Hello all,
I purchased a used OBS a couple weeks back and have been lurking here reading all I can about these smokers. I had to do quite a few repairs to the smoke generator, not sure if it will keep working right as of yet but it had a lot of trouble feeding the pucks. I then overloaded it I assume as I couldn't get the temperature high enough to smoke a turkey and some venison sausage. I had to put them in the oven to once the smoke time was done. Needless to say I wasn't quite enthused about using a Bradley after that. I have decided to install a PID, 900w heater, and a fan as suggested by several people here. I think it will help a ton as I usually fill my old propane smoker whenever I smoke. I figure if I am doing it, might as well use up the available space, right? Anyway, I look forward to playing with my new toy and reading the posts.
Thanks and have a great day,
Congrats and
Welcome
To the forum.
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congrats and welcome to the forun
Welcome. You said you couldn't get it hot enough to smoke a turkey. Did you check to make sure the heating element is operating correctly? Turn your smoker on and see if the heating element glows red. If not, check and recheck your connections.
The heating element does glow very slightly, if it is dark out you can see it.
This is a whole different animal than your propane smoker. If you load the Bradley down and fill er up to use all that available space. You have to keep in mind your heating this thing with basically a 500 watt light bulb. IT IS GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME to warm up a Turkey (I'm guessing 10-12 pounds) along with smoking some venison sausage. (Guessing another 5-10 pounds) That's a lot to ask from that little light bulb. I would also be willing to bet that you closed down the vent on the top to help keep the heat in and bring the temps up right?? I am not picking on you. Just pointing out some factors that may have given you a sour taste with your first smoke.
First off what has your smoke generator been doing that your having problems with it feeding?
When doing any type of poultry always keep the vent wide open to allow all the excess moisture to escape out of the smoker.
You really don't want to do summer sausage at the same time as you do poultry. Poultry is done using a high heat. Whereas the summer sausage is done by ramping the temps up so as to not "fat out" the sausage. (Get it to hot and the fats leach thru the casing and leave you with a dry crumbly sausage)
Congratulations on your purchase and welcome to the forum...Enjoy!
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Hello and welcome to the forum...
Hi again
I actually had the vent 3/4 open. Read on this forum it should never less than half. Ya, it was probably too ambitious loading it full. Didn't think about the 500w light bulb analogy but it is right on. But I had hoped that after a couple hours the chamber temp would have reached at least 150. It's going to take a while to learn how to use this thing properly. The smoke generator would run alll the time at first. Then i found the advance button didn't work. Alcohol soak fixed those 2. The the puck advance would not run a full cycle. Good cleaning fixed that too. I still think I got a good deal even though it was filthy. $60 and got an extra 8 jerky racks. Already added more rails to accomadate the racks and will be going to 900w, PID, and a fan this weekend.
Sounds like a good deal to me.
Welcome to the forum!