About to get my MB800 and this video definitely helped me decide to order these mods. Will install while it’s still new to protect everything. Thanks for the great videos.
I just picked up my 800 last weekend and get get my LSS Mods tomorrow. My thoughts on these Mods are the Clean-up and protecting the pit. I did get the Pit Master Package, after adding up all the items that I wanted, I was over the total price for this package. Thanks for Posting the update.
Got the Masterbuilt 560 for my husband 2 yrs ago for Father’s Day, put it together last year and he just used it today for the 1st time. He LOVES IT!! I am ordering the Pit Master Package for him , I love all the mods and can hardly wait to install them. Thanks so much for the update!
His stuff is great I bought his elite kit for the 800 after watching your video. Now I feel I need the lid mod and the extended rack. All of his stuff works very well and is well built. As a side note your videos are AWESOME now I feel myself wanting to build a outdoor kitchen and it will probably happen next summer not as glamorous as yours but great information you thoroughly inspired me.
Thanks for the tips, definately want the lift handle, love the elevated grate. Just cooking for three most of the time so price will determine the extra grate.
I've always been a propane gas grill type of guy. Haven't used charcoal for ages. I've always bought the 6 burner grills & love them. As I upgrade my backyard, I've been looking to add a charcoal/wood burners/smokers. It came down to the Masterbuilt 1050 or the Primate grills. After watching your channel, I ordered the Masterbuilt 1050 & accessories & the LSS mods today! I have a budget of about $2k, so I'm ordering everything I can at once (the pizza accessory is currently out of stock). One cooking accessory I've been eyeballing is the pizza oven. That's the reason Masterbuilt beat out the competition. I've never cooked a pizza outdoors, but I'm willing to learn! Thanks for the wonderful info & keep cooking!
After watching your lss mods install video, I was sold on getting them. Ordered the Pitmaster package. It arrived yesterday. Plan on installing them today on my Masterbuilt 800, after work (I work nights). Incidentally, love your other videos, especially the ones where you use the MS 800 for your cooks.
Hey thanks so much, I just ordered the MB 560, and I ordered the aftermarket accessories. Just one critique on your video and that’s lighting, try moving your camera to the back of a well lit area. Videoing from shade to light produces a dark video. Thanks again, you’re very helpful.
With that closed damper mod, you could use it to shut off all the airflow after finishing your cooks to save your remaining charcoal from burning down so you can reuse more of it on your next cook.
I finally had the money to pull the trigger and get an 800. I bought Luke’s pit master kit and a single large cooking rack. I can’t wait to set this all up!
I have mods from LSS and Klotemods. I installed all the mods when I was first assembling my 800. The hopper liner from klotemods was easy to install since there wasn't any buildup inside the hopper. I'll probably pick up a large center rack also.
I just checked out his page and omg the prices are so high! Like $138 for a shelf? His stuff looks very well made and I do think several of these mods are necessary, like the grease catcher cover, the hopper lid seal, the firebox, larger shelves, but I'm looking at almost $500 in mods for an $800 smoker... and that's not the nice to haves, that's just the ones I think I would need.
Well if all that came with the factory smoker it would probably be $1600. This video is older too, I think the racks were $99 when I recorded this. With that said, steel is extremely high right now, especially stainless. Not to mention the tools and time needed to make these things. You want quality, you pay for it.
Thanks for the excellent and informative review. I just added the Masterbuilt 800 to my arsenal...the sale price at Costco was too good to pass up. Your videos helped me with my decision and I already have a call in to LSS and I'm expecting a call back tomorrow so I can order up some mods. Thanks again...I'm happy to be a new subscriber.
+ I've been using a 560 for over 4 + years and I'm surprised that you have to add wood under the fire to get smoke, mine smokes a lot through out the whole burn. I've also only had one grease fire after never cleaning but man what a fire. I just closed the lid and let go. It had been burning a couple hours when I went to bed so I have no idea how long it took to burn out. I did several Lss mods early on and now need to replace the controller and probe. I did a good clean this winter and everything is in good shape, other than normal grease and dirt there is nothing wrong. I've seen reviews saying they are cheaply built and maybe so but I've never had a grill last this long and still be worth maintaining and maybe upgrading with more mods.
