Mojack 47102 Myron Mixon Pitmaster Q3 24-Inch Wood Pellet Grill/Smoker

Given the option I’d give this smoker 4 ½ stars. I would deduct points for the poor instructions and the chipped paint. My smoker was not damaged in shipping except for a few blemishes on the paint on the front of the lid and I can’t be sure the chips occurred in shipping. It almost looks like it came from the factory that way. The paint-chipping is an annoyance but nothing I’d send this smoker back for or return to the store (if I had bought it from a store). Assembly was pretty straightforward in spite of some omissions in the instructions. The instructions also weren’t very clear on how to start and operate the smoker. The instructions should have also had some better diagrams that pointed out ALL the parts. Some basic recipes and cooking instructions would have been nice too. Despite some initial frustrations in getting the smoker to smoke and the temperature dialed in I did manage to get things smoking and my first smoke turned out to be a very pleasant experience. I cooked a whole chicken and a pork loin in my first ever attempt at cooking by smoking. I used a hardwood mix of hickory, cherry, maple and apple pellets made by CookinPellets purchased from Amazon (40 lb. bag). I used water and apple juice in the steam pan, homemade rub on the pork loin, and a special chicken spice from Penzy’s. I have zero smoking experience and didn’t even do much research prior to smoking this meat so I was shocked that the loin and chicken turned out so well. I’d given myself about a 60% chance of things turning out but it was fantastic, my expectations were exceeded. The meat was tasty, moist, and tender. The pork loin had a beautiful smoke ring and the flavor really came through in the chicken. The only thing that didn’t work out was that the chicken took much longer to smoke than the pork loin. I should have put the chicken on about an hour earlier so lesson learned. All in all I’m really happy with this smoker and I think it makes smoking pretty easy. Yes you still have to monitor the smoker but you’re not totally tied to it. You can check on it like once every 45 minutes, maybe even longer. And to adjust the temp all you do is open or close the vent and adjust the temperature dial. The smoker feeds the wood automatically and you never really even need to open the lid. This smoker is big and heavy, especially when the hopper is full of pellets so I wouldn’t say it’s very portable. Also, go ahead and buy at least a 20 lb. of pellets because you’ll go through more of them than you’d expect. Lastly, brine your chicken (it makes a big difference), use a digital thermometer in your meat, and cook it to 5 degrees less than the recommended temperature because it’ll continue to cook when you let the meat rest which you should do for about a ½ hour.

I have been a fan of Miron Mixon for years, could not wait to get my hands on this grill. However this has been the experience with grilling I have had. Upon opening the box, which was undamaged, We found that it had been crushed on one end, the pellet hopper. This tells me it came from the manufacturer damaged. After talking with Amazon they tried to make it right by offering me a refund for partial of the full amount. We tried to use the grill tonight for a dinner party, and after about 15 minutes it stopped working. We did everything the manual said to do to no avail. I will contact Amazon in the morning to return the grill. I hope Mr. mixon looks into the products he puts his name on. I have had a Big Green Egg for 5 years and should have stuck to that.

The MoJack 47102 is a bit of a disappointment. Overall it works well once you have the unit assembled. It is easy to operate but has a few quirks. On the downside, I found the grill very frustrating to assemble and there were numerous small defects in materials and workmanship.I doubt this grill could be assembled solo. Final assembly requires that you lift the entire drum, with pellet feed, onto the bottom frame and aligning it with four small bolt holes. In total, it took me about 1.5 hours. Out of the various grills and smokers I have put together, this was the most annoying.Contributing to the assembly woes are the workmanship issues. The grill itself is made from quality materials. It does not feel flimsy or light. The powder coating looks very nice. However, the flat floor part of the frame was warped. This made it difficult to assemble the frame. It also prevent the entire grill from sitting flat. The finished unit has a definite wobble and I have to shim the front small caster to keep it level. I found this especially annoying given the cost of the unit. There are also several small chips, scratches, etc in the finish on all of the various components. The welding on the burn chamber was also questionable with a few small blowouts in the weld bead.In operation, there are a few quirks to the unit that I dislike. First, I am not confident that the temperature gauges are accurate. The gauge on the lid reads widely different from the LCD gauge on the pellet hopper. Neither matched my electronic probe. Given the importance of temperature to smoking, I find this highly disappointing. I could dial in the setting manually but that defeats a major selling point of the MoJack 47102.I also think the water tray is a gimmick. It is entirely too small to provide much thermal inertia to the smoker. Given the small volume, it will also boil dry on a long smoke. The primary use I had for the water tray was as a flavor enhancer; filling it with combinations of water, citrus, vinegar, juice, etc.The marketing materials also claims you can use the smoker for grilling and baking. This is true. However, the fuel cost is exorbitant to do so is shocking. I was amazed how many fuel pellets the unit consumed to keep the temperature at 450F. So, while the smoker can grill and bake, I would advise against it unless you do not mind the cost of smoker pellets.Another small nitpick is the available surface area. While sufficient for a single rack of ribs or a roast, don't expect to do much more than that. Many vertical smokers have nearly twice as much cook area.What the smoker does do well is smoke. Once you have the temperature dialed in and the door closed, it's nearly automatic. Just set a timer and walk away. The temperature also stays pretty consistent with the usual caveats of wind, rain, excessive lid opening, etc. The pork butt, chicken thighs, burgers, and vegetables I smoked all came out as good as any other smoker I have used but with considerable less maintenance. That part I really liked.Ultimately, the MoJack 47102 showed me the promise of pellet smokers, consistency and ease of operation. As a complete package, the MoJack failed to deliver and was overall a disappointment.

So far I really enjoy the grill. I have friends that have traeger grills and I believe this is a better unit. The price can't be beat. I would have gave it 5 stars but the problems I had getting the grill cost it 2 stars. The first grill I ordered came looking like it was dropped off a truck. Amazon sent me a replacement and it was damaged as well but not as bad. The problem with it was it was missing a bunch of parts. Mojack was very helpful with getting me the replacement parts I needed though. All in all pretty pleased even though it took a month to get an operating grill.