i am considering a stainless bradley smoker, and have been checking out the postings on the forum.
all of the input i have found has been very positive and excites me
about the product.
is there anything special that i need to look for when purchasing,
or breaking in the smoker??
Nope, the choice to go stainless is an aesthetic one. Consider purchasing from Chez, won't be the lowest price but strives to be the best service (plus 10% off of pucks for life).
Don't plan a get together the day you pull it out of the box, season it and make sure everything works.
The manual has instructions for seasoning it, they say 2-4 hours of smoke at as specified temp. Move the temp slider all the way over to high, make sure the light doesn't go out and watch the thermo and make sure you can get 275 + degrees out of it.
Once its all running like it should look around this site for great receipes and ideas, get a copy of Smoke and Spice, its a great resource. By all means ask questions, I was a special function chef for a number of years, didn't know squat about smoking, picked up most of my knowledge to date from this site!
WORD to the birdboy, he's got it right.
SmokeOn,
(http://www.azbbqa.com/forum/phpbb2/images/avatars/gallery/AZBBQA/mallardsmall.gif)
mski
Perryville, Arkansas
Wooo-Pig-Soooie
If a man says he knows anything at all, he knows nothing what he aught to know. But...
bsolomon did a nice write up concerning Breaking in your Bradley.
It is here:
http://www.susanminor.org/cgi-bin/iB3/ikonboard.cgi?s=be2f097e28c3293011a96a4f299f5709&act=ST&f=25&t=86&st=&#entry138
http://rminor.com
Welcome to the Forum, SmominRookie. You definitely came to the right place. The folks on the Forum are incredibly knowledgeable and ready to help. Check out bsolomon's piece on the site Olds gave you, and follow Birdboy's advice, too. The stainless BS is a great product, but the black performs just as well and is built thesame except for the stainless cladding. Advantages to the black model are cheaper cost and doesn;t show grease/grime as much.
Have to second the kudos for Chex Bubba. His cost is very close to the lowest you'll find, and the terrific service and bisquette discount will more than make up for any minor difference in price!
John
Newton MA
If you are going to purchase a unit over the net I strongly suggest saving yourself some grief and get it from Chez : http://www.chezbubba.com/
He might be a couple of bucks or two more but at least he stocks them. Order it on Monday or today for that matter, and more than likly you will have it by Wednesday or Thursday. Plus he gives you 48 pucks at no charge. Plus any futher purchase of pucks from him gets you 10% off if you purchase the unit from him. There are members here who did not know about Chez and they have some real horror stories about waiting up to 6 week for a unit.
I would call him direct: 574.276.8746 and save yourself those paypal charges. I also strongly suggest you get a couple of Bubba pucks.
Olds
http://rminor.com
Lots of people(including me) on this forum use the Maverick remote thermometer. It seems to work well but is quite sensitive to whether the batteries have a good charge to them. I tried using good quality rechargeables but my receiver wouldn't pick up the signal.
Tom
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by smokinrookie</i>
<br />i believe that i am going to a dealer to pick the unit up,
its only about a 2 hour drive.
can you recommend a good remote thermometer that i should use?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
If you go to a dealer, make sure the unit has the newer steel heating element in it, not the older glass unit. Also, the dealer won't have Bubba Pucks, so make sure you order those from Chez. Might want to call the dealer first about the stell heating element--I would hate to make a 4 hr round trip and come home empty-handed . . . [:(]
I agree with Tom on the Maverick ET-73. Has a lot of pluses (monitors cabinet and food temp simultaneously, wireless, alarm, reasonable cost), but it's range is very sensitive to battery charge and possible interference from things in between the transmitter and receiver. When I did a line-of-sight test on my unit outdoors I could receive a signal up to 90-100 feet away, which is in line with the specs. However, a line-of-sight test going from outside the house to the inside only gives me about half that range . . . still, it's a very useful unit for the price.
John
Newton MA
The main tube on the old glass ones is opaque white. The new stainless ones are not shiny like you'd expect stainless to be, but obviously metal.
Before seeing a few posts here, I couldn't fathom any of the old bulbs were still out there as they were new <b>LAST</b> January. I guess some of the other dealers' stuff is pretty dusty!
Rookie, feel free to call us anytime. We actually use the things & can probably answer any question you have.
Kirk
http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Chez Bubba</i>
<br />
Rookie, feel free to call us anytime. We actually use the things & can probably answer any question you have.
Kirk
http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?
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. . . and can probably get a truly NEW unit to you in a couple of days!
John
Newton MA