Hello All! Have questions and need to make a deccision

[Thor]

Greetings,  I have limited experience in smoking and have several questions about the Bradley vs other brands/types.   Against my wishes The Admiral (wife) ordered a black 30'' Masterbuilt digital smoker from QVC for my gift (she got a big Kitchen Aid).  Well it is now 2 days after Xmas and UPS tracking shows it still sitting in Louisville, KY (since the 17th).  I suspect they damaged it and are waiting till after the rush to address these issues.   So that order may get canceled and I am looking to make sure we make the best choice for us (me).   

4 years ago I bought a Brinkman big vertical charcoal smoker  with the side firebox (Smoke King, i think).  This thing is a real pain to use and I find I smoke less and less each year because I can't even run to the hardware store on Sunday afternoon without the temps radically swinging.  So, the idea of these little electric smokers has a lot of appeal.   I had never considered a "engineered wood" smoker because it just sounded unnatural, expensive, unhealthy, etc.   But as long as the briquettes are not putting a bunch of nasty chemicals into the food I will consider it.  Someone please convince me this method will not cause cancer and is safe.  (Just had a thought....All those Kingsford briquettes I use are an engineered "wood" product also.  I never thought of those as being a problem...hmmm)  However,  I am always hesitant to get locked into a specific manufacture's consumables.  Prices can go up, availability can change etc.   Are there other wood products that can be used with the Bradley or "homebrew" recipes ?   To smoke for 8-10 hours with the Brinkman it costs about $8.00 in charcoal and $4 in wood chunks.   Any cost estimates with the Bradely using Bradley Briquettes and  say .12-.13 cents per kw hour?

I am also a little concerned about the durability, power and replacement part availability of the Masterbuilt as I have read on the Amazon reviews.   I am not asking anyone to trash the competition, but can someone comment on their experiences with these issues on the Bradley? Seems like some have added larger heating elements. 

From what I have read so far the Original Bradley seems to be good, but I wonder about the temp fluctuations with the non digital unit.   Adding a PID sounds like a project I can handle, but that just just keeps jacking up the cost to make this thing almost twice the cost of the Masterbuilt.  ($288 for OBS and $100 for PID project).

I mostly smoke ribs and pork products, chicken, tomatoes, peppers and beans.   My nose and stomach can not handle fish and I will not allow it in the house, but the Admiral would like it now and again and wants to teach to kids to eat endangered species, so smoking could be an option if it does not contaminate the box with noxious fish odors.  Any comments here ? :D

Of course I could go all extreme and try and convert my old Brinkman using the pellet feeder, PID and a heating element, but I would not have any insulation which I suspect is a major problem with the Brinkman.   It gets very cold up here in Nebraska and it would be nice to smoke more than 5 months out of the year. Will the Bradley keep a temp when it is 10 degrees and wind blowing 30 knots? 

Thanks in advance and I will keep trying to read the posts here to get better educated.   

Thor
Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet :)

[KyNola]

Welcome Thor,
The Bradley is a great product and handles all of your concerns nicely.  Bradley is SUPER customer service oriented and if something isn't right, they make it right immediately.  They have on occasion supplied replacement parts at no charge even though a warranty may have expired long ago.  The bisquettes are compressed wood, held together by collagen I believe.  It is an extremely intense pure smoke so you only need 4 hours of smoke maximum.  I wouldn't worry about the Bradley company disapearing on you.  They are extremely well known worldwide.  There are numerous members of this forum from as far away as Jordan, England, Switzerland, France, Scotland not to mention hundreds in all provinces of Canada and the United States.

Hope this helps some.

