Bradley compared to commercial grades.

Birdman · April 16, 2008, 02:15:42 PM

Hi Fellow Bar-B-Que fans. I really enjoy building bar-b-ques on trailers. I am thinking of adding a smoker to the trailer and not have to actually construct one. Looking at the six rack and comparing it to some commercial grades I've seen for about 20 times the money. What is the difference between Bradley and any commercial???

Gizmo · April 16, 2008, 08:51:05 PM

Welcome Birdman

Cost and the commercial are harder to use. ;D

Never owned or operated a commercial so really can't give you a fair comparison. Would like to get one of the trailer rigs myself but don't have the $$$$ they command. Bradley is electric (except for the propane portable) so if you want to take it on the road you would need a generator. :)

La Quinta · April 16, 2008, 08:58:43 PM

As Giz pointed out...need a plug for the Bradley...but gotta tell ya...unless you're into commercial smoking or competitions...don't know why you'd need anything bigger..or unless you smoke where there is no power source? Like dry camping? Help us out here?

SKSmoker · April 19, 2008, 10:14:57 AM

The certifications are part of the cost. To be in a food service you need to have the right certifications before the health dept will let that piece of equipment into your establishment. Typically what you also find is that in the smokers costing more, they will have heavier material and more true stainless steel. For home use, the Bradley is a fine product. Capacity, duty cycle, etc all are part of the cost.

Birdman · April 21, 2008, 06:51:19 PM

Thanks for the input folks. Now has anyone tried the six rack unit. Does the heat stay relatively even during the smoking process?

Gizmo · April 21, 2008, 09:09:48 PM

I have the 6 rack and love it as I can put a lot of food in it. Not to say that I haven't had a few occasions to want more but not too often. In my opininion, the temp varies greatly from bottom to top. I don't believe that is exclusive to the 6 rack or with any other smoker product that doesn't have a convection fan installed. The temp variation from the controller is the same on the 4 rack as it is on the 6 rack digital. There may be a small difference between the digital and the original but I don't think it is much. I also don't think it makes that much difference (which is way different from my thinking when I was looking for and bought the Digital model) unless doing sausage.

Now, bring me one of your home built trailer rigs and I'll give you a personal training session on 6 rack bradley. We will cover all the famous recipes honored here and we can make up a few on the way. ;D 8)
O.K. you don't need to bring one but the rest of the offer still stands.

Birdman · April 22, 2008, 10:45:35 AM

HI GIZMO,
THANKS FOR THE INPUT. BECAUSE OF THE TRAILER RIG WE COOK FOR MAX 200 PEOPLE AT A TIME. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO SMOKE FOR THE SAME AMOUNT THE NIGHT BEFORE. AND SIMPLY WARM IT UP THE DAY OF THE EVENT. FROM THE SOUNDS OF THINGS THE 6 RACK STILL MAY NOT BE ABLE TO HANDLE LET'S SAY 20 RACKS OF RIBS????? eVEN IF IT COULD SOUNDS LIKE I WOULD BE MOVING RIBS AROUND QUITE A BIT BECAUSE OF THE DIFFERENCE IN HEAT FROM TOP TO BOTTOM.

Gizmo · April 22, 2008, 08:58:11 PM

I would say the Bradley is definately not your catering friendly product. The most I have been able to stuff into the 6 rack is 12 rack of ribs. You could smoke multiple sets to get to the quantity and then finish the day of as you mentioned but your costs would increase. Now you could build your own smoke house and put a bradley smoke generator in it. Iceman has some awesome setups and with your own smoke house you could do several dozen and throw in a whole hog just for good measure.