New guy with a dumb question

[Deflated]

Hey everyone,

I'm brand new to the smoker community and over the holiday weekend I bought a new OBS at Cabela's.  I had my first "successful" smoke yesterday.  I did some spare ribs and they seem to have come out pretty well.  The problem I'm having is with the smoker itself.  I assembled it, plugged it in and was in the process of seasoning it when I noticed the power indicator light on the box wasn't on.  Well at this point I already had good smoke going and figured it was just a bad light.  Did the season and then about an hour later I put the ribs in.  Everything seemed to be going fine accept I had to keep the temperature on high the whole time just to keep it between 200 and 225. 

Tonight I plugged everything back in and tested it out to see if everything was working properly.  I noticed after having everything on for about 2 min the only thing producing heat was the smoker and not the heating element in the box.   I have a hard time believing the smoker itself was able to get the temperature up to over 200 in the box.  I might be wrong but that just doesn't seem possible. 

Well just to test to see if the heating element in the box worked, I plugged the power cord from the outlet straight into the back of the box and within maybe 10 sec I could see a nice dull red glow.  Anyone have any suggestions as to what could be wrong?  Also, would it harm anything to just run a separate cord to the back of the box just so I can get the heating element to work?  Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Matt

[Wildcat]

I am as far from an expert in electrical circuitry as one can get, but from what you have stated, I would re-check and make sure the cord that runs from the smoke generator to the box is all the way in at both ends and take the slider control on the box all the way to the right and back off just a tad.  May want to check any fuses as well.

[westexasmoker]

Welcome to the forum Matt!

I agree with WC, check and make sure you've seated the cords good and back off on the slider just a tad some of the sliders tend to have a dead spot cranked all the way up.  Sounds like you had a pretty successful first smoke with your ribs, the cabinet takes quite awhile to recover with a load in it and 200-225 is perfect IMO for smoking!  Good luck and keep us posted!

C

[KyNola]

Welcome Matt,
Wildcat and WTS have you hooked up.  Don't be surprised when WTS suggests the best way to heat up your tower is to use mesquite.  We think his mother beat him with a mesquite stick. :D

Have fun and let us know how it all goes.

KyNola

[beefmann]

agree with the above two...if the connections from the cords are not all the way in .. they may not make contact and the 500 watt main heater will not work.

if the cord connections are not the problem then try the following.. you  might have a  smoke generator with a  connection that  has came  loose.

remove the smoke generator set it on a table to where you caan have some working room... remove the 8 or screws from the bottom edge of the smoke generator... ( not the ones in the middle they are for  other hardware inside the generator ) open carefully you  would have to slide the bottom away from one  another maybe 1/2 inch  then work up 1/2 inch or so.. take your  time .. once apart you  can have open the top and bottom pieces wider  for a better look.

look for any connections that have  came off... especially one that  leads to the second plug to the heater.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Deflated;

Welcome to the forum.

If none of the other suggestions work, check the fuse located at the back of the generator to see if it may have blown.

It should be okay to run it directly from the outlet, but Arcs or beefman could better answer that.

[Deflated]

Thanks for all the replys and suggestions.  I had been lurking on here for the past few days trying to find a solution to this problem.  I had noticed that people were talking about the cord needing to be seated really well for it to work.  I had tried unpluging and pluging it back in a few times with no success.  But the first time I bypassed the smoke generator and plugged directly into the back of the box, it work perfectly.   I still didn't have the power indicator light come on, but the heat worked and thats all i really care about. 

I will check the fuse first and if that's fine I'll try removing the bottom of the smoke generator to check for loose connections.  Thanks again for all the help.

As a side note.  The reason I purchased the smoker was to put on a really great 30th birthday party for my wife.  That's coming up at the end of this month so I want to get a few smokes under my belt and maybe a few good recipies to use for the party.  As I said before, the ribs cam out pretty good so this weekend I'm going to try a couple of boston butts.  I'll do a little more looking around on the forum for tips and rub ideas.

Matt

[Wildcat]

If all else fails give Bradley a call.  Their customer service is top notch.

[Habanero Smoker]

The indicator light on the cabinet is very difficult to see. Are you sure it is not on? Cuff your hand over it to block out the surrounding light, and see if the light is on. If it is only the light, and if it is a loose connection that connection will be behind the face plate (the plastic casing that hold the temperature control). I believe there are 5 screws on top and 3 on the bottom that must be removed to get the face plate off.