improved Bradley smoker

[car54]

http://community.webshots.com/album/227589358ctGCMz

The above link shows the enclosure that I have made for my smoker, the added power rapter and an auxiliary heater. I have felt that the Bradley needs more power when it is loaded with food. It seems that it takes a long time to get back to temperature' so I have added a 350 watt ceramic heater that has it's own rheostat to control the amount of gain. I have not smoked with it but it seems to be operating the way I designed it. I'll get back after I have used it.

[nsxbill]

Is the auxillary heater out of another smoker?  Source?  How much?  Take a closeup of the heater and the add-on on the right side and post up if you have time.

Thanks,

Bill

[car54]

Bill, I have posted pictures of the heater on the webshot site.I bought the heater from infrared heaters. Here is a link, http://infraredheaters.com/ceramic.htm#Type%20HTE. The reflector was from eraser.com, here is the link. http://infraredheaters.com/ceramic.htm#Type%20HTE. It is a 120 volt heater and most of the stocked heaters are 240 volts. They do have more of these in stock. I made some custom mounting brackets and drilled 2 hole through the Bradley for the leads that go to a rheostat. The hole were sealed with a high temp slicone. I kept the heater away from the wall of the Bradley to dissipate the heat. It gets above 900 degrees just like the main heater. The unit with the reflector measures about 3x5 inches.

[nsxbill]

Some more questions:  

1. I notice in the picture that you are not using a drip pan, at least it doesn't look like one will fit with the brick there on right side.  Plans to use or not use a drip pan to catch spills?

2.  Are the two heaters wired in series so they are both controlled by the Raptor?  You reflect that you have additional rheostat.  Do you just put the food in, and crank up the manual control to give a burst of heat? Will the Raptor handle the power if using for both?

3.  What are the part numbers you used for the salamander and bracket?

4.  Are you aware you posted up the same part number twice?

5.  Moisture resistent?  Typical Salamander is used a couple of inches from foot to broil-warm, etc.  No problem anticipated with heat from all angles with moisture?

Just curious.  Looks cool.

Bill

[car54]

http://eraser.com/browsecat.cgi?mode=open&id=160.
Here is the link for the reflector, part#PKO144.

The part # for the heater is HTE-325-120-0-L7-WH-R 325W and as I said the mounting brackets I custom bent.

The drip tray was not shown to get a better picture. It will cover the heater so I don't expect any problems with moisture.

I will probably use the heater on large smokes and it could be used with or with out the raptor.

I'll post 1 more picture later on.

[car54]

http://community.webshots.com/album/227589358ctGCMz

The above link has all more pictures to my modified Bradley. There is also a picture of the mounting bracket and ceramic insulator beads that are on the wire of the heater.

You can see all the bricks that can be put in to hold the heat.

The lowest part of the relector is 1 3/4 inches off the bottom of the Bradley and the highest part of the reflector is a 1/2 inch from the lowest part of the drip tray.The reflector was held 3/4 of an inch off the side. The mounting plate was made at a 45 degree angle.

The only thing I would do different would to order some fiberglass insulation sleeves to slip over the heater wires. The ceramic beads in the pictures are placed over the heater wires and if the are not tight on the wires they could separate and expose the bare wire.

I plan on doing a large smoke this weekend and I'll get back with the results.