Once you’ve purchased and been using your Masterbuilt smoker for some time, you may notice some issues that you want to fix through customizations to the Masterbuilt smoker, one of the most popular and helpful modifications is the Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod.
The Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod moves your wood chip holder from inside the Masterbuilt smoker to an external device which is connected through dryer duct.
This modification to your Masterbuilt smoker gives you easier access and better control of the wood chips.
There is also a range of other benefits in modding your Masterbuilt smoker with the mailbox mod, which we’ll discuss below, as well as alternatives to the mailbox mod.
How To Make The Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod?
Detailed below are the steps to build the Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod.
You can take the instructions and modify them to fit your environment.
The only critical steps are to have an external container for the wood pellets and dryer duct to connect to the Masterbuilt smoker.
Required Materials For Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
- Metal mailbox, preferably with a flat top or side and large enough to hold an A-MAZE-N AMNPS Maze Pellet Smoker. You can use any kind of large metal box that you think will work well.
- 3″ Aluminum duct 90-degree elbows x 2
- 3″ Aluminum duct, semi-rigid is best
- 3″ Duct clamps x 3
Construct The Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
1.Find a flat surface on your mailbox and trace around one of the 3” elbows.
2. Mark the middle of the circle and draw eight equally distanced lines from one side of the circle to the other and go through the middle.
3. Drill a hole in the center mark that you made.
4. Cut or snip along the lines back to the edge of the circle, leaving the pieces attached but able to be bent up, but not bent right back. The cut pieces should be pointed out.
5. You could use a dremel to cut and pliers to bend the pieces out.
6. Fit a 90-degree elbow over the hole and bent out pieces, then put a duct clamp on, using the bent out pieces as backing.
7. Make sure you know where your mailbox will be going in relation to the Masterbuilt smoker and point the elbow in the right direction.
Attach The Mailbox Mod To The Masterbuilt Smoker
1.Put the duct onto the 90-degree duct elbow that is now attached to the mailbox and add another clamp to secure it.
2. Add the other 90-degree duct elbow to the other end of the duct and add your final clamp.
3. Insert your duct elbow into the wood chip loader on the Masterbuilt smoker. If it’s a little loose, apply some aluminum duct tape to fatten the end until it sits snuggly.
Add A Vent To The Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
1. Buy an adjustable vent.
2. Hold the vent against the mailbox and mark the vent holes and center hole.
3. Drill the center hole and vent holes.
4. Screw the vent into place and ensure that you can open and close the vent.
Remove The Wood Chip Tray
The wood chip tray is no longer being used inside your Masterbuilt smoker, so you can remove it if you want to increase the space inside your smoker.
You may want to put an aluminum tray over the element, but that’s not required.
1. Remove the 2-4 screws holding the wood chip tray in place.
2. Remove the bolt that may be holding the wood chip tray in place.
3. Take out and store your wood chip tray if you ever decide to get rid of the Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod.
Test Your Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
Test the Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod; you just need to insert wood chips or pellets into your mailbox and light them up.
Then, open the vents and close the front door of the mailbox.
Optimally you have an A-MAZE-N AMNPS Maze Pellet Smoker for easy cleanup.
It should hold enough wood pellets for around 11 hours.
Watch for any heavy smoke leakage from the duct or any of the sides of the mailbox.
You may need to add some high-temperature silicone caulk to any areas with heavy smoke escape.
Final Thoughts On Your Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
If you plan to always use the Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod, you may want to construct a table to attach and keep the mailbox mod stable or look to attach the mailbox mod to the side of your Masterbuilt smoker.
Optimally if you have a table with casters, you can put your Masterbuilt smoker on top, with the mailbox mod secured underneath.
You might need to raise the front of your mailbox mod with some wood so that the door opens enough to get your wood pellets in.
Benefits Of The Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
You Don’t Need To Open The Smoker
In some situations, you may need to open your Masterbuilt smoker to deal with the wood chips inside, such as running low, going out, or simply not burning right.
When you open your smoker, you’re letting out the smoke, heat, and moisture, which diminishes the smoking process.
By moving the wood chips or pellets outside your Masterbuilt smoker, you don’t need to open the door of the smoker to deal with any issues, so you get a better smoke on your meat, and with the heat staying consistent inside, you don’t add any time to your smoking.
No Fat Dripping On Your Pellets
Most people find the built-in chip loader doesn’t work well and needs reloading too often, so they buy a supplemental pellet smoker.
The pellet smoker gives you more time and more smoke, but the fat from the meat can drip down onto it and cause the pellets to stop burning or for the holes in the pellet smoker to become clogged, and the smoke doesn’t distribute.
By moving your smoke to an external device like the Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod, you can keep the benefits of a supplemental pellet smoker but don’t have to deal with fat drippings.
More Room For Meat With Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
If you’re taking up space in your Masterbuilt smoker with a pellet smoker, then you’ve got less room for meat.
While some of the pellet smokers are small, the benefits you get from them are limited, so most people want a larger pellet smoker tray, and that takes up room.
Your Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod allows you to get the benefits of extra smoke without limiting the space in your smoker for meat.
Cold Smoking Is Possible With The Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
Adding a Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod allows you to light the pellets outside of the smoker, which means you can cold smoke your meats and other items because you don’t need to heat up the smoker, and the heat is left inside the mailbox mod.
Because cold smoking takes much longer, it’s more likely that you’ll need to add more chips to the smoker, so an external pellet chamber allows you to keep adding chips without opening the door or add more chips than would be possible inside the actual smoker.
Improve The Taste Of Your Meat
One of the HUGE benefits of the Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod is that your smoke becomes much cleaner as the actual chemicals from the smoke get stuck inside the dryer duct, and there is much better airflow in an external pellet smoker.
If you find your meat has a bitter taste sometimes, especially when you’ve been smoking for a long time, it could be due to a buildup of creosote.
Creosote builds up on meat and causes a bitter taste and an oily layer on your meat, so a Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod will give you much better tasting meat.
If you’re trying to cold smoke meat, you’ll most likely have it in the smoker for a long time, with higher chances of creosote ruining your meats.
Best Alternative To The Masterbuilt Smoker Mailbox Mod
If creating and modding your Masterbuilt smoker with the mailbox mod isn’t something you want to do, but you want some of the benefits of this modification, then your best alternative may be buying the A-MAZE-N AMNPS Maze Pellet Smoker.
The AMAZE pellet smoker is a supplemental pellet smoker that can be put inside your Masterbuilt electric smoker or any of the Masterbuil smokers that need additional smoke.
It will last for 11 hours, which is perfect for your longer smoking sessions, and you won’t need to open the smoker door at all.
You can even add this to your Masterbuilt smoker mailbox mod so that it’s easier to clean and replace your wood chips or pellets, which is what most people do.
If you’re willing to spend some money, then Mastebuilt has an official slow smoker attachment that can introduce external smoke into your smoker, and you don’t need to build anything.
Sources:
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/why-is-the-mailbox-mod-better-for-mes.291979/
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