New Space Age Bradley Prototype

Quarlow · November 18, 2011, 10:05:48 PM

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.

JZ · November 19, 2011, 07:59:39 AM

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.

KyNola · November 19, 2011, 01:44:43 PM

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.

RFT · November 19, 2011, 03:39:45 PM

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

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well, seems that since I did my doorstop and fan mod my snuggie doesn't fit anymore. so no pix.

JZ · November 19, 2011, 05:16:49 PM

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.

RFT · November 19, 2011, 07:21:38 PM

JZ, this is a door stop :D saves the door from inadvertently swinging open to far and stressing out the plastic hinges.

Tenpoint5 · November 20, 2011, 06:03:32 AM

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.

JZ · November 20, 2011, 01:35:27 PM

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.

ArnieM · November 20, 2011, 02:01:47 PM

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.

KyNola · November 20, 2011, 02:31:01 PM

Pretty impressive JZ.

JZ · November 20, 2011, 04:56:10 PM

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.

Rainmaker · November 21, 2011, 10:36:48 AM

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?

JZ · November 21, 2011, 03:37:08 PM

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.