Heat Elements

[Wildcat]

Must be the new guy that was hired a little while back on the assembly line over there in China. :D

[KyNola]

Nah, probably one of the long time employees who doesn't see what the big deal is. ;)

[Tenpoint5]

This is why its pointless to hear from long time owners that they've not had any problems.  That is the whole point.  This issue seems to be affecting new smokers.  All heat elements will eventually burn out.  But the rate of burn outs in relatively new smokers (say purchased within the last 6-8 months) and the first few smokes seems to be very, very high.  It doesn't take a Six Sigma Black Belt to know that SOMETHING has changed.  I'd look at all changes in the last 8 mos - nothing is too small or insignificant to be dismissed.

Someone in another thread suggested a single, sticky thread where all element failures can be discussed.  Many of the long term owners - mostly those who have not had the problem - wanted to know what good that would do.  Well, there IS a problem and not talking about it doesn't make it go away.  Plus there are some very positive benefits to a single, open elements issue thread:

1.  It collects all of the frustrated post into one location.
2.  Information about the issue - circumstances, product codes, etc can be shared with Bradley and with others which might show patterns and help root cause analysis.
3.  Bradley can give updates on what it is doing to find the root cause (even things that have been eliminated) and how things are progressing.  That way people won't have to keep asking what Bradley is doing.
4.  It would show all forum readers that Bradley cares(we know that, but other lurkers may not.
5.  When the root cause is found and resolved, Bradley can declare victory to it's customers - maybe even CLOSE the thread.

Not discussing  a problem is usually the WRONG thing to do.  Be open and forthcoming.  There's no such thing as too much communication.  The grapevine feeds on a lack of real information.

PS - my 6hr rib smoke went off without a hitch.  That's my second use of my 3rd element.

Tony This all looks good on Paper and in theory it sounds like a really great thing. But Lets break this down a little and see why this idea of a sticky wont work.
One your wanting a sticky or centralized thread by Bradley to put all the information about the Heating elements in. The principle behind this is so that "lurkers" and new folks would have someplace to go to put this information and view whats been happening. Here is the problem with that idea. Most people are frustrated when their element goes out and they just want to post. So they don't look to see if there is a central place to post about elements. They just post and more often than not they post several times in several areas. This makes it look worse than it actually is. Besides there IS a thread started by Bradley all about elements that thread header is labeled "Heat Elements" and by the way we are posting and discussing elements in that thread at this moment. Yes my friend we are there now. Which proves my point some times the obvious is the hardest to see, so a sticky wont work.

Two I AM NOT AN EXPERT but I see the answers to all of the rest of the questions being done right here in this thread. Bradley has said that they are looking into it. They have requested dead elements from people. They have replaced elements. They are active on the forum and respond to questions, comments and concerns. That sounds a awful lot like a company that DOES care about its product and its customers.

I myself have a brand new 6rk smoker. Is the element bad? nope. Is it going to go bad? nope. Why can I say this because I have faith in the way things are and the odds are that there is more GOOD elements than there are bad.

[devo]

I thought about replying to this post because I know i'm going to get flack from some of the older members here, just like I did before but hey here goes. First off I like my smoker. Second their custumer service is second to none. So why am I replying to this post well here goes. As some may already know my element failed after my 6th smoke or there abouts. And yes the very nice people at bradley sent me another one a week later. Well after 5 hours on the new one it also failed. I never reported this on the forums because all you ever hear is they are working on it. So I decided to get a hold of a fellow from ASB Heating Elements Ltd. I explained what the element was used for, gave him all specs that I new of and asked if they could either make one up for me or if they had ones in stock. After talking back and forth for about a week he said yes they could supply one but it would cost about 60 to 70 bucks. So I said why so much? He said because a company contracts out something like that and are probably made in made in China or Mexico and would be expensive to have something made to order to replace them. He also went on to say "If they are causing premature failure the only thing you could do to address that would be to go to a lower wattage or lengthen the elements.  Unfortunately the design of the bradely smokers probably won't allow for that.  They are made to hopefully last through the warranty period and then they are a throw away item, just like most things these days"
So now back to bradley support, again they are sending me another but this time I paid for an extra one. I guess my point to this whole thing is maybe till they get this solved they should throw in an extra at no cost so the custumer still has his unit going till this problem gets solved

[Wildcat]

Well said 10.5.

There are lemons in all products on the market. IMHO the percentage of bad elements is small when compared with the quantity of elements out there. Perhaps it is a certain batch of elements. Bradley is super on their customer service/satisfaction. I am confident they will come through for all the folks who are having problems as soon as they get it all sorted out with the manufacturer of the element. Unless I am wrong, I believe that everyone that had bad elements have stated they were supplied with free expedited replacements. How many companies do this today?

