Temperature control

Oriondriver · June 20, 2009, 02:57:06 PM

Hey... broke out the smoker to use today and on preheat noticed it will not go above 225 with the temp controller on the front on high and nothing inside of it... that cannot be normal... thoughts? ???

Thanks
Scott

KyNola · June 20, 2009, 03:34:05 PM

I have the digital version but many of the OBS owners note that there is a dead spot if you have the slider all the way hard right. You might try to back your slider off about a half inch.

KyNola

Almost forgot, welcome to the forum! :)

Gizmo · June 20, 2009, 06:45:21 PM

Check the vents in the V-TRAY. If they get pressed in, it restricts the heat flow up and will keep the temperature down.
How long was it at 225?
You can take the V-TRAY out and see if the heat quickly rises.

Habanero Smoker · June 21, 2009, 01:47:17 AM

Also another thought; check your vent opening. In this situation, if it is wide open, it will keep the temperature down.

Oriondriver · June 21, 2009, 06:10:54 AM

Well... the smoker worked like a champ... but never got really hotter than about 225 degrees... no difference with the pan in or out... the vent was fully closed... certainly enough to do the trick but I wonder if there is something wrong with the temperature controller and if a PID is a logical solution...

Scott

pensrock · June 21, 2009, 07:41:13 AM

You never want to run the smoker with the vent FULLY closed. Smoke and m oisture will back up into the generator and cause big problems.

KyNola · June 21, 2009, 08:30:16 AM

I'm with Pens on this one. You never want to run the smoker with the vent fully closed. It will eventually destroy your smoke generator and the condensation that forms and is trapped in the smoker because the vent is full closed will contribute highly to the temp not coming up like you want. I rarely run my smoker with the vent less than half open and sometimes 100% open depending on the circumstances.

KyNola

Oriondriver · June 21, 2009, 09:43:19 AM

I didn't run the smoker with the vent closed... simply closed it during the warm up to see if it made a difference...

Up In Smoke · June 21, 2009, 11:32:03 AM

OD
I have the OBS and run it with the vent full open at all times.
i do use a pid to control the temp, sliding the control on the cabinet
all the way to the right then back about 1/4 inch.
i do have one question. do you have the smoke generator heating up during
preheat?
Oh..another question how long do you preheat?

Oriondriver · June 21, 2009, 06:04:03 PM

I did have the smoke generator on during preheat... and I preheated it about 30 mins... did you build your PID? Is it worth the time and money?

Thanks
Scott

drano · June 21, 2009, 06:41:42 PM

Oriondriver
Are you using an extension cord? If so, they can rob some of the power on the way to the Bradley. Time of day and your power quality will affect top temp too. Check your voltage at the outlet you are using. It should be 115-120 volts. If its less than that, it will be harder for the Bradley to warm up.

As for the PID, last December I got a plug-n-play Auber programmable. Man it works nice, and no work for me putting parts together! I got the programmable because I do sausage, and programming it to bring up the temp every hour until I get 175 deg is really nice. Of course, I could walk outside every hour and do it myself w/ the regular model. If you're doing ribs/butt/brisket, etc, the non-programmable model will work great because you generally don't change the temp as it smokes/cooks.
When I got the PID, I removed the slider temp control from the circuit w/ a splice piece of wire.

get smokin
drano

Up In Smoke · June 21, 2009, 09:51:31 PM

Scott,
i have the prgrammable pid from auber and as drano stated
it was well worth the investment
The reason i got the programmable is because i plan on
sausage and kummoks salmon in the future.