Newbie worries about smoker temprature

[Rufi]

Hey all, I just got a 4 rack digital smoker and did the seasoning step. I preheated the wood burner for 20 minutes and set the oven temprature to 150. I found though that the teprature was hanging out at around 185 for the entire hour. In fact it was getting nearly that hot during the first 20 min

I want to try and make the salmon recipe in the front of the booklet it came with, but as that calls for a temp of 120 for the first hour and I'm going beyond 150 just during the preheat, I don't know if thats possible.

Is there something I'm missing? I don't even know where to begin for troubleshooting this. :(

[beefmann]

welcome aboard,

try the following
1) open your top vent wide open
2) adjust your temp setting a  bit  lower

also  the bradley smokers  will have 30 to 40 degree temp. swings are normal unless you are runing a auber PID which  keeps the temp swings a  lot  closer then the stock controllers of the bradley

[GusRobin]

depending upon your ambient temp, you may not get it that low since the smoke generator adds heat.

Others have bought or made cold smoker box (simple as a cardboard box)
Added ice to the water tray
kept door open
smoke at night

[ragweed]

Welcome to the forum from Nebraska.  I too have trouble keeping the temp down in the summer.  I get 130 F with just the smoke generator.  I crack the door and add a tray of ice.  Helps.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Rufi;

Welcome to the forum.

With the above advise, you will find that once you load the fish, that will also help with maintaining lower temperatures. If you can't smoke/cook at night, do it earlier in the morning. If you can only smoke/cook during the day, make sure you keep the smoker out of direct sunlight.

Below is a handly link full of tips and problem solvers:
Bradley RAQ's