Temperature not behaving

[SpecialKbreak]

I have a new smoker. 4 rack digital.
The smoke is working great but I don't think the heating element is. We have 40 people coming over tomorrow for smoked meat & fish and I don't know what to do.

With nothing on the racks, I tried pre-heating over 2 hour and never got over 150.
I looked to see if element was turning red (not) and then plugged & unplugged unit several times. Through all of this, temperature went down to 135.

The recipe calls for 120 so I turned down the temp setting. Now it's showing that it is 158.
I'm so confused!

[FLBentRider]

W E L C O M E  to the Forum SpecialKbreak !

Is the element glowing red ?

It sounds like just the smoke generator is working.

[SpecialKbreak]

No red.
Now what?

[SpecialKbreak]

Scoured the forum. Tried plugging tower in directly and did get the element to turn red after giggling the smaller sensor wire.
Plugged back into smoker box with the short thick cord then going to the tower and element doesn't heat up.

I have tri tips which I can cook on regular grill instead of smoker in the meantime. Any way I can get the smoke flavor (since the smoker  part works) with a dual cooking method? Should I start them on grill and then smoke, or smoke and then grill?
Or should I just grill and wait until after the holiday weekend to contact the company and just straight grill the meat?

[Mr Walleye]

Hi SpecialK and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about your problem... If I understand it correctly, the heating element works if you plug the tower in direct... but if you plug the power cord from the generator to the tower the element doesn't work.

A couple of questions...

What is the display showing on the generator?

Where you getting any kind of error message?

Sometimes during shipping you can have a wire come off inside the generator. To take the generator apart you need to remove just the perimeter screws on the bottom of it. It's kinda a clam shell design.

Also, a few people have had problems getting the tower power button to function on the control panel on the generator. You may need to use the tip of your finger right in the centre of the button and give it a good push.

Mike

[classicrockgriller]

smoke then grill

[SpecialKbreak]

Response to Mr Walleye-
Display shows. All timers show up.
When we first plugged in the smoker, two weeks ago, we got an E1 error message and my husband went on the forum. We found the loose wire inside the tower and fixed that.

Pushing oven temp button produces a beep, but no glowing element.

OK, just removed the bottom on generator and found a loose blue wire. Plugged it back in and tested. No display even!
Opened up generator again and another wire had worked itself loose, probably while trying to fit the cover on the first time.

End story, it works now. I notice a LOT of people with my or similar story on this forum. Maybe Bradley should do some quality control with their China manufacturers!!!

Too bad so many hours that should have been spent more productively were spent trying to get my NEW smoker to work. I hope I have enough time to smoke my meat now for my guest who are coming this afternoon.

[Mr Walleye]

SpecialK

Glad to hear your up and running!

I agree with you... nothing more frustrating than buying something and then having to make it work. Having said that Bradley does really have fantastic customer service and will pull out all the stops to make things right. I think the hole shipping thing is a major issue. Where I live I have to have most things shipped in and I don't know if they play football with most packages or what, but they have certainly been through the mill by the time they arrive which is frustrating... Imagin... a courier that cared about their customers packages... what a concept!  ::)

Anyway... get that puppy fired up and smokin'!  ;)

Mike

[SpecialKbreak]

I bought from store so the damage could happen anywhere on the supply route.

[classicrockgriller]

Hope you day ended better than it started.

[Hopefull Romantic]

Sorry to hear about your problems but the worst is behind you. Enjoy the upcoming smokes and as Mr. Walleye said, Bradley does have an excellent customer service department second to none I have come across. Next time (and hopefully there wont be one) just give them a call.

HR

[OU812]

Glad to here you got your new toy up and running

So how did the meat and fish turn out for the party?