Bradley heats up very good when I first turn on.

[muzzletim]

When I preheat the Bradley it goes right up to 230 degree's, when I open the door to look or load with food it drops way down and will never regain its original temperature even if I do not put anything in it. Do I have a loose connection or malfunctioning temperature sensor?

Thanks,
Tim

[Gizmo]

Bradleys only have a 500 watt heating element.  It will take time to recover and longer with large loads.  I set mine to the highest heat setting until the box recovers but I also monitor the temperature at the meat and do not use the built in temperature guage.  I preheat to 260 or more.  As the meat warms up, recovery and stability of temp increases.

[KyNola]

Giz is dead on with his info.  Once you lose the heat, it takes a while to regain it, especially if you've got a bunch of cold meat sitting in it.

KyNola

[FLBentRider]

I keep one or two foil wrapped bricks in the bottom to help with heat recovery.

[muzzletim]

Hey folks,

I understand what your saying and agree 100 %, but if it takes 25 minutes to preheat to 230 degrees and you open the door and the heat drops back to 129 degrees, then you shut the door again without putting anything in it shouldn't heat back up to 230 degrees? Mine will only obtain 160 degrees if I do this. I am befuddled why that is??

Thanks,
Tim

[Slamdunk]

How long did it take after you closed the door before it got back up to 160??

[mikecorn.1]

Are you looking at the temp with something like a maverick et-73, my bds has had huge difference in temp swings  from the built in tmeter to the other.

[muzzletim]

Actually I have a digital pid that i am looking at, and that compares to the thermoneter on the bradley, it takes about 20 minutes to heat up to 160 the second time  about the same as the first time.

Tim

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi muzzletim;

Welcome to the forum. Try unhooking the PID and preheat, then open the door, let the temperature drop and close the door again. If you see an improvement, then the problem is with the PID. I don't have one, but I read they need to be pretuned. Did you pretune it?

[muzzletim]

Unfortunately the PID has been tuned and it is allowing the Bradley to heat up. I have also tried it without the PID and it does the same thing! 

[Mr Walleye]

Muzzletim

This is very puzzling for sure. I would give Brian at Bradley a phone call and see if he can help out with it. Their customer service is 2nd to none.  ;)

Brian @ Bradley... (800) 665-4188

Mike

[Bradley (Head Office)]

Hey folks,

I understand what your saying and agree 100 %, but if it takes 25 minutes to preheat to 230 degrees and you open the door and the heat drops back to 129 degrees, then you shut the door again without putting anything in it shouldn't heat back up to 230 degrees? Mine will only obtain 160 degrees if I do this. I am befuddled why that is??

Thanks,
Tim

Hi Tim

When it reached 230 did you notice if the element was still glowing red?

What i am thinking is the temp sensor ( which is really a high limit cutoff) is shutting the element off early it would take some time for it to cool down
and then turn back on and allow the heat to build back up.

Brian

[muzzletim]

You know that makes sense! It isn't that hard to work around as I primarily smoke sausage and fish. But on the occasion that I smoke ribs it is puzzling as to why it does that!

Thanks for all the responses!