*And finally* .... I just love my 1050 as a smoker. I won't grill on it especially the high 650 700 degree temps. I think those temps would be very hard on the smoker and destroy the precious seasoning as well, and might just wear out the fire box and heat distribution cover under the grates. I suppose it's designed for that but I had a 500 hp mustang and I would rarely drive it wide open for any length of time or with high frequency. It just wouldn't last, and basically it was designed for those power levels as well....LOL Well happy cooking and it's obvious you are liking the MB 1050 as well, what's not to like. The mods help and each person has their own needs that the mods seem to really help achieve. 🙂
*Comment 1 of 3: LOL:* Great mods. My thoughts: Firstly the top hopper lid. On my 1050 I only added the felt type gasket to supplement the factory gasket. I did monitor the lid on first burn in and found a small adjustment on the latch stopped the small smoke leak. I don't see a need to protect the lid underside, it gets seasoned by the charcoal/wood smoke anyways. I always give it a wipe around the gasket area every time I light it to keep that area clean and sealing well. As far as the idea of adding wood to the ash can area, I feel I don't like the idea since it will add additional heat to an area not really designed for that. I always add wood chunks with my charcoal to basically always have some wood smoke while cooking. I add coal, a piece of wood, cover it with coal, another piece of wood, cover it with coal etc. It seems that using that method gives a continuous wood smoke so adding to the ash compartment seems redundant. The rear vent, mine is different than yours, mine has a double slide that controls the vent opening. I find this mod the best for cooking. By reducing the rear vent opening, essentially closing the stack down, I find I get much better smoke flavour and can adjust how strong of smoke flavour I get. Also it reduces smoke velocity providing for better even cooking on long cooks. An example is making ground beef snack sticks. I made some using about 25% vent opening and then made a batch using 50% vent opening (in comparison to full factory vent opening) I found that the first batch was too smokey and the second batch just perfect with the smoke flavour secondary to the "jerky mix" flavours I used. Also when I smoked fish without any vent adjustment, factory vent only, I found the smoke flavour too subtle. Once I had the adjustable vent installed and set to 25% the factory vent opening I got great smoke flavour on the fish. One mod I think you would like is the shelf extension. The factory shelf is way to narrow (not deep enough) for any kind of tray with the lid closed. The shelf extension is absolutely required so you can actually carry a tray requiring two hands and place it on the shelf with the lid closed and the tray not teetering on the edge ready to fall off. One more thing I did was buy a portable battery pack with a 12 volt output and run my smoker off of it. No cords etc. On my patio I would have to run a long extension cord and that is just too inconvenient and looks bad as well. The battery seems to be able to do more than 5 long cooks without needing charging (perhaps 50% power). Great way to power the smoker. I place the battery in the small compartment on the back of the side shelf so it's out of the way.
On the LSS site, he offers pretty much all of those accessories as a kit. May be cheaper than buying individually. Cooking racks are not included in the kit.
Great Video. My wife just got me the 1050 as an anniversary gift and I can't wait to use. I was wondering, when you have the middle rack in, do you still use the bottom rack? There doesn't seem to be much space between the middle and bottom racks. Again, excellent video.
You probably won't see this on this older post but I'm gonna put it here anyway. The number one thing that's stopped me from seriously considering one of the Masterbuilts is the mention in so many reviews I've seen about an issue with the safety switches being messed up by heat. Is that really as common and frequent as it seems or is it just a "it could happen" thing and reviewers just mention it because it could?
Simply connect the wires and bypass them if you are comfortable with that, but there is some risk associated with the fan still running and the doors open so do that at your own risk. Also the switches are easily attained on Amazon for cheap and very easy to install. I cook on mine 2-3 times a week and have not had one single failure. I wouldn't let a $8 switch keep me from getting this smoker.
So u need to spend another 3 to 4 hundred to upgrade it. That just don't sound like that makes sense, but hey to each their own. Great video on the grill and mods. 🍺🍻😁
Funny but it unfortunately makes a lot of sense. I have looked, and there is actually nothing that does what these grills do at any price. I have looked at Assassins, and Old Countries that go for $1000 to $2000 more. They are over 100lbs heavier but only smoke and can not do grilling, no app, wifi, or auto temp control. I have the 800 for about 18 months and use it mostly for smoking and chicken cooks. On chickens I end up at over 500° to get the skin crispy as I hate rubber skin. If you get the grill you will know what mods to tell people you want for Xmas;-) My 800 produces much cleaner smoke faster than my WSM ever did. It also replace a kettle and griddle.
Check the website in the description, I'm sure the prices have changed since making this video. There is a kit that offers substantial savings vs buying each part individually.
I would say the firebox mod is probably a good mod. My firebox has disintegrated, the brick material has broken and I noticed it falling into the ash pan. I tried contacting masterbuilt but no luck. They are impossible to talk to. I like my masterbuilt 1050, masterbuilt has BAD customer service.
@@TKCL The firebox is designed to rust away? That is a poor design, especially when the firebrick they use is crumbling into the ash box. So I think at this point it would be a Hazzard to use it.
They claim the metal is there only to keep the firebrick in place while shipping. This is all second hand information. But yeah, I don't like it either.
great video and info, thinking about buying this model. I noticed your hood handle has a plastic or rubber handle cover, i haven't seen this on other models, where did you get it?
