Newbie in Switzerland looking for 4-rack DBS online-now having problems

[femo]

hello guys,

last night was the night.... i started a 3kg PulledPork. temp set to 250 and smoke for 8 hours.
filled the cherry puks in and started. this morning i found the smoker having only used abt half
the puks. so me checking inside pressing the manual advance, i hear the noise but no puks moving.
so i took all the remaining puks out and see, that the pusher only moves half way back and is not
allowing the any new puk to come down  :o so i cleaned all the area as good as i could in the running
and yeah it worked again......but not for long only another 3 puks and than same problem occured.

am really dissapointed abt the performance on the 1st use....only previous smoke was the seasoning
last week.......is the bradley really so problematic ?

what shall i do now.....clean the smoking unit again, and finding the problem happening again in the next few
hours of smoking ?

another problem i discovered is the temperature one....the temp is really swinging up and down by 10C which is
quite a lot i find......

pls someone pls tell me what to do and pls share if u have the sam problems.

[KyNola]

Sorry to hear you're having trouble right out of the gate. Try this quick fix for the advance issue. Remove the pucks so you can see the advance mechanism retract. Press the manual feed button and watch the advance. When the pusher has retracted 50%, quickly unplug your BDS from the power source. Wait 30 seconds or so and plug it back in. Power the unit up. Sometimes this will correct your issue.

As for the temp swings, 10 degrees is not at all uncommon, particularly in the early stages of the smoking/cooking period. As the IT of the meat rises, the temp swing will become less and less. Good news is with pulled pork temp swings are not really much of an issue.

KyNola

[Hopefull Romantic]

Hi there femo,

I am sure that some one from either the Bradley head office will be popping in soon to help you out with your technical problem (they always do) or one of the handier members would.

As with regard to the temp swings, it is subject to several variable, including but not limited to, ambient temperature, the size of load in the smoker and its temp when you loaded it in, wind and how much you have your vent open and how much you pre - heated the Bradley. I have the DBS 6 rack and I have noticed the same thing and therefore decided (with the help of fellow members) to buy a PID.
The PID would control the temp in your smoke much more accurately than the smoke generator would. One of the reasons I have learned is the fact that the sensor running between the SG and the tower is attached to the metal on the back of the tower and pretty close to the heating element thus giving a higher temp readout than that on a temp probe if you are using one. The PID would solve this issue as it would control the temp directly based on its temp readout from its prob inside the tower itself. It is an additional investment and according to the members here, would be beneficial only for sausages and Fish (especially Salmon). However many of the Better smokers here have one and they use it across the board.

HR

[femo]

hello u 2

thanks for replying so quick.
will try the one with the power on/off when half way through later when i get home.

with ref to the PID....thats why i bought the digital version, not to need a PID, but as it looks,
i have to rethink and maybe re-invest at a later stage.
fyg the bradley was pre-heated all the way up and the vents were open abt 50%. the meat had an
internal of abt 14C when it entered.....but reading through here, it seems to be a common problem.
will try to get a couple of bricks and place them inside, and see if it gets better.

if any other ideas on the puck problem, pls let me know.

[Mr Walleye]

Femo

Another thing to check is to make sure the puck tube is seated all the way down into the generator. If you have a look at it you will see the lip it is supposed to slide down to. If it is not seated correctly it can cause the pucks to not feed correctly.

Mike

[femo]

Femo

Another thing to check is to make sure the puck tube is seated all the way down into the generator. If you have a look at it you will see the lip it is supposed to slide down to. If it is not seated correctly it can cause the pucks to not feed correctly.

Mike

thanks mike,
but that is def not the problem....the pusher is getting stuck halfway.....

grrrrr  :-[  nothing worked. have to open the box up tomorrow, when i have more light......pain on a brandnew machine.....