MAK 1 Star, initial impressions..

squirtthecat

New member
HEAVY.

Did I mention it is Heavy?

Assembled mine the other night. Took longer to clean up the 75 pounds of cardboard and pallet it came on..

Just heave-ho and lift each end up to get the casters on.

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This was enough clearance.

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Rolled off of the pallet, and installed the HEAVY bottom shelf.

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Squeaky clean inside - can't wait to get it dirty...

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--

Flash forward 2 days, and I did the initial burn in tonight.

No pics, as it gets dark by 5, so I was operating by a small CF bulb over my patio, and a LED flashlight.

I put about 8 pounds of Alder (yes..) pellets in the hopper and turned it on. Figured out how to set the 'setpoint' to HIGH and let it go.

[a bit of thumb twiddling while the auger primed and pellets started dropping - beer run]

I see a wisp of smoke!

[more thumb twiddling - grab another beer and check email on phone]

Smoke starts rolling out, the display changes from IGNITING to the current pit temp.

And then the rocket lifts off of the pad...


200
250
300
350
400

(I email MAK DADDY and ask if I have the rev limiter on this model, and how high should I take it)

It dawdles in the mid-400s for a bit, then keeps climbing..

500.

(I'm burning ALDER - geez..)

Top end is 505° and it is 34° ambient temps outside. That's enough for me.. I crank it down to 450 to hang for a bit and go inside to warm up.

I wander back out and turn it down to 'SMOKE'. That takes a while for it to ride down..


Total run time is a good 90 minutes. Most at ~300-500°, then 30 minutes in the 190s.

So I turn it off... TURBO FAN MODE! It goes into a cool-down sequence to blast the rest of the pellets/ash out of the firepot, until the grill gets to safe temps.

20 minutes or so later, I go out and it is OFF off.

I nudge it a few times to make sure it doesn't go Christine on me - and all is good.

Nighty Nighty Lil' MAK..

I'll give it a quick vacuum tomorrow night to get the fly ash out, spritz it with a healthy shot of pan to get the insides sticky, and then off and running it will go with around 31 pounds of pork butts.

Very impressive so far! Game on!
 

SmokinMAK

New member
LOL - 505 with Alder. Not bad at all! Can't wait for your reports with the Pork Butts. Did it come with some meat probes? The built-in probe monitor in the Pellet Boss will absolutely spoil you, especially if you are going to program it!

By the way - The 1 Star is pretty light compared to Big Brother!
 

KyNola

Member
Oh buddy, wait until you put those butts on there and watch that thing start producing smoke. I know you're not going to use alder for those butts so what are you going to use? You'll go out there after those butts have been in the smoke for a couple of hours, maybe 3 and will stop dead in your tracks and just smell the air. Nirvana! Cool part is those butts will be in the smoke from start to FTC.
 

squirtthecat

New member
The 500° run pretty much did in my Alder (it was in some commercial sized Folgers coffee containers I had forgotten about last Spring)

SM, I got one meat probe with the tester unit. I suspect that I have some 'other' probes around here that are compatible, but will hold off on that until I get a virgin smoke out of the way.

Looking at the 1 Star's cooking area, and looking at the 4 big butts I have to cook (7, 8, 8 and 10 pounds, respectively), this will be a very interesting test tomorrow night... Should be fun! Tune in if you like!
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
SOunds great...WEre you happy with the amount of smoke?

Keep in mind that a full range of racks and stuff is on its way for the one star
 

SmokinMAK

New member
Hey Pat

Try lifting the II star by yerself....I bout blew an @$$ gasket.

LOL! Not going near that one!

My house is on a hill, so the general has to clear a 2.5 foot high rock wall, then uphill into the back yard. My 13-year old was worthless as far as helping, so I ended-up huffing all the parts into the backyard myself. Not fun. I was so worried about dropping it or scratching it on something!
 

squirtthecat

New member
We've got company coming over tomorrow night to make a dent in some of this meat. I'll shanghai some of the guys and we'll manhandle it up onto my 'patio'. (it has rock in it, which makes it 10X harder to move stuff around in)

The finish is so smooth, there isn't an easy way to get a hold of it!

I'll take some measurements in the daylight tomorrow, and get some pavers in place for it to sit on, so we only have to do it (hopefully) once.
 

MAK DADDY

Moderator
1 Star Specs
44 1/2" Tall
20 1/2" Wide (23 1/2" including Handle
37" Long (50" including the optional side shelf)
 
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