Help Chez

[msiler]

This question is open to all however since you seem to know the most about the workings of the bradley other than the bradley folks themselves. Do you know if there is any way to adjust the timing of the advance system. It seems that my chips are only about 1/2 cosumed. in fact on a lot of them there is about an inch diameter that is not even black. I have been using apple bisquettes which seem to be more dense than the hickory that i recently purchased but have not used yet, maybe that is the cause... any ideas?

Just thought I would give a try on here before I bother the customer service folks. Thanks


When in doubt smoke it.

[Chez Bubba]

Martin,

My first thouhgt was that maybe your bisquettes may have absorbed a bunch of moisture. Then I looked up your profile & figured Kansas isn't very humid this time of year.[]

Do you keep the top vent open? Is fat dripping down onto the pucks either on the burner or those "waiting their turn"? I have to admit, I'm kind of at a loss on this.

Would a half-functioning fuse not allow enough power? Are you using an extension cord or plugged into a circut with other stuff on it? Does the smoker come up to temp?

Just some random thoughts, tryin' to solve the quandry[],

Kirk

http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?

[msiler]

Well they should not have absorbed any moisture they were still in plastic, granted I realize they are not perfectly sealed but still should not cause the problem.

 I keep the vent open about 1/4 of the way. Unfortunately I do not have a dedicated 110 circuit anywhere in the house, but I do not use an extension cord and make sure it is the only thing operating on the circuit while using it and I have no trouble getting up to temp.

 I am not sure if you have used any of the apple pucks, but the ones I got looked to have been pressed out of sawdust instead of chips like the hickory ones. I will be going back to hickory when I relocate the smoker this weekend I will see if that makes a difference. if not I will try to upload a pic of the result.

 I also wire brushed the burner plate when I noticed the partially unburnt bisquettes in the case something may have been stuck there holding them off the surface. Maybe it is a weak burner... is there any way to check it?

When in doubt smoke it.

[Chez Bubba]

Well, I don't know how scientific this is, but in order to respond to a previous post on another thread, I did a test. Without looking it up, I seem to recall that if you plug in the smoke generator alone, not inside the box, the burner plate will get up to about 250F surface temp after about 3 hours.

I did not have any bisquettes on it & simply put the tip of a  thermometer onto the plate to take the reading. I did this outside & I'm thinking the ambient was about 30F. Will yours do that?

The only other thing I can think of is a loose/faulty wire inside the generator that is restricting the flow of juice to the burner plate. Have you had yours apart?

If yours will not get to the temp of my test, I'm sure Bradley will have no problem replacing it.

Kirk

http://www.chezbubba.com
Ya think next time I check into a hotel & they ask "Smoking or Non?" they would mind?

[whitetailfan]

msiler,
Don't know if this is what you're looking for, but here's my two cents:
I try to avoid opening the cabinet, so I have never seen any of my pucks drop into the water bowl yet.  What I have found is that the ones which are discharged on the timer have shape and consistency left in them when I clean out my water bowl. ie they do not fully burn up which is part of the features of the Bradley which means you do not produce the gases that occur when you burn chips until they are ash.

On the last couple of pucks, since I dont have advancing pucks, I push them ahead manually onto the burner at the end of my smoke at about hour intervals just to get in "one more smoke".  Since I don't watch them, they will burn to an ash.

It sounds like you are getting the desired results, unless I read you wrong, and they are way under consumed[!]

John - Lethbridge, AB