Would you say with the grate in the ash can could you forgo adding wood to the hopper with the charcoal and JUST use that grate? Just check / add more wood every hour.
Thank you for this video. Quick question. You wheels do not look like factory. Where did you get those? Are you able to move the grill easier (i.e. on the grass)?
Not true, the Costco model has upgraded wheels, different racks and a rubber coated handle. It's not uncommon for factories to slightly change models for large sellers.
9:07 Greetings, I noticed in your video that your top rack differs from my factory-supplied rack for my 1050 MB. Was that a mod? I know I would enjoy a design like what's in your video. Also, the mod large racks in your review, do you think they are strong enough to hold briskets?
I have cooked briskets on the aftermarket racks with no issues. They have minor flexing. The top racks, wrapped handle and wheels are different from factory on Costco models.
I’m very interested in these smokers. I’m torn between the 800 and 1050. At any time during your cooks are you wishing you had more cooking space? I know you have a black stone but I’m very interested in the griddle feature of the 800, that’s what has me torn between the two models. I’m also wondering if the 1050 takes longer to come up to temp.
Can't answer the temp question, although I doubt there is much difference at all. I can tell you that I cooked 15 ribeyes for a large group. Another day a large turkey on a single shelf, vertical drunken chickens and another day two huge Boston butts. Unless your cooking for a very large crowd or wanting to cook many racks of ribs at the same time, I'd stick with the 800. You can usually find it on sweet sales too.
Can anyone recommend any mod to the manifold to block the direct heat to make the bottom rack (grill grate) less hot so the bottom grill grate can be utilized to pack more meat in the smoker?
@@TKCL Sorry for the late reply. My question would be , are you experiencing any low temps in the area where you have placed the manifold cover? (More-so The middle of smoker where the manifold is)
Thank you for the info. I have a 1050 model. There’s a couple upgrades I might be interested in, been looking on the website. Do you think 316 stainless would be better than 304? I’m sure it would be a little pricier but I don’t think it would rust as fast.
I personally can't imagine much of a difference, all stainless is an upgrade over the coated steel factory parts. The inside parts should never rust if you keep grease and oil on them. I do expect the firebox to eventually rust and show signs of fatigue due to the extreme temperatures it faces. With that said it's a huge upgrade over the factory box.
No, the drip pan goes over the the entire factory drip pan that's notorious for flaming up. It also has holders for an aluminum pan from the grocery store for drippings.
@@TKCL Ya thanks, I did have another with the link in it and that one was deleted. I think I had another shorter one that also had the link. It's okay, at least I know now. 🙂
Must have for me is the drip pan these grills are known for flair ups. The ash pan grate is excellent for throwing wood chunks on for extra smoke. The middle rack, personally I prefer one large rack, not two. And the cheap grate lifter. These I'd do again if I got another grill. I use them all other than the rear vent. Only used it twice on windy days.
In the deleted comments I mentioned some mods I got. I got them from Klotes Mods (Google it). One is the shelf extension which I think is absolutely worth it and the rear vent. Different than yours but should work similar... :-)
Just upgraded from pellet smoker to MB 560 after once again disappointed in smoke flavor after smoking my annual Thanksgiving turkey. So excited to move into the next smoking stage of charcoal smoking (electric, pellet, charcoal smoking). Just came across your video and my questions likely have already been asked. Thanks! Do you still mix in wood chunks with charcoal as well as use the grate mod for wood? What charcoal brand do you prefer?
Yes I love smoke, so I put wood chunks in both places. I use the cheap Walmart brand applewood charcoal, I get it shipped free to the house. The flavor is really coming from the wood chunks I make.
For your manifold cover (I bought one after a real bad flare up), when the smoker is cool/off, remove the manifold, scrape it down good with a putty knife. Then drill two 1/4" holes on the 'intake end'. Add two 1/4" x 1" bolts and four 1/4" nuts. Install 1 nut on each bolt, put the bolts in the holes, add the other nut to each bolt. Screw the upper nuts down to get the maximum hieght of the bolts. Reinstall the manifold. The slope of the manifold cover, will allow the liquid grease/juices, to flow to the drip tray faster. I scrape down the manifold cover after every cook/smoke. I've had my GS800 for about 16 months now, and love it! I also bought the 'fan guard' slide.
I've had a 560 for about a year and have been putting a piece of 1 inch thick plywood under the wheels on the hopper end for low and slow cooks to help the grease flow towards the drain pan. I plan on upgrading to the 800 this summer and adding these mods before I use it. I like your idea for dealing with that. I also line the grease pan with a piece of foil to make clean out even easier.
