I have a 4 rack digital smoker that has been working great until the other night. At first I thought due to it being cold outside around 40 degree's I was having issue's getting my oven beyond 110 degree's when in fact I was looking to heat to about 190/200 for 4 hour's of cooking for salmon. My smoker portion works great but couldn't get any warmer than 110 it actually dropped to 100 after 2 hours so I finished it off in my oven inside the house. Today I plugged it back in and tried to heat the oven up and its reading 50 degree's pretty much what the actual temperature is but it won't heat up. The digital display goes up and down the timer works but it appears the element is not heating at all. I took my batch of fish that was already brine and ready to smoke did a vacuum seal on the fish and put in the freezer for when the smoker gets back up and running. Not sure if this will work I've never taken brined fish and had it frozen and then smoked later, this is fresh fish so first time frozen.
Any suggestions?
Hi Southsoundsmoker;
Welcome to the forum. Sorry to have to welcome you this way.
It looks as if your heating element has gone bad. Generally this would be the last thing I would guess, but there has been several reports recently of elements burning out.
You can go to the below link, and use the trouble shooting techniques at the bottom of the page in Brian's post, and the quote in that post by Hawg, but ignore step #4. This will determine if it is the heating element.
Burnt Element? (http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=18753.15)
Here are some other trouble shooting tips:
Bradley FAQ's (http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?481-Bradley-Smoker-FAQ-s&p=748#post748)
If you are still under warranty give Bradley a call.
Thanks for the link I'll check it out. Do you know if you can buy a element at Cabella's?
I don't know if Cabella's carries the element or not but someone told me that Yard and Pool carries them.
Not sure that this is your problem. You should give Bradley Smoker a call, they have the best customer service around. (800) 665-4188
http://www.yardandpool.com/Bradley-Smoker-Replacement-Heating-Element-p/heatelement.htm
The element itself is about $16 and the time to fix it is about 5 minutes.
Southsound if the smoker is still under warranty give customer service a call THEY'RE THE BEST depending where you live you could have a new one in a week or less.
They'll even walk you through some troubleshooting steps.
Mine went out Thanksgiving day, called them last Monday and had the new one on Friday.
I'm in Iowa they're in Illinois.
Don
W E L C O M E to the Forum southsoundsmoker!
I'm sorry to hear about your element.
Welcome to the forum!
I agree, Contact Brian at Bradley 1-(800) 665-4188
Also I forgot to mention we at Cabela"s do not carry replacement parts like the heating element, etc. for the Bradley. Sure wish we did, as am emplyee it would be nice.
Don