KyNola

[Quarlow]

Ok where to start. Oh yeah welcome to the forum you will love it here. Everyone is so helpful. I can't comment on the other smokers but someone will be along to speak to those soon enough.
The pucks for the Bradley are only wood pressed to form the pucks. I haven't heard whether they use a binder so I think they don't. These pucks are not that expensive when you break it down to the cost verses the amount you use. One puck lasts 20 mins and most things you cook only take 1 or 2 hours of smoke because the smoke is so intense, it is not like my dad's old homemade smoker were we smoke our fish for 12 to 14 hours. Even a pork butt that takes 16 to 24 hours to be ready only gets 4 or 5 hours of smoke so it really works out to around 6 or 7 dollars to smoke it and that is here in Canada where we paid 30% more for everything we buy than you guys down there. It is about $3.75 an hour.
As for smoking out in the cold, I did 10 lbs of jerky yesterday and it was -3f here most of the day till the sun came around the corner of the house. I works good in the cold but the wind will kick the crap out of anything you have so we just put windshield when that happens. Some of the guys have there's set up in the garage with a vent system that they design themselves and if I wasn't just renting that is how I would have mine also.
As for being gouged by Bradley for the price of their pucks after they have you hooked, it will never happen. Bradley is so customer oriented that their customer service is raved about on this forum. And i know first hand how they work to keep the customer happy.
The thing about these is that the pucks only burn till they are charcoal so you don't get any of the carcinogens that come from the wood burning to an ash state. That is the beauty of the Bradleyand you don't impart any nasty flavours into the food either. The Bradley only uses about as much electricity as your wifes blowdryer so that cost is not an issue either.

[Quarlow]

The pid is in my opinion the cats ass, but that depends on what you are going to smoke. I don't have one yet but I will soon. I do a lot of smoked salmon and with the temp ramp capabilitys with the PID it will make my life a lot easier, but that said I turn out great salmon without one, I just have to keep an eye on things. But it didn't take long to get good with the temp control on my Original. If you are just going to smoke what you have stated you probably don't need the PID anyway.
As for the smell of fish stuck in your smoker, well that just doesn't happen. I did a load of fish one day and the next day I did a load of cheese with no effect at all.
We have had a few guys get their smokers and then something didn't go right for them. they get frustrated and then they come to the forum ask a few questions, get all fixed up and now their in love with it. There is always someone on here to support you and answer questions and our motto is there are no dumb questions cause we have all done anything you can come up with. This is a great community we have here and we have a lot of fun with this. We even had a xmas gift exchange this year that was a huge success. We have folks from the four corners of this planet on here so if we can't help you .......... well let's just say we can help you with darn near anything, except for the biggest problem you are going to have. Once your family and friends start to taste your smoked goodies you will have to feed their addiction. ;D ;D

[MPTubbs]

Hop aboard Thor.

I have a 6 rack diggi and love it......you won't go wrong with a Bradley.

I live just down the street from you in Gretna, Ne. and have smoked 3 times so far this month.

My recent was Christmas PR in the blizard and it came out perfect.

P.S. Smoker in garage to help keep the new toy out of the wind.

Mike.

[HawkeyeSmokes]

Welcome to the forum Thor,

Your looking at less than 1.50 for electricity to run the Bradley for 10 hours with both the the smoke generator and smoke chamber running. The bisquettes for 4 hours of smoking can be about 3.60 by doing some price shopping or about 6.00 at full retail where I'm at in WI. One thing to remember is, as others have stated, 4 hours smoke time is the max for most people, many time it's much less. My last smoke I went 1:40 so the bisquettes cost for me was about 1.50 plus about .50 for electricty. Pretty cheap to smoke some chicken breasts and pork chops.

I do like mptubbs and use mine in the garage to keep it out of the wind. That helps a lot IMHO.

Good luck with it and keep us posted!

[hal4uk]

Thor, I think that Masterbuilt works on the same principle as my Smokin' Tex (Cookshack "knock-off").
If that's correct (someone help here)...

My Smokin' Tex will make some dandy pork butt, ribs, whatever.
BUT, it ain't as good as what the Bradley will do.

Awrighten.

[HawkeyeSmokes]

I don't like to bash other products, but all the reviews on the Masterbuilt? I would stay away. I owned one of their products and tossed it. Just my 2 cents worth.

[ArnieM]

Hi Thor and welcome to the forum.  Sorry I'm a little late to the party.  :(

QVC and the MB smoker is how I got involved in this.  My wife got an email from QVC advertising it.  She wanted to get it for me.  Naturally, I wanted to check around first and went to Amazon.  The MB reviews were less than stellar.  That's also where I came across mention of this forum.  So, here I am.  :D

I've had the OBS 4 rack since the end of August and love it.  I have the Weber bullet-style smoker and only used it 3 or 4 times over several years.  Too much of a pain.  I've also smoked on the Weber gas grill some, but that's not exactly low and slow cooking.

