low heat?

[mow_delon]

I have also had issues with my jumper cord from the smoke generator to the cabinet being hard to fully seat.  That makes a big difference, too.  From reading the posts, however, I think your main issue was that you had cold meat near the temp probe, making the temp look lower than what it was.  Running with nothing in the smoker will tell you if that was the issue.  Also, some Bradleys have the fabled "dead spot" at the high end of the slider (thankfully I have never seen this happen).  As far as the spec. of 280 goes, I have never be able to achieve that high, but 250 is not a problem.

[skinut]

Major panic on Labor Day.  All four racks full - 3 racks of salmon (nearly 10#) and a rack of pork tenderloins.  After filling the smoker it would not rise above 130 degrees.  35 wine-happy, hungry people and all my timing out the window. :o

Open vent , closed vent, neither budged the door temp.  Flipped the temp lever back and forth a couple times and pushed it full right (again).  Finally stated to creep up but barely hitting 150 degrees.  Checked the tenderloins themselves and had 157 degrees - what the heck?!?! ???  Pulled 'em out and checked the salmon temp - 140 degrees - perfect.

Checked it out while empty this morning after reading about the "flat spot" on the temp lever in another posting.  Pushed it all the way over (I broke the plastic knob when I first unpacked the smoker about a year ago) and then backed it to the left about 1/4", vent wide open.  Watered the herb garden, checked it about 20 minutes later and I am pushing 210 degrees.  Beware the "flat spot"!  Element is just fine.   

[Habanero Smoker]

Sounds like your cabinet temperatures where higher then the temperature probe you were using. If you were going by the temperature probe in the cabinet door, that is not reliable when you have food in the smoker; especially when you have food on the second self from the top.

As for the flat spot, that may have been problem with earlier models (if the problem ever existed), but Brian from Bradley Tech. posted some time back that is not an issue with the later models. So you either may have damage your particular adjustment, or try retesting again with an empty smoker and place the slider all the way to the right and see if you obtain a higher temperature then you did when you backed off 1/4 inch.

[skinut]

Will do - this weekend.

Thanks.