Intermittent electrical problem with BDS

nick7403 · June 08, 2008, 12:28:23 PM

My dad just bought a BDS this week. He seasoned it yesterday without any problems. I brought up some bacon I cured to give it a test drive, but we are having an issue with it.
The smoker unit will turn on, but most of the time (4 out of 5 times I turn it on), it will advance a puck, make a clicking noise (relay perhaps?) and end up illuminating everything on the display (88:88, etc.) and immediately shut itself off. I can get it to work for 20 min (1 out of 5 times I turn it on), but so far it shuts itself off after every wood puck. Has anyone experienced this or know what might be causing it and how to fix it? I was going to smoke this bacon for a few hours, but I don't like the constant babysitting. If it makes any difference, we are not using the oven at all, this is a cold smoke.
Thanks in advance.

westexasmoker · June 08, 2008, 12:41:52 PM

Welcome nick

Not much help with digital, but seems I remember some post about the wiring not connected good inside the smoke gen...Goodness knows I'm not electrically inclined, but it almost sounds like a bad connection...Paging Arcs...Someone will have a better plan than I!

C

Arcs_n_Sparks · June 08, 2008, 12:58:46 PM

nick7403,

No experience with the DBS, so I am of little help. Past posts suggest making sure all connections are good. If you still have problems, call Bradley and they will get you fixed.

Arcs_n_Sparks

Gizmo · June 08, 2008, 04:31:21 PM

I would recommend pulling the smoke gen shell apart and checking for loose connections. If it still doesn't work, call Bradley support tomorrow and they will fix you up right quick.

nick7403 · June 10, 2008, 10:00:16 PM

Thanks all for the help and advice.

A call to Bradley on Monday revealed that they had not handled this problem before (or at least, the person we talked to had not heard of it). We went through the "remove the cover and check connections phase" to no avail. They decided to ship a new unit, which I think is very solid in terms of customer service. I just wanted to follow up to say thanks and add this to the knowledge compendium around here.

Nick

westexasmoker · June 11, 2008, 05:32:00 AM

Another two thumbs up for Bradley service, can't be beat!

C

sbivey · June 15, 2008, 12:51:43 PM

Used my smoker twice last fall and today when I used it, it was working for about an hour
when it lost power. Tried unplugging and checked the connections and everything seemed fine.
Every time I tried to plug back in it would trip my reset button on the outlet. It is a stainless
model.

pensrock · June 15, 2008, 12:59:28 PM

Sounds like a short somewhere. Try plugging the unit into a different circuit and see if it trips that circuit. If it trips then the problem is in the unit, assuming it is not plugged into a bad extention cord or something like that. If that is the case and it is a digital unit I would open up the generator and look for a wire that may have come undone and is touching something.