I don't have a PID and haven't found a real need for it yet.  Maybe next year.

I found Bradley customer service to be great.  I had some cracks in the face plate.  This seems to be a somewhat common problem.  I called and received a replacement in a couple of days.

To my knowledge, the bisquettes are wood chips bound by collagen.  As previously stated, they don't burn to ash and that avoids the nasties you'd get from burning down regular wood chunks.  Kingsford?  Yuk!

I get my bisquettes from Amazon; average price of $50/120 count box with free shipping and no tax.  At 20 minutes of smoke each, it runs $1.26/hour.  I don't think I've ever smoked anything more than 3-3:20 hours.  Based on the $288 price on the OBS, it sounds like you found it at Amazon.

If, as you say, it's cold you'd probably keep the smoke generator on for the extra heat even when smoking is done.  Running the cabinet heater flat out along with the SG is 625 watts or .625 KwH/hour.  Smoking a fair sized pork butt or 9 pounds of brisket should run 14-18 hours or $1.38-$1.47 at 0.13/KwH.

Please post back if you have any additional questions or need any clarification.

[watchdog56]

First of all Welcome Thor, Secondly as far as healthy? I don't know, I sure seem to enjoy eating more now especially the smoked cheese. It is a good thing I cannot do cheese year round even in Minnesota it gets hot in the summer. To much of a good thing is not good they say,just have not had to much IMO yet.LOL
Good luck and good smoking.

[classicrockgriller]

Thor, the Bradley can be adapted to smoke using "other woods" Just requires a

cold smoke adaptor with a hot plate and some vent hose, or a cardboard box, hot

plate and some vent hose. You don't have to get tied down to Bradley's pucks,

but you sure will enjoy the ease of using them.

Like Arnie said, with a little bit of shopping you can keep the cost of puck use

down in the $1.25 an hour range. Not bad for a great meal.

If you want a smoker that turns out great smoke each and everytime, then

you are Home.

Good luck in your decision.

PS.

You have gotten some very fine answers from people taking the time to help you.

When ever you make up your mind let us know what decision you made. Thanks

[Thor]

Thanks to all for the great replies.  I am convinced now.   

The OBS and a bunch of briquettes should arrive on Tuesday!   Though, the OBS is being routed by UPS through the black hole of Louisville, KY so the laws of physics are not on my side.   :) (No offense meant to the fine people of Louisville, just offense to UPS, though now I am eventually going to get a better smoker!)    Ribs are my #1 favorite, but No Frills had brisket on sale for 1.99 lb, so it looks like my first smoke will be a 12lb brisket.   Now off to find a good recipe.   Anyone have any suggestions for my first one?   I am very, very excited about this purchase and will let you know how may pounds I gain.   

Question for those who put the smoker in the garage.  Without a flue how much should I plan on leaving the garage door open?  It is a 16ft door. It is going to be hovering around 0 here for awhile with some good winds.

Thor

   

[classicrockgriller]

Thor, you won't regret your decision. Congrats!

I think OU put a small section of dryer hose and just ran it down out the door of
Garage and closed the door as low as the hose woould let him.

Maybe he will see this and reply.

Think you ought to start a new post in Introducing yourself so everyone can give you a big Howdy!

[Tiny Tim]

Man, I wish I looked in this category more often.  I could have helped you avoid the UPS Black Hole of Kentucky.  I receive them Fed Ex'ed from IL, and I'm located just across the Missouri from ya'll.  Oh well, my loss. 

Be confident you will enjoy your smoker.  Welcome to the family.

[OU812]

WOO HOO another Nebraskan. I'm from Blair and work in Omaha. You wont regret getting a Bradley.

Thor, you won't regret your decision. Congrats!

I think OU put a small section of dryer hose and just ran it down out the door of
Garage and closed the door as low as the hose woould let him.

Maybe he will see this and reply.

Think you ought to start a new post in Introducing yourself so everyone can give you a big Howdy!

Nope not me with the dryer hose. I did this.