So I have been reading your forums for over a year and hesitant post to because it is not secure, (https) and every time you enter a password, it flies across the internet in plain text, for anyone to intercept. @ADMIN, Y U NO USE SSL??!!??
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Regardless, I thank you for your insight and information thus far.
I decided to register just to pass along some information I ran across today.
I purchased a digital smoker 4-rack 30" new at Cabelas/BPS around this time last year. I have been cleaning it <pretty good> but still had fires about every 3ed or 4th smoke, once from sawdust buildup behind the smoke tray that I couldn't see, and 2 other times from grease accumulated near the heating element.
This last fire broke something. When plugged in the smoker self checks ok, the smoke unit works fine, heats, pushes pucks etc. When I turn the heater on, its trips the GFI circuit it is plugged into. When I put it on a non-GFI circuit, the heating element never fires up.
At this point I assume I need an inline fuse, but "yard and pool" is out of stock on these. I will be ordering one from Bradley or Amazon after I post this.
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Here's the punchline:
The heat shield protecting the heating element from drippings was probably installed incorrectly. (upside down)It funneled any drippings that made it through the V-Shaped drip tray INTO the heating element, instead of protecting the heating element from them.
This was installed at the factory, the only thing I had to do when I bought it was assemble the racks, attach the smoke, and plug it in. I never would have noticed it or thought there was a problem if I had not had an inordinate amount of fires.
In disassembling it to figure out this power problem, and removing the heating element it occurred to me if it was designed like this, thats a terrible design, and if I just flip it over, it works to protect the heating element from drippings.
Image 1 is as it came out of the box and has been operating for the past year.
Image 2-3+ is what it looks like after inverting it and screwing it back in.
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Please let me know what your bradley digital 4 rack looks like in this area. is it a funnel, or a heat shield?
Factory install, out of the box:
https://imgur.com/mjWT9fx
Inverted
https://imgur.com/46XVQos
Inverted bottom view
https://imgur.com/8wG5ATe