More problems with DBS

[bigredsmoker]

I'm begining to wonder about the quality control at Bradley. I got my new digital smoke generator and I hook it up to put some smoke on some fish and it beeps, but no lights on the display. Check all the cables, re plug everything still no lights. Haul it inside and open her up. THere is a red wire hanging free in the box, well, that explains it. Hook it up and back to the cold smoke. Everything works fine, pucks advance on time etc. Now I am ready to hot smoke some fatties. Set it to pre-heat to 280 and go have dinner.

Side note: Put an hour of Alder smoke on a couple Mahi Mahi filets, then rubbed with some EVOO and some Zatarans Blackened fish seasoning, 2 minutes a side on the grill and they wer awesome.

After dinner went down to put in Fatties, and temp is only 85. Main heat element is not coming on. Now I'm a little upset. Check all the connections again, still no heat from main. So, go get my old generator that was not feeding pucks and hook it up and come and start typing this post. Just went back and checked and already at 110. I am a little disapointed. I can understand one problem with my Bradley, but then another. I am also not the type to have things go wrong, I never buy extended warranty's and never need them. So, what's the deal??

Tomorrow I will open up the unit again and see if maybe another wire is not connected. If everything is OK then I guess I will be calling Bradleyagain.  :( >:(

Terry

[Gizmo]

I would have suggested you check the plug between the control unit and the tower.  Sounds like it was not making contact.  I have left that one disconnected a time or two after switching over from a cold smoke.  Since there was a wire dicsonnected inside already, I would check the wiring going to the plug that is for the tower.

[Mr Walleye]

Terry

Disappointing to say the least!  :(

On the screen of the generator, on the tower side (right side), was it lit up? Did it indicate a temp?
If the tower side on things is not lit up, a problem a few people have had is not pushing the power button hard enough. Some of the switches require a pretty good push. The other thing you could do is use your main power wire and plud the tower in directly to rule out any problem with the tower.

Mike

[bigredsmoker]

Yes, the tower temp was turned on, and the tower is working fine and heating up with my original gnerator unit. I think I need to open up the new unit agian tomorrow and check all of the connections inside. Thanks!

[Consiglieri]

I love this machine, but I'm reading a lot lately about some issues that shouldn't exist. Anyone have any insight about what's gong on business wise? Too much growing pains?  I hear they're back ordered on a few models and all. 

That said, you don't want to spoil name value to meet demand.  I'd like to hear from anyone with some info.  Had my own "E1" message today. 

[pensrock]

The only thing I can add is one time when talking to a tech from Bradley, he told me all thier manufacturing is done in China. I was a little upset to hear that, thinking Bradleys were designed and made in North America.

[Wildcat]

BigRed - You should probably inform Bradley even if you do fix the problem.  Without input they have no way of knowing that there is a problem.

[Dougsts]

I am on my second smoke generator/heater unit for my digital 4 rack Bradley smoker.  The original unit puck advance bound up and stopped working after just a few smoking projects. Bradley promptly sent me a new unit, which only advance pucks a couple of more smoking adventures than the first.  So I have been manually switching pucks out, and to my dismay, that last smoke project, the unit wouldn't would not heat up, all lights lit, all plugs tight.  All in all, the Bradley smoker has been rather dissapointing.  I spoke to Bradley tech support, they recommended taking the unit apart and spraying some WD40 on the puck advance linkage, which i did, but to no avail.  It seems to advance the first puck or two until the unit heats up, it almost seems like thermal expansion issue, but thats just a guess.  I need to check my heating lamp to see if that has failed, but just havent had time to do it.  Is there a place to order spare parts such as heating lamps, for these units? Thanks

[Consiglieri]

What's up guys?  I'm seeing too many posts like these recently.  Anybody have some insight?

[Mr Walleye]

Dougsts

Here is one of the members here web site where he has parts available. Hi name is Bryan and don't be afraid to call him if you don't see what you need. http://www.yardandpool.com/home.php

If your unit is still under warranty or not far off I would also give Bradley a call & see what they will do for you.

Mike

[bigredsmoker]

Just got around to opening up the non functioning smoke generator again and discovered the red wire was off again. evidentally I did not push it on hard enough. So I shut the machine up again and hooked it back up to do another smoke. This time, no lights on he digital display. The unit beeps when I turn it on and beeps when I push buttons but but no display. Time to call Bradley. They transfer me to a technician and he says the red wire would have been the cause of no heat in the tower. he says to look at the harness wire going to the display. It looks fine, but after closer inspection I can see that the end wire that goes into the plastic junction is showing som metal outside the plastic clip. I try and push it in and it moves in a ways so you can't see the metal anymore. I take the junction apart and I can see that that wire was probably not making contact before I pushed it back in. So i try and push it in as far as it will go. The Bradley Tech says that should fix it. But if it does not call back and tell them you talked to Brian and he said to send you a new unit.

I just hooked everything back up and it appears everything is working. Now hopefully it stays that way and my pucks advance as they are suposed to. Had to use my old unit last night to do my Canadian bacon and it worked fine until the last puck when it refused to advance and gave me an error message. I gave it a smack on the side and then it worked again.

Keeping my fingers crossed that it stays working. Have a big smoke planned for the superbowl.

Terry

[Gizmo]

Nicely done Terry, Good perseverance.  I suspect you may be starting up a new Bradley Suppport hot line since you have now graduated from the school of DIY.  :D

I am wondering if you now have a target spot drawn on the side of the old gen box where you have to smack it?  Kind of reminds me of my military days.  I had a piece of equipment that went in for an overhaul and upgrade.  We were getting ready for deployment so they had to rush and ship it back.  There was a hand drawn X sign on the side that read kick here for range strobes.  Took me a while to find the problem but it was from a recepticle pin that was not properly seated into the edge connector similar to what you described.  Once I identified the one that was loose, clicking it in place fixed the problem.  Trouble shooting was a bear as evertime I took the card out and used an extender card to troubleshoot, the problem never showed up.  Of course the problem pin was inside the unit all the way in the back.