I have a Masterbuilt electric smoker that I have used and enjoyed for
almost three years. On my last smoking job, it suddenly quit heating.

I did a bit of web search and found some posts that suggested that there
might be a problem with the connection of the heating coil. I managed
to get the heating coil part way out and could see that one connection
was loose and had some smoke residue on it. I cleaned it off as best I
could and then crimped the loose connection to make it tighter. Put the
box back together and it seems to work now.

However -- I have lost some faith in the smoker and am wondering how to
fix it better.

The problem is that the wire connections to the heating unit are inside
a junction box and are tight -- i.e. I could only get about 1/4 inch of
one connection to pull out.

I'd like to come at it from the back side. The difficulty with that is
that the entire back unit is sealed with some sort of foam material,
presumably expanding heat resistant foam.

Does anyone know what that foam might be and where to get some?

Does anyone know if I cut away the foam on the junction box where the
wires for the heating unit are whether that box is screwed in or riveted
in?

--
R. Dale Shipp
spam_catcher3 (at) _delete_this_comcast (dot) net