What it actually is
An insulated steel box standing on end, about waist-to-chest height, with a gas burner in the base. Above the burner sits a porcelain-coated disk that Masterbuilt calls a flame disk bowl; the wood chips go on that, so the flame reaches them directly while the disk keeps grease off the burner. Above that is a removable water bowl, and above that four chrome-coated racks. Smoke and heat rise past the food and leave through an adjustable damper at the top.
If that sounds identical to an electric cabinet smoker, it nearly is. The routine is the same: load the chips, fill the water bowl, set the dial, put the food in, come back in a few hours. The difference is the heat source, and the two consequences that follow from it. Gas runs hotter than a heating element, which is better for poultry skin. Gas is also an open flame in a vented box, which means wind is a factor in a way it never is with electric. Our propane versus electric comparison works through that trade in full.
It is not a dual-fuel cooker. Both Amazon and Masterbuilt list the power source as propane gas only; if you want one cabinet that will also burn charcoal, that is a different Masterbuilt model, not this one.
What Masterbuilt publishes
Two sources, one model number. The Amazon listing for the MPS 230S and Masterbuilt’s own page for the Two Door 30-inch Propane Smoker both give model MB20051311, so the figures below are the same smoker read from both places. These are their numbers, not ours.
| Spec | Published figure | Who publishes it |
|---|
| Cooking space | 730 sq in across four racks | Masterbuilt (not on the listing) |
| Burner | 15,400 BTU stainless steel | Both |
| Racks | Four, chrome-coated | Both |
| Body | “Fully insulated” with a lockable door latch | Masterbuilt |
| Smoke control | Adjustable air damper | Masterbuilt |
| Ignition | Push button | Both |
| Assembled size | 20.9 in wide × 43.5 in high × 20.5 in deep | Masterbuilt |
| Weight | 66.5 lb | Amazon listing |
| Warranty | 1 year | Masterbuilt |
| Temperature range | Not published | Neither |
Masterbuilt also publishes what it thinks 730 square inches holds: up to eight chickens, two turkeys, four pork butts or four racks of ribs. Treat those as the maker’s best case rather than a weekly plan — four pork butts on four racks leaves no gap for air to move, and a cabinet smoker cooks by moving air past the food. But the claim is useful at the top end, and it tells you something real: this is enough smoker for a holiday, not just for a couple.
The missing row is the one that matters most, so it is worth being blunt about it. Nobody publishes a temperature range for this cooker. We are not going to convert a dial and a 15,400 BTU rating into a range the maker has not stated. What we can tell you is the band you should be aiming for: the USDA puts smoking at 225–300°F, and every cook on our times and temps chart assumes you can hold somewhere inside it.
The second door is the actual feature
Masterbuilt’s own name for this smoker is the Two Door 30-inch Propane Smoker, and the name is the specification. The lower door gets you to the chip tray and the water bowl. The upper door is the one your food is behind. You can therefore reload wood, or top up water, without opening the chamber that is holding your brisket at temperature.
That sounds like a convenience and it is not. Opening a cabinet smoker mid-cook is the most common way a beginner wrecks their own temperature: the hot air leaves in seconds, the cooker spends twenty minutes climbing back, and on a long cook doing that six or seven times is the difference between finishing at six hours and finishing at eight. A single-door gas cabinet forces that choice every time the chips burn out. This one does not. If you have read our guide to controlling temperature, this is the hardware version of its main piece of advice.
It is also why we rank this above the Pit Boss 3-Series for a first gas smoker despite the Pit Boss publishing more space for similar money. More racks you have to open the main door to service is a worse deal for a beginner than fewer racks you do not.
The thing it does not have
There is no thermostat. The dial controls how much gas the burner is getting; it does not hold a target. Nothing in the cooker measures the chamber and adjusts the flame in response. That is the honest dividing line in gas smokers, and it is worth understanding before you buy rather than after.
In practice it means the first two or three cooks involve learning what your dial position does in your weather, and then checking every hour or so rather than every fifteen minutes. It is not hard and it is not the vent-juggling that a charcoal smokerasks of you — there is one control and it does one thing. But it is a real difference from an electric smoker, where you set a number and the machine owns the problem.
