Hi
This is my first post and my first time to the web site. I can't wait to get a smoker soon.
My question is in regards to the auber smoker control. Do you use this on a digital bradley smoker or does the digital control eliminate the need for the auber. I would like the programability of the auber as I plan on doing a lot of salmon and they need different temperatures for different amounts of time. Does the digital bradley smoker make the auber smoker control unnecessary? Would you use the auber control on the original bradley smoker? Does the digital bradley control accept programming?
Any help will be appreciated. I have not bought anything yet and am trying to figure out the best combination.
Thanks
Hi Mike and welcome to the forum.
I think the idea of the DBS was to have tighter control of the temperature and to a certain extent it does. What it does give you is the ability to roughly maintain a temperature range such as 210 degrees for a pork butt. Unfortunately it is an on/off control so typically it will reach it's temp, then the control will shut the heater off, the temp will continue to climb as the heater cools down until the temp begins to drop. As the temperature drops and it goes past the set temp the heater will kick in again but the temp will continue to drop until the heater is warmed back up. This is what is refereed to as the temp swing and is typically around 10 degrees either side of the set point. It really isn't an issue for doing things like ribs or butts but if you plan to doing things such as sausage or as you mentioned salmon, you would be better off with a PID. Because of this You are probably better of buying the OBS and a PID.
A PID can be hooked up to both an OBS and a DBS. I have a DBS but decided I wanted tighter temp control for certain things and went with a PID.
The DBS control does not accept any form of programing except for how long you want it to run and the set temp but you can't program it to "ramp" temps. If you do buy a PID and want it to have the ability to ramp temps during a smoke, make sure you buy a PID that has that ability.
Mike
mike,
first off welcome to the fourm ...I would recomend the orginial 4 rack smoker... in my 2 years of using a bradley i never needed a larger one. So the 4 rack orginal will do fine with the pid, I personally love it with the PID and it has a 2 or 3 degree swing and mine has a 900 watt finned heater in it and still very tight tempture controll ...
if this is what you are looking at i would look at this PID:
http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=5
( you might have to do a cut and paste to browser )
nice thing about it is you can set it up to run your smoke generator for 2 to 4 hours ... then automaticaly turn to cooking untill finished.. auber has others that caan controll heat only if that is wnat you want
good luck on your dercision
Thanks guys.
Your input is valuable. I think I will pick up the OBS this week and try it for awhile. I will slip the PID in later when my wife isn't looking. ;D
Always a good plan there.
Quote from: mikeraste on October 07, 2008, 08:36:22 PM
Thanks guys.
Your input is valuable. I think I will pick up the OBS this week and try it for awhile. I will slip the PID in later when my wife isn't looking. ;D
Quote from: Gizmo on October 07, 2008, 08:59:02 PM
Always a good plan there.
Plan works with husbands too!
Welcome Mikeraste
Beefman said:
"mike,
first off welcome to the fourm ...I would recomend the orginial 4 rack smoker... in my 2 years of using a bradley i never needed a larger one. So the 4 rack orginal will do fine with the pid, I personally love it with the PID and it has a 2 or 3 degree swing and mine has a 900 watt finned heater in it and still very tight tempture controll ...
if this is what you are looking at i would look at this PID:
http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=5
( you might have to do a cut and paste to browser )
nice thing about it is you can set it up to run your smoke generator for 2 to 4 hours ... then automaticaly turn to cooking untill finished.. auber has others that caan controll heat only if that is wnat you want
good luck on your dercision"
I'm in a similar position about the PID, but I do not understand the difference between the one you reference above and this one
http://auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=72
Can someone elaborate?
BTW, the Bradley Original is on sale at Cabelas for $250 and $14 shipping.
Thanks,
Bubba
Hi Bubba and welcome to the forum.
The PID that Beefman provided the link for is the control unit only. You would build it into a project box along with some other components. Here is a link to a set of plans over on the recipe site. http://susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?p=504#post504
The one you posted a link for is a pre-built one that Auber themselves have started to build. More of a Plug N Play model. A number of forum members have these as well. I built my own a couple of years ago, prior to the Plug N Play models being available.
Also, if you haven't already you should click on the smoker in the bottom of my post. It will take you to the recipe site, lots of great stuff there.
Mike
Thanks, Mr. Walleye.
That was very helpful! ;D