This is first showing of the ALL NEW 2012 SPACE AGE Bradley.
It will be going through its initial testing stages later today.
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e010.jpg)
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e011.jpg)
Its the all new Bradley Snuggy :)
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OK, I'm slow. The Bradley is already insulated. Why the extra? God bless duck tape :D
I'm telling NASA and the NGIA on you.
Arnie.
I and many others have found that the smokers take a long time to heat up and to recover once the door has been opened to load it, especially in cold weather or if it is windy outside. Some have added second elements to their smokers to improve heat recovery.
The results are in and WOW. I turned the smoker on at 12:00 noon and set the heater for 230*F (forgot to turn on the puck burner - so just the heater was on). Went inside and got the bird parts out of the fridge. Rinsed the brine off and then rubbed them down. At 12:15 the smoker temp was 208*. Put the cold bird parts in, stuck the remote temp probe in the bird, closed the door and started the smoke generator. The temp dropped to 183* and by 1:00PM it was at 228*
The outside temp is -6*C (about 20*F) and there is slight breeze.
Hopefully the "SNUGGY" will hold together for the whole smoke and many more to come. I am very happy with the results.
I know what NASA is but what is NGIA?
You have my congrats. You may be on to something here. There are a bunch of old dogs here (me included) who discovered adding bricks, a big water dish or other mass helped. It was all experimental and that's part of the fun. You might have the newest 'fix' there.
BTW, don't mention N-G-I-A again. These communications might be monitored and they'll come for you. :-\
great idea
Hmm,
NIGA?
Take your pick.
Nursery & Garden Industry Australia
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
New Gwadar International Airport (Pakistan)
Nebraska Grocery Industry Association (Lincoln, NE)
NGIA National Geospatial Information Agency (US Federal Geographic Data Committee)
NGIA Novell GroupWise Internet Agent
I use the same stuff except I dont use tape. I wrap the whole smoker and use Velcro to hold I shut. I have a pic I will post when I get home
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Ok, I am keeping my eyes open for new black SUV's with guys wearing black suits and wearing dark sunglasses.
They'll be easy to spot with all the snow around here.
They have white SUVs and white suits up there 8) 8) 8) 8)
The extra insulation and wind protection makes it well worth the few bucks. Here's my obs in her "space suit"
(http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb368/cathousewilly/2011_0819smoker0002.jpg)
My hat.
Cant say no mo.
(http://img.tapatalk.com/a6890c5c-06b2-8e8c.jpg)
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JZ,
Help me to understand your post and results. The air temp outside is approximately 20F when you turn on the tower burner at 12:00 so I am going to estimate the temp inside the tower prior to turning on the heating element to be 50F at the very most. In 15 minutes the temp has risen 158 degrees. At that point you open the door and place the chicken parts in the smoker and turn on the puck burner which would be an additional heat source. The temp in the tower only drops 25 degrees to 183F and it takes 45 minutes to go up 45 degrees.
Two questions for you. What were you using to measure the temps in the tower and how many pounds of chicken did you load in the tower?
KyNola,
The temp readings are based on those displayed on the DBS SG. When I turned the smoker on the temp reading inside the box read 32*F - I am guessing that is the lowest the display will show. It took a few minutes before the temps started to increase but once it started they seemed to increase fairly quickly. Something I didn't mention is that when I turned the smoker on I had the vent closed to aid in heat gain and I put hot water in the puck bowl.
I am not sure how much the chicken parts weighed but it consisted of 4 leg/thigh combo pieces and it pretty much filled one rack. The meat had just come out of the fridge and therefore was cold - no warm up period. When I put the chicken into the smoker I also opened the vent all the way.
Here is something of note. When I used the DBS, in cold weather, before adding the Snuggy and it was up to temp, I felt the outside of the cabinet to see if there were any hot spots, which would indicate heat loss. The lower back and lower side where the SG is were very warm. The rest of the cabinet was cool to the touch. After adding the cover and the cabinet was up to temp, I slid my fingers under the cover and found the cabinet was very warm everywhere I could feel. The outside of the cover was only slightly warm on the lower part of the back. Strangely enough the front of the door, which was not covered was cool to the touch. This suggests that there is little to no heat loss through the door. The fact that the rest of the cabinet was hotter after adding the cover, but the outside of the cover was cool indicates that there was significant heat loss through those areas before adding the cover and very little aftewards. I think the cabinet is now acting as a heat mass.
