I was replacing my face plate and getting ready to put some back feet on the front of my OBS to keep the plate from destroying itself again when I noticed the bottom door hinge had a crack above it. When I moved the door around a little the whole damn thing fell apart. Instead of panicking, I'm consulting you guys.
I'm considering using this as an excuse to upgrade to the BDS4. While I enjoy the extra work of using the OBS (without a PID), it would be nice to not have the guessing game of the slider. Is the door on the BDS4 any more solidly built (not plastic around the hinges), or is it the same door, just gray?
I'm thinking of either ordering a new door or doing a quick fix like starship did after dropping his. The only problem is I throw my bradley in the trunk of my car and take it on trips fairly regularly so I'm concerned the sheet metal the hinges are screwed to will give out quickly.
I have a 4rack digital and my door seems solid. Have had unit since last April and have done close to 45 smokes and have never had a problem.(knock on wood)
Quote from: Uncle Pigfat on July 21, 2010, 03:28:40 PM
I was replacing my face plate and getting ready to put some back feet on the front of my OBS to keep the plate from destroying itself again when I noticed the bottom door hinge had a crack above it. When I moved the door around a little the whole damn thing fell apart. Instead of panicking, I'm consulting you guys.
I'm considering using this as an excuse to upgrade to the BDS4. While I enjoy the extra work of using the OBS (without a PID), it would be nice to not have the guessing game of the slider. Is the door on the BDS4 any more solidly built (not plastic around the hinges), or is it the same door, just gray?
I'm thinking of either ordering a new door or doing a quick fix like starship did after dropping his. The only problem is I throw my bradley in the trunk of my car and take it on trips fairly regularly so I'm concerned the sheet metal the hinges are screwed to will give out quickly.
If you decide to upgrade, you won't have a problem selling your Smoke Generator here on the forum - to offset the cost..
The digital smoker box itself is better quality.
The inside walls are a heavier gauge metal.
I have no problem with mine.
Well, after thinking about it all night and staring at my OBS all pulled apart and finding even more stuff wrong with it I decided to pull the trigger on a BDS4. Amazon.com had the Jim Beam (I'm going to find a decal more my style to cover up the Jim Beam one as I hate overt branding) version for $390.00 with free shipping so I figured there was no way to go wrong. I wish I knew what I had done to my OBS to get it to the condition it is currently in. Here's hoping the DBS is a little more sturdy.
I took my Bradley to the Deer Camp last year and
She rode in the Front passenger seat with her seat belt on. ;D
Yeah, I'll have to wrap this one in a sleeping bag or something when it goes in the trunk. The hound gets the front or back seat depending on how big of a pain in my ass he feels like being. I just wish the door would have fallen off prior to buying a new faceplate and feet for the OBS. So it goes...
Quote from: Uncle Pigfat on July 21, 2010, 09:10:36 PM
Yeah, I'll have to wrap this one in a sleeping bag or something when it goes in the trunk. The hound gets the front or back seat depending on how big of a pain in my ass he feels like being. I just wish the door would have fallen off prior to buying a new faceplate and feet for the OBS. So it goes...
How long have you had your OBS?
Only 4 months so I'll make a warranty claim and fix it up, but like I said, I was kind of looking for an excuse to buy a digital. No harm in having 2.
Way to go!
sorry to hear, what i would do is get a second obs and do a digital timer and pid
My second replacement door showed up yesterday. Hate to think I will have to replace it outsideof warranty sometime.
Quote from: beefmann on July 22, 2010, 09:35:42 AM
sorry to hear, what i would do is get a second obs and do a digital timer and pid
I considered just waiting for the new door to show up (which was surprisingly easy to obtain - way to go Bradley customer service!) and get a pid with the money I would have saved, but after taking another look at my OBS and the fresh crack in the new faceplate I just put on, I decided that the DBS was the route I'm going to take.
Most of the stuff I'll be smoking (for now) doesn't require precision temperature control and I'm rather neurotic so I monitor my smokes pretty closely. In fact, that neurosis is the reason I want a DBS. It drives me nuts guessing with a slider for my target temp. Eventually I'll get a pid and probably a second element, but I'm doing things in baby steps for now.
I think I'll give my OBS to my parents after I fix it so I don't have to take my new one up to Toledo for barbecues.
Quote from: Uncle Pigfat on July 22, 2010, 03:10:13 PM
Quote from: beefmann on July 22, 2010, 09:35:42 AM
sorry to hear, what i would do is get a second obs and do a digital timer and pid
I think I'll give my OBS to my parents after I fix it so I don't have to take my new one up to Toledo for barbecues.
You will make Mommy proud! ;D
Bradley really needs to get their quality up to par or they will be hurting from all this. The more this happens the more this will discourage potential buyers.
I love my bradley smoker, makes some awsome food, but I honestly can't recommend it to anyone until this is fixed. If I do recommend it, I have a very good chance the faceplate will crack or other plastic parts and that doesn't make my word on it any good. I would have to recommend them to use another brand of smoker, even if it isn't all automated, at least they will not have to constantely worry about it cracking or fix issues.
This has been going on for at least a half a year now, you think the new bradleys rolling out of production would be using another face plate by now. I think plastic is fine in the face plate, but it needs to be a better plastic. The current stuff seems too brittle and easily crumbles or cracks with just my hands.
I know someone may come along and mention that this may not be happening to everyone and they may be right. However, it is happening to often and I think it is more common than we think.
Anyways glad to see it is still under warrenty and I now bradely CS will hook you up quickly with parts, they are excellent at that.
Hope you enjoy your DBS.
JT-MO, did you do the front feet fix that takes the weight off the face plate?
I don't worry about the face plate any more, it's cracked in many places, but even the feet fix won't stop the door from cracking. By the way to answer your question, I have not put the feet on, bradley didn't send me any when I got the new face plate.
The whole point is none of us should have to go through this. It should hold up a little better than this. I think my face plate cracked within a month, and door shortly after, maybe sooner as I didn't notice it until like my 3rd smoke. Although even with those issues it still works fine and I keep smoking with it :)
Got my new door today. That was quick! It's on and ready to smoke again. I had an old tube of kitchen/bathroom silicon laying around so I sealed my faceplate crack on the inside before putting it back on. The new feet are on and hopefully preventing further degradation. Seeing Orson (what I call my OBS) back together almost made me regret buying the BDS. Almost.