I posted a few weeks ago as a novice. Now that I have smoked salmon and baby backs and both were incredible I am an expert. Yea- right! My question before was that of getting the temperature over 180-190. I now realize that there is probably no good reason to get the temperature over 190--"low and slow", but a few recipes call for 200-225 and my Bradley would not reach that temp. SO I tried changing from a 16 gague extention cord to a 10 gauge. Amazingly--the temperature shot up to 240 in a short period. I could now place the temperature regulator in the middle of the setting and get 180-190 with a lot of room for adjustment to a highewr level if necessary.
Moral- use a heavy gauge extention cord.