I might be out by 5 or 10 minutes on my time lines, since I did not start out to undertake an experiment. But once I seen what was happening I thought I would try to keep track. But overall the time frame from start up to reaching the 228* temp with the chicken in the cabinet was around 1 hr but not more than 1hr 10 min. Still a huge improvement.
Very cool. Damn. I had a whole bunch of that material left in a container. And I threw it away. Sun a ma bi^t&ch.
Yeah I paid $21 plus taxes for a roll 16" wide by 25' long.
Free would have been much better --- that's my favourite price.
After thinking some more about Kynola's questions I realize that the only time element I am uncertain about is the exact start time. I am positive about the rest of the information. So I think I will do another warm up run to see if I get similar results.
Do you have another way you can measure the temps in the tower besides the BDS readings? Something like a ET-73 or ET-732 or any other pit thermometer with a probe you can place in the tower yet read from the outside without opening the door? The BDS is notorious for having readings that are not always accurate. Believe me I know, I own a BDS 4 rack too.
Quote from: RFT on November 18, 2011, 02:12:27 PM
I use the same stuff except I dont use tape. I wrap the whole smoker and use Velcro to hold I shut. I have a pic I will post when I get home
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Well, seems that since I did my doorstop and fan mod my snuggie doesn't fit anymore. so no pix.
RFT - What is a door stop?
KyNola; this morning I ran another preheat test. The outside temp was -12*C (about 10*F), colder than yesterday. I turned on the heater (not the smoker) and added hot water to the puck bowl. After 30 min the BDS temp reading was 203*F. So it took longer to get to almost the same temp but it was 10*F colder today. So I am thinking that I was off on the start time yesterday and maybe it took 20 or 25 min to get up to 208*. But the rest of the info is correct. That is still much better than stock and I am happy with that.
I do have 2 other remote thermometers that I could hang in the smoker. But for this run I wanted to keep everything the same as yesterday. Couldn't control the outside temps though. It is supposed to get a little warmer in a day or 2 and I would like to run the preheat again if the outside temps get to around -6*C to check the time line against my initial run. I will also use one of the remote thermometers and I will turn on the puck burner to see what effect that has on it.
JZ, this is a door stop :D saves the door from inadvertently swinging open to far and stressing out the plastic hinges.
(http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r262/bytored/Snapbucket/626DB252-orig.jpg)
Quote from: JZ on November 18, 2011, 09:46:07 PM
KyNola,
The temp readings are based on those displayed on the DBS SG. When I turned the smoker on the temp reading inside the box read 32*F - I am guessing that is the lowest the display will show. It took a few minutes before the temps started to increase but once it started they seemed to increase fairly quickly. Something I didn't mention is that when I turned the smoker on I had the vent closed to aid in heat gain and I put hot water in the puck bowl.
This really helps explain a lot of the things that are making folks scratch there heads on how you got it to heat up so fast from a cold start. The sensor in the DBS is notorious for being off. Then you closed the vent and put boiling water in there. yes the temps will climb extremely fast under those conditions.
Here are latest test results. Outside temp got up to -6*C (about 20*F) so I ran another preheat test. This time without hot water ( did not place the water bowl in the smoker) and used 2 other remote thermometers hung through the vent. Vent was still closed during the preheat.
I also had the puck burner on this time.
Here are the temps that the 3 thermometers showed.
Bradley RT 1 RT 2
15 min 131 199 189
20 min 182 234 223
25 min 210 259 248
Here are the pics.
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e012.jpg)
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e013.jpg)
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e015.jpg)
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e016.jpg)
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e017.jpg)
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e018.jpg)
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t310/JZ-bucket/e020.jpg)
Looks like you're starting to have fun! A meat probe will read more accurately if it's in something rather than just thin air. A small potato works well.
Pretty impressive JZ.
Thanks KyNola.
I did not expect the Snuggy to make that much difference and when I seen the results I had to share my findings. I have taken a lot from this forum and it feels good to give something back.
That's very impressive. I might try that. I've always been annoyed by the slow recovery time and I don't think I'm technically up to adding a second heating element. A couple of questions:
- Did you wrap the bottom or just the three sides?
- What is the wrap called?
I wrapped the sides and the top -- not the bottom.
I don't recall what the name of the stuff is but you can get it at a hardware store and probably one of the big box stores. It is used for wrapping heating ducts, hot water tanks and the like.
I am really pleased with the way it works. I still haven't tried it on a big load but even with the small load I did previously, I noticed a big difference.
Good luck and let us know how it works for you, if you try it.
Oh and try to keep the wrap close to the smoker. If there are big gaps then the heat will escape.