Getting the Temperature Right on Your Masterbuilt 2007
The Masterbuilt 2007 is a 40-inch vertical electric smoker that people buy because it looks affordable and simple. The truth is more complicated. The digital controls are located at the top of the unit. There is a power button, a set of up and down arrows, and an alarm button. To program it, you press power once and the current temperature shows for about three seconds. Then the display cycles to the set-point temperature. Use the up and down buttons to adjust. Press power again to lock in the number. That is the basic interface and it works most of the time. Masterbuilt does not make this easy anymore. The original paper manual was included when you unboxed the unit. If you have it, great. If not, the company puts the PDF on their website under the support section. You search by model number and download it. The manual covers things like how many trays to stack, where the water pan goes, and the temperature range from 160 to 275 degrees. It also has a section on cleaning the heating element, which most people skip entirely. Here is the part the manual does not warn you about enough. The temperature probe on this smoker reads the air near the top shelf. Not the meat. Not the middle of the chamber. The top. When I was smoking a packer brisket last fall, the probe showed 225 degrees but the lower shelves were running closer to 190. I verified it with a separate Inkbird thermometer placed at grill level. That is a 35-degree gap. I solved it by moving the brisket fat-cap side up, which is the opposite of what a lot of people do on vertical smokers, and I started the cook at 235 on the dial to compensate. The internal readout ended up stable around 220.
Loading the Smoker Correctly
This unit comes with four chrome-coated cooking racks, one drip tray, and three wood chip trays. The wood chip trays slot into a rail system just below the top lid. You fill each tray with chips, light them if your tray has that feature, or just dump soaked chips directly. The electric heating element is at the bottom and it does not get particularly hot on its own. The smoke comes from the chips hitting the ambient heat and smoldering. It is not a true combustion smoke generator. The water pan sits right above the heating element. Fill it before you turn the thing on. I usually use hot water from the tap and maybe a quarter cup of apple juice or beer in there for flavor. The water pan absorbs heat fluctuations and keeps the lower chamber from drying out your food. If you skip it, you will notice the meat on the bottom rack developing a crust too fast while the top rack stays pale. That happened to me on my first couple of pulls. Took three turkey legs down and they were uneven. Learned that lesson quickly.
Common Problems and Fixes
The most common issue people hit with this model is the temperature overshooting. The controller on the 2007 is bang-bang. It turns the element fully on until it hits your set point, then turns it off. When the temperature drops below a certain threshold, it kicks back on. This cycling can create swings of 20 to 30 degrees if you are not watching it. You do not get PID-level precision out of the box. Some people mod the board to get smoother operation. I do not recommend that unless you are comfortable working with 120-volt wiring. It voids the warranty and makes the next service even more annoying. A simpler fix is to put a SmartPlug or a simple cycle timer between the wall outlet and the smoker. Set it to run for 50 seconds and rest for 10. This slows the cycling and reduces the temperature swing. It takes about 15 minutes to set up and costs roughly $15. I have done this on two different units over the years and the temperature stability improved noticeably. Another issue is the door seal. The gasket around the front door gets fatigued over time. After about a year of regular use, you might notice the smoker struggling to hold temperature on cold days. I solved mine by spraying a thin coat of silicone lubricant on the existing gasket to keep it supple, and then adding a piece of weatherstripping tape along the top edge of the door frame where the seal sits. The temperature holding improved from a 20-degree drift down to about 8 degrees over a two-hour period. Not perfect but workable.
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Cleaning and Maintenance
The heating element collects grease and carbon buildup. If you never clean it, the element will eventually glow unevenly and the temperature accuracy will degrade. Pull the unit away from the wall, remove the bottom panel, and take a look at the orange element. You can scrape off the heavy stuff with a wooden spatula. Do not use metal on it. Then mix some warm water with a little dish soap and wipe it down with a rag. Let it dry completely before reassembly. I do this every six to eight cooks. The chrome racks wash out in the sink. If they have baked-on residue, soak them in hot soapy water for an hour and scrub with a non-abrasive pad. The wood chip trays should be replaced when they start getting too thin. They wear out faster than people expect. I go through about three trays per year with regular use. Keeping a spare set on hand means you never have to pause a cook to clean a tray.
What This Smoker Is Actually Good For
The 2007 handles small to medium batches well. Four racks means you can fit maybe eight chicken halves, a few racks of ribs, and some sausages at the same time. For that kind of load it works fine. A whole packer brisket is pushing the capacity and you will need to rotate the trays and check the meat more often. I have smoked a full packer on it but I moved the clod side down for the first hour and flipped it after the bark set up. That kept the lower portion from drying out. It is not a good choice if you live somewhere with sustained sub-freezing temperatures. The unit struggles to maintain 200 degrees when the ambient air is near 30 and the wind is blowing. The walls are thin single-gauge steel and the insulation is minimal. If you are cooking in those conditions, wrap the whole thing in a moving blanket and secure it with bungee cords. That will make a measurable difference. I added a blanket during a November pull and the temperature swing dropped from about 25 degrees to roughly 12 degrees. The manual is helpful for the basics but it does not cover half the edge cases you will run into. The trick is learning the quirks of your specific unit through trial. Every 2007 behaves a little differently depending on where you place it, what kind of wood chips you use, and how much you leave the door open. The data from your own experiments will be more useful than anything Masterbuilt printed on paper.
