The big E

[Cheech]

I've had my Bradley Smoker for just under a year.  Since day 1 it has given me issues where it sporadically decides to spit out all the pucks into the water.  I get the big flashing E and I've researched what the issue is.

They sent me a new micro switch.  I installed it tonight.  Straight away I get the big flashing E again and all the pucks go for a non-stop ride to the water pan.

Now I decide to look a little closer at the guts of the machine.  The arm that pushes the button on the microswitch doesn't push it in far enough to fully depress it.  If I manually push it during the cycle it stops the puck flow and acts right. 

Not wanting to wait until Monday for customer service to open, I look a little further.  Surely there must be a way to nudge this thing a little closer.  Sure enough there are two mounting holes on one side of the bracket that holds the motor.  With no shortage of cussing and grumbling from fooling with and dropping the tiny parts, I get it moved to the second hole.  I fire it up...and now it's too close and the microswitch blocks the arm...then the arm goes around in the opposite direction...gets blocked again and starts with the big E again.

Has anyone else had this problem?  This is not a defective switch...the switch works perfectly, but the arm is so out of alignment that it can't consistently depress the button enough to activate it.  There also appears to be no way to nudge the motor over the very small fraction of an inch that it needs to go to fix the problem.

I'm done fooling with this until Monday, but am curious to know who else has had this problem...I can't be alone.  It's still under warranty so I'm not about to start modifying the mounts to make it right...but I suspect that's what you'd have to do if it weren't under warranty.

[Cheech]

OK...here's a quick update.  When I went to put the motor bracket back in the original hole, I pushed hard toward the micro-switch while I was tightening the bolt...now it works.

Every time i hit the puck advance the arm goes around one time, depresses the switch, and stops right on it.

It appears this was the result of a poor design and/or just a shoddy bit of craftsmanship at the factory.  Works now though...just took an hour or so of taking it apart, learning how it works, then monkeying with it and cussing until I got it right.

[dave01]

All's well that ends well, right

[Cheech]

But now I have to put about $30 in the cussin jar!   :o

[Gafala]

Give the Jar a $5 tip it will like you more. ;D ;D ;D

[Habanero Smoker]

Glad you got it working. If you look at the two bolts that mount the motor to the bracket, you will see the holes are slotted. You only need to loosen both bolts and then you can adjust the position of the motor so that it properly strikes the micro switch and depresses it in far enough to engage.

When the arm makes a full cycle it always stops on the switch.