DBS6 takes forever to heat up

[midhenry]

My DBS6 takes a long time (45min to 1.5 hrs) to come up to temp (say 240F).  Its been this way since I purchased it.  Im just wondering if maybe the heating element is a little small for the increased volume of the DBS6.

Is this normal? If so, any way to upgrade the element?

[Wildcat]

Is there a reason for such a high temp?  It sounds like it is operating normally.  Yes, there are some threads for "upgrading" the element.

[Mr Walleye]

Hi MidHenry and welcome to the forum.

I usually preheat mine to 260 degrees and it used to take about an hour with the standard heating element. Although I usually don't smoke anything at that temp, I typically smoke around 200 to 220. I have a 4 rack digital. The 6 rack unit has the same size heating element in it so it does have a little more area to heat.

I have since added an additional heating element for faster preheat and faster recovery times. Most of the members run them as is but what can I say... I like to play.  ;)

Anyway... Here is a link to the write up on how I did it....
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?p=910#post910

Mike

[midhenry]

It's been a while since I used the smoker so I wasn't really sure of the temperature.  In any case, when I was smoking it took maybe an hour (sometimes more?) to get up to temperature. Opening the door put me back on the one hour recovery cycle.  It just seemed like a really long time.  Hearing that the DBS6 and DBS4 have the same element is interesting; the DBS6 pretty much by definition would be slower to temp given the 1/3 increased volume.

Thanks for the tip on searching the forum; lots of useful information popped up.

This post from Walleye (http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=8987.0) seems to address the problem.  I think Ill try the mod.

Thanks.

[Habanero Smoker]

I going to use Mike's instructions and modify my smoker. Just waiting for my high temperature wire that I ordered.

[Roadking]

You can't BBQ on a grill. Do you get it?