will wait for more feedback from users before rendering an opinion on this mod.
The grates. I haven’t really used the grates much and I currently only have one of them installed. I have had it that way since I seasoned it. I think the fold up grates is also gimmicky. If you are going to use them, just take them out. I could see them flopping back down and getting in the when you are trying to maneuver stuff around.
Fold out front shelf. Great concept, kind of poor execution. There is not much room between the shelf and the hood handle and it is nowhere near deep enough.
The electronics. Very simple to use. Does a great job of holding temps. The control temperature sensor seems pretty accurate, at least in mine. Guys have talked about major differences in the 560, I don’t think I have heard much about that on the 1050. What I was pleasantly surprised about was my meat probe was within a couple of degrees of my thermapen. At least once it was fully inserted. Some users have not reported the same success. The hood sensor tends to not signal well if you gently close the hood. When I get the open error, I just raise the hood a couple inches and drop it. Usually does the trick. The receiver for the power cord just hangs there. It is good that it is under the shelf in case of rain but I would have like to have seen it be more of a rigid mounted receiver instead of a hanging dongle. I am considering installing corrugated plastic conduit to protect all the wiring.
The App. P.O.S. At least for android. Some people have had success on apple but I have not heard of anyone really having much success getting the WIFI to work on android. I can get the Bluetooth to connect but the range is limited. Spotty if I go in the house. Have to hit the connect button on the controller to reconnect after opening a door. That’s a little annoying. The have released new firmware but since it won’t connect to the wifi you can’t update it. This is a major issue in my mind and a lot of other people’s. One of the greatest reasons I bought it, like everyone else, was to be able to have the set it and forget it convenience of a pellet pooper but be able to actually smoke meat. I understand bugs have to be worked out and I knew going in this issue existed. The problem is their customer service is not responding or communicating anything. Before I even purchased mine I knew I may end up going the fireboard route. I haven’t really set an end date, but more than likely I will get a fireboard by the time labor day rolls around. Still want to give them a chance to get it right.
Received the cover the other day. Very well made.
The Food:
I have done the following cooks in this order: baby back ribs, chicken wings, spare ribs, beer can style chicken, reverse seared ribeye, brisket. I have also grilled asparagus after cranking the heat up. Corn on the cob and baked potato while smoking other food.
Both runs on the ribs were solid, spares probably a little better. Controlled the smoke better.
Chicken wings were awesome. Being able to smoke them for an hour and then just crank up the heat to 500° to crisp the skin is a game changer.
Beer can chicken. Bought one of the cheap racks at home depot. In researching recipes I came across an article debunking this cooking method and it made total sense. So I didn’t use a can, I just put the chicken on the can holder to keep it vertical and put it in a disposable aluminum tray with some seasonings and, of course, beer. That liquid did steam and was able to travel into the cavity of the bird. Again, cranked it up to crisp the skin. Delicious.
Reverse seared ribeye. Overshot my IT mark of 105° before searing. Had a cast iron skillet in the cooker the whole time, cranked up the heat to 650° and seared a pretty good crust at two minutes a side. Came out medium. I am more of a on the rare side of medium rare type so I was a little disappointed in that but that wasn’t the equipment’s fault. I will say, it was by far the most flavorful and juiciest medium cooked ribeye I have EVER had.
The Brisket. I am not going to go into all the details of the cook, but I will say I knocked it out of the park for my first ever brisket, even with some mistakes being made. Brought it to a gathering and everyone raved about it. Not sure if I will be able to reproduce the results but there is no way I would have pulled off a brisket this good without having this smoker. The temp control and meat probe thermometer, along with a couple of good how to videos, made it nearly impossible for me not to make a solidly good brisket. This was also the only cook that I only put the wood in the ash can.
Lighting:
I use rutland starter squares and a map gas torch. I leave the doors open until I get some good coals started(~5 minutes or less) then I close the doors and bring it up to 275°. By this time, I usually have some coals I can knock into the ashcan. I then add wood, drop the temp control to desired cooking temp and put the meat on.
Shutting down:
I typically crank it up for a burn off. I have towels in a bucket of water that I ring out and rub the grates and manifold with. Then I turn off the controller and insert the slides. Eventually it shuts down and cools off but I feel like I lose a charcoal because it doesn’t cut off the oxygen well enough. I already have a pretty good gauge on how much charcoal I need to use for each type and length of cook.
Wood Placement:
I am still experimenting with this. On the brisket cook, I didn’t want to be too heavy on the smoke so I opted to not put wood in the hopper, I only put it in the ash can so I could control it better. I feel like I got better quality and more consistent smoke this way and virtually no creosote buildup on the lid. Downside to this is you have to keep adding wood to the ash can so it takes a little away from the set and forget.
Capacity:
I haven’t really used the grates but I am guessing I could probably fit 3 briskets, maybe 4 depending on thickness at the point. 2 on the main grates, and then one on each elevated grate. I don’t need the additional space of the 1050 for my normal usage, however, I opted for the larger model because I will occasionally host a large cookout, the build quality seemed to be a little better than the 560, and I hate cooking with food crammed in.
Mods:
As I mentioned before,I am not convinced the firebox mod or the manifold mod are necessary. Guys are also doing mods to the charcoal grate. Again, not sure I am convinced this is necessary or helpful. If you are going to run wood in the ash can, you want some larger coals to fall through.
I am interested in the slide mod to shrink the vent. It would be adjustable so it makes sense and will probably save a lot of fuel.
I am going to do a mod of some kind on the front shelf.
Lava lock on the hood and the doors will probably happen.
I definitely plan on installing a lid stay for the hopper door to prevent it from being ripped off.
If they don’t straighten out the app, then I will eventually end up with a fireboard.
All in all, I LOVE this cooker, except the friggin app. I am not as concerned about longevity as much as some other people are.
Let me know if there is anything I missed or anything else you have questions about.