I was pretty sure I was going to buy a MES during Christmastime when they were on sale. Even went to Academy, but they were out of stock. Someone there told me not to buy one because they were junk. Put it on the backburner until I built a patio earlier this year.
Asked a question on another generic smoking forum I lurked about electrics. Started talking to oldsarge on that forum a good bit about different models. He helped me narrow my search to the Cookshack 045 and the SI3. I was leaning heavily towards the Cookshack because of temps it offers as we eat a lot of poultry and the electronic controls. oldsarge directed me to this forum and the auber posts, that pretty much sealed the deal when I could get the temps I wanted, cost, and a better size. Then I found the heatermeter thread and it was a done deal. So count me as one of the ones that the forum got the sale.