Temperature dropped during first smoke

[crewdog89]

I chose two pork shoulders (6 lbs each) for my first smoke.  Everything started up great, and the unit worked well for the first 4 hours or so.  I set the oven temp at 225 and both timers for 7 hours each.  I went to check on it, and the temp had dropped down to 180.  I checked over everything, and it all looked good.  Came back a little later, and the temp had dropped down to 160.  Turned off the smoke generator increased the oven temp to 300 to see if I could get it to come up.  30 minutes later, the temp had dropped down to 150.  I ended up taking it inside to finish cooking it.  I'm very disappointed, and need some help to determine what I should check.  I have four families coming over Monday, and planned on smoking a brisket!  Any suggestions?
vern

[Wildcat]

Unplug and re-plug everything back in. It could be a loose connection. Check to see if the main cabinet element is glowing. I do not know much about the digital models so since you have one of those it could be a timer thing.

[Saber 4]

Unplug and re-plug everything back in. It could be a loose connection. Check to see if the main cabinet element is glowing. I do not know much about the digital models so since you have one of those it could be a timer thing.

Agree with Wildcat, I have the digital and I don't think it has anything to do with the timer, it's probably a loose connection keeping the element from staying on.

[KyNola]

Fire up your Bradley, give it time to start heating and peak inside and see if the heating element in the tower is glowing red.  If it is, you're Bradley is most likely working correctly.  I can't tell for sure from reading your initial post but is it possible that what you were experiencing was the natural drop in tower that that one would expect to see when you throw 12 lbs of cold meat in the tower?  For the first few hours the Bradley tower temp will drop like a rock because the cold meat is acting like a heat sink, sucking up all of the heat your Bradley is trying to produce.  As the meat warms up, the temp in the tower will begin to rise.  Bumping the oven temp to 300 served no purpose because if your Bradley was functioning properly and you had it set at 225 and the temp inside was that far below the set point the burner should have been heating. It just couldn't catch up.  Leave the smoke generator on to help generate additional heat too.

That's one of the reasons you see butts take as long as 24 hours in a Bradley.

[crewdog89]

Thanks for the replies folks.  I couldn't resist plugging it back up last night and testing it out.  I only turned the oven on, and it eventually heated up to 250.  During the initial smoke, the temp actually stayed fairly consistent for the first 4 hours, so there really isn't a reason that it would have dropped down to 150.  I'm smoking a large brisket tomorrow--I really hope this thing works all night!

[TedEbear]

Make sure all the plugs are seated tightly.  Maybe unplug and plug each one back in.  On a new smoker they are usually difficult to plug together without a little extra force.  Hope your brisket turns out well.

[tailfeathers]

A word of friendly advice on your brisket smoke. As you learned, large cuts of meat can take some time. Give yourself a wide time window for completion, a brisket can be FTC'ed for 4 hours (at least) and still be plenty hot to slice and serve. I you aren't familiar, FTC is "foil, towel, cooler". When you remove your brisket, seal it tightly in foil, then wrap with an old towel, then into the smallest available cooler that will hold it. I also place a few layers of newspaper on top before I close up the cooler.  This technique allows you great flexibility when smoking, because you really can't start to early. Just don't start to late!

[KyNola]

What was the consistent temp during the first 4 hours and more importantly what were you using to monitor the temp?

[rlee518]

Mine is doing this as well.  I would like to know how to fix this.

[Wildcat]

Could the high temp limiter be defective?