If that sentence bothers you, buy the ThermoTemp instead. Masterbuilt’s 40-inch ThermoTemp has a thermostatic valve that opens and closes the burner to hold the temperature you dialed in, which makes it behave like an electric cabinet running off a tank. It is the easiest gas smoker we would put in front of a nervous first-timer, it publishes 960 square inches, and it costs meaningfully more. That is the trade, and it is a fair one in both directions.
Propane, and what you actually watch
You are swapping one thing to monitor for another. With electric you watch a plug that never moves; with gas you watch a tank that empties. Nothing on this smoker tells you how much propane is left, so the practical answer is to own a second tank and swap at the first sign of the flame weakening rather than trying to finish a brisket on a tank you are unsure about.
The other gas-specific item is wind. A burner in a vented box loses heat to a crosswind in a way an element does not, and the USDA advises shielding a smoker from wind to keep it at a safe cooking temperature. Every gas smoker has a thermocouple safety that shuts the gas off if the flame goes out, which is exactly what you want from a safety device and exactly what you do not want at hour six of a cook you were not watching. The fix is free: put the cabinet where a wall or fence blocks the prevailing wind, back of the smoker toward it, and glance at the flame whenever you glance at the food.
None of that is a reason to avoid gas. It is the reason gas exists: no cord across the lawn, no outlet needed, and enough heat to crisp chicken skin. Our propane versus charcoal comparison covers the fuel decision itself if you are still weighing it.
MPS 230S or ThermoTemp 40
These are the two Masterbuilt gas cabinets we recommend, and the choice between them is not really about size.
| MPS 230S | ThermoTemp 40 |
|---|
| Cooking space | 730 sq in (maker) | 960 sq in (listing) |
| Holds a set temperature | No — burner dial only | Yes — thermostatic valve |
| Reload chips without opening the food door | Yes — second door | Not stated |
| Footprint | 20.9 × 20.5 in, 43.5 in tall | Taller and heavier |
| Price band | Mid | Premium |
Buy the MPS 230S if the budget is the constraint, if your smoking spot is small, or if you would rather learn what a dial does than pay to skip that lesson. Buy the ThermoTemp if you are cooking for a crowd, if you want to genuinely set-and-forget, or if the idea of babysitting a temperature is the thing standing between you and your first brisket. Both are honest answers; we would not argue with either.
What it is genuinely bad at
- Precision at the bottom of the range. With no thermostat and no published minimum, holding a genuinely low temperature for jerky or cheese is not something we would promise this cooker can do. If low is the whole point of your purchase, read our jerky smokers page first.
- Telling you anything. There is a door gauge and nothing else. No probe, no alarm, no app. You will want a separate thermometer, and that is true of almost every smoker at this price.
- Cold and wind. Masterbuilt calls the body fully insulated, which helps, but a 15,400 BTU burner in January in a breeze is working harder than the same burner in July. Our guide to smoking in cold weather covers the placement and timing adjustments.
- Warranty. One year. The Pit Boss gas cabinet states two and our kamado pick states five. It is the shortest cover of any smoker we recommend, and on a cooker whose burner and igniter are the parts most likely to need attention, that is a fair thing to hold against it.
- Being moved. At 66.5 lb with no wheels stated, it goes where you put it. Fine for a deck, awkward for a garage-to-patio routine.
The verdict
The MPS 230S is the gas smoker we would start most beginners on, and the second door is why. It publishes more cooking space than Masterbuilt’s own 30-inch electric, it needs no outlet, it lights with a button, and it removes the one mid-cook decision that most often ruins a first brisket. The honest caveats are that it will not hold a number for you, that nobody publishes what range it can hold at all, and that the warranty is the shortest on our list.
If those caveats are acceptable, this is a straightforward recommendation and the cheapest sensible way into gas smoking. If the first one is not, the ThermoTemp exists precisely to fix it and we would not talk you out of paying for that. Either way, see the rest of the category on our best propane smokers page, and if you are still deciding between fuel types entirely, start at how to choose your first smoker.
