Brand new and pucks don't move

bill3rd · January 02, 2010, 05:52:01 AM

:-[ Got my new smoker and went to season it, and lo and behold....the pucks wouldn't automatically move. Am I doing something wrong in terms of where I leave the slider after the puck reaches the heating element? In other words, I hit the button to advance the pucks and I see that the puck tower drops another puck down into place. i would think that this resets the timer...but i took the smoke generator off and tried to just watch the pucks move to confirm it is OK, and it doesn't even try to move the pucks. Just sits there....and I let it go for over an hour.......

Max · January 02, 2010, 06:53:31 AM

The pucks will only advance with the smoke generator ON. They will do so after you hit the red button once, automatically advance by one puck every 20 minutes. The first puck does not hit the burner until 2 or 3 advances. Hope that helps.

bill3rd · January 02, 2010, 06:56:05 AM

I did have it on....just out of the smoker itself..I pushed the button, but held it in until it moved a puck, and I just supposed to hit it once briefly?

deb415611 · January 02, 2010, 06:58:58 AM

Welcome Bill! Sorry your first post is a problem with your smoker. Worst case is a call to Bradley's customer service which is awesome but hopefully you won't need to do that.....

Check the faqs on the recipe site, there are a couple that address problems with pucks advancing (or not)

Max · January 02, 2010, 07:06:59 AM

The whole puck machine thing can be confusing at first, you may not have a broken device. It doesn't matter how you push the button. And the slider control is for temperature of the heating element and has no impact on the pucks or smoke generator. It sounds like you were on the right track because you said "I see that the puck tower drops another puck down into place"... from that point you could have hit the button 2 more times to "push" the first puck onto the burner, or if you just walked away that first puck should end up on the burner in about 1 hour. But you did say "but i took the smoke generator off"... and that would have halted the automatic process.

Best thing to do is leave the smoke generator on for a while, hit the button once (that does reset the 20 minute cycle, I think). Wait another 25 minutes and then open it up and see if the pucks are moved along or if there is an expired puck in the bowl.

Max · January 02, 2010, 07:09:18 AM

Hmmm... after re-reading your post I think now I understand what you are saying. The pucks are dropping but they are not ADVANCING to the burner? That sounds odd because where else could they go? I still stick with my suggestion of leaving it on for an hour after hitting the advance button. Good luck!

bill3rd · January 02, 2010, 08:29:22 AM

Yes, it's hard to explain....I will try some of the things in the FAQ....In a nutshell, I pushed the button until a puck advanced, one fell into place waiting to be pushed in 20 minutes, but nothing happened for an hour...I will try the FAQ suggestions and keep you posted.....

Gamefish · January 02, 2010, 09:44:49 AM

Quote from: bill3rd on January 02, 2010, 05:52:01 AM
:-[ Got my new smoker and went to season it, and lo and behold....the pucks wouldn't automatically move. Am I doing something wrong in terms of where I leave the slider after the puck reaches the heating element? In other words, I hit the button to advance the pucks and I see that the puck tower drops another puck down into place. i would think that this resets the timer...but i took the smoke generator off and tried to just watch the pucks move to confirm it is OK, and it doesn't even try to move the pucks. Just sits there....and I let it go for over an hour.......

Bill3rd, how many pucks did you put in the tube, you at least need to start with 6-8 pucks, if you only put in 3 pucks then the slider has nothing to push, if you have put in more than 3 pucks and it does not advance automatically after 20mins them ring Bradley and speak to brian, he is very helpful ;)

bill3rd · January 02, 2010, 01:21:06 PM

I had 5 pucks in......going to try the FAQ suggestions and if no go, call Bradley Monday...I can't imagine packing this whole thing up to send back to Cabella's....ugh.

Quarlow · January 02, 2010, 01:30:18 PM

Hey bill, try to push the puck tube down good and firm. If you don't have it all the way down the pucks will hang up and jam the pusher. When you push the button for the puck advance it should pull the pusher back allowing a new puck to drop down and then it should advance that pusher forwards. You should be able to push the button repeatedly and have the pucks keep advancing. So say you pushed the buttonn and you see that a puck has dropped down and been pushed forward, now right away you can push the button again and it should repeat. And you should be able to do this after every cycle of the puck pusher. If you can't do this then something is wrong. You may need to just pop the smoke generator open to see if everything is in the right spot. Occassionaly things get rushed and a screw is put in wrong or something dumb like that.

HawkeyeSmokes · January 02, 2010, 01:30:40 PM

You could try sending a PM to Bradley (Head Office)

Brian checks in on this forum often and he might be able to help you get up and smoking.

Habanero Smoker · January 02, 2010, 02:08:19 PM

Don't hold the button in. Just press it until you here the motor start, and release it. Let the bisquettes cycle through before you push the button again. Holding the button down may have thrown it out of synchronization.

It difficult to understand your problem. Is the generator motor working, but not dropping and advancing the pucks? What I mean by that, is the advance mechanism moving only part way, which is not allowing the bisquette to drop?

This may help.

Bisquettes not advancing.

Quarlow · January 02, 2010, 02:18:20 PM

Oh, thats good to know even though a have never done it . I didn't know that Habs. Thanks. I just push the button for a couple of secs till I see it moving and let go.

bill3rd · January 03, 2010, 05:51:47 AM

I think the best way to describe this is that if I hit the button, the generator will manually move the pucks. I see the slider move forward and back. I have hit and held it many times to move the pucks forward. The problem is, that once I walk away from the generator, that same puck that I manually advanced sits there forever. It will not automatically move the next puck into place in 20 minutes.....(or even in the hour that I waited to see if it would move it.....)

bill3rd · January 03, 2010, 06:00:06 AM

OK...here's something that might help....if I press the button, the slider starts to move. What I am reading here is that I can let it go and the slider will continue to until it completes it cycle of pushing a puck? Mine does not. It will only move for as long as I hold the button in. when it reaches what i see as the "end" of the slide, I hear a clicking noise......?