Perhaps this will help someone who has a similar problem in the future and searches the forums for this info.
My burner plate crapped out after only two uses on my new smoker, and since I couldn't find any specs on it when searching these forums, here's how you test it:
After all the usual checking of connections, use a mulitmeter to check the two leads coming out of the burner plate unit. Set your tester for the OHMS / resistance settings (under 200 or 500 or whatever is the lower setting) If it's cooked, you'll likely get an an ohms reading of "infinite".
The new unit I received tests at 116 ohms. That should be a proper working unit. If you get a reading of around there, then it's something else that's causing the problem.
Finally I can take that damn brisket out of the freezer and get smoking!
Cheers
Thanks for sharing. That is useful information. It is likely that by the time I need it I won't be able to find it again but hopefully it will stay in my memory bank.
I just ordered a spare 500w element as well, just in case, as I've heard they tend to die after a while. Imagine that thing dying right in the middle of smoking 10 lbs of salmon or something, that would blow. It took three weeks to get the replacement burner plate from Bradley, so that was frustrating, but the elements you can buy easily online for about $25