[Quarlow]

 The thing with the Bradley smoker and any and all smokers is that these are pretty extreme conditions inside of them. My dads ugly plywood smoker (UPS)  ;D used a single element hot plate. This UPS was 8 feet tall and smoke poured from it in all the corners and around the doors. So you know there was not as much moisture in there like in the Bradley. But even still we would have to replace those hotplates every other year as the metal would corrode and the element would fail. Those things were/are hard to get a hold of around here for some reason and they were expensive too. Now you have a smoker that is shrunk down in size and more air tight and you have compounded the conditions inside. So the fact that they work at all is something of a miracle. All it takes is for one thing to be not right and now you have failures. This string of bad elements really sucks but they are doing more to find out why and to fix it than any other company would be willing to do. Most large company's would just drop this item from their sales and leave everyone in the lurch. Like I said before, I can't even remember how many bad products I have had that just ended up in the garbage.
Are some of us longer term guys devout to our Bradley's and the company, YES  cause we have been smoking for years with less than comparable smokers.
Do we get a little uppity when someone comes on and slags the smokers, YES because until someone can show us a better comparable price smoker than doesn't have any problems we will be loyal to the brand.
I know it is a pissoff when you spend this much money on on something and it fails you. But those who haven't had trouble are adamant about these smokers They are a far cry from where we came from and you could spend $2000 to $3000 for a really great smoker, but you would have to sell one car to park it in the driveway.
We like to help as much as we can in this forum and you have to admit, it also is second to none with the info, friendship and generosity of the members. Hell we even have our own newsletter, well most of the time. wink wink.
We are not trying to beat you guys up but we get a lot of people who come on here just say these are pieces of 0 and we know better, so our hackles come up kind of quick lately. I know that Bradley will solve this and that they are not happy with this problem either. This is not a giant that just wants to make money, they care about their product and their customers. Remember, they started out as a guy and couple of buddies that wanted a better smoker, just like if you and your budswere sitting around out back having a few beer and decide you could build a better hunting rig than say, Argo. You try a few things, fix this and change that and the next thing you know you have a better rig than say, Argo, except the brake disc you are buying from somewhere in Thailand keeps melting.
OK I am starting to ramble but you get my drift. Lets just say they are working on it and they will fix you up and this problem can't last forever.

[SmokinEverything]

My last post was deleted by Bradley, wish it would have been edited to remove the content they didn't want in it rather than deleted, but it is what it is.

One of the main points I wanted to make known is that I did not sign up on the forums to witch hunt and complain. I signed up before any problems and didn't learn about an element problem until after researching my own element failure. This site has a wealth of knowledge within it and that is the true reason behind my joining. Hopefully once everything has been resolved and this is put to rest those of us who spoke up about the issues won't be chastised for voicing concerns on our recent purchases. A lot of you have older models and do not have this problem, most failures are from a new customer base. I'm not here demanding my money back, but when the only response from Bradley themselves was it was a seasonal issue and in a sense normal, I wanted to voice my displeasure and disagree.

I do believe that the date on the element is relevant to the situation at hand, and if anyone has a working element known to be more than a year old I will gladly trade you my new one for it, it has less than 5 minutes on a test heat. I doubt I will get any takers on this, but thought I'd throw it out there. PM me with the stamping on the element if so. I will refrain from posting any numbers as that seems to be what Bradley didn't like. Hopefully this post will be allowed to stay.

All that being said I will be attempting to smoke some jerky tonight and tomorrow. If the new element fails I guess I will be contacting Bradley again on Monday. I'll remain cautiously optimistic that it will hold up for hours to come, but a constant worry on whether it is working or not will remain.

[classicrockgriller]

I'm your huckleberry!

Pm me your addy and I will send you an older element.

[Quarlow]

 Smokineverything, we are not trying to beat you up here and mostly I am aiming at the ones who sign up and there first post is just an asskickin to Bradley. I know you are frustrated and I would be too. I was having trouble with my puck advance, and I wasn't sure if it would work after cleaning a seemingly clean SG. But low and behold, it worked. Please don't take any of what I said personal. As I said, you were not the intended target, you just got hit by overshot.  :) I can see you are a great addition to the forum and I hope you don't think I am being a jerk. I would do anything to help that I could also. Soon this will be behind us and I wouldn't want any hard feelings among the new and old members. So hang in there and hopefully this will just be a distant memory.

[SmokinEverything]

Smokineverything, we are not trying to beat you up here and mostly I am aiming at the ones who sign up and there first post is just an asskickin to Bradley. I know you are frustrated and I would be too. I was having trouble with my puck advance, and I wasn't sure if it would work after cleaning a seemingly clean SG. But low and behold, it worked. Please don't take any of what I said personal. As I said, you were not the intended target, you just got hit by overshot.  :) I can see you are a great addition to the forum and I hope you don't think I am being a jerk. I would do anything to help that I could also. Soon this will be behind us and I wouldn't want any hard feelings among the new and old members. So hang in there and hopefully this will just be a distant memory.

No offense taken, and we were posting at the same time. Kind of hit on the same points as well.

Exactly what you said, everyone here has given me the satisfaction that Bradley will not let this go unresolved. So much so yesterday that just yesterday I ordered 4 more additional jerky racks. Seen a pic in the jerky section where they piggy backed racks to double capacity without extra rack mod. I wouldn't continue investing in something I felt would be useless.

I've got about 60 pounds of ground venison to modify into some sort of smoked treat over the next few months and don't want to be hampered. Sausage on the first smoke, jerky next and then I'll decide on the newest venture.

Thanks for trying to clarify things, sometimes the Internet isn't the smoothest at conveying moods and tone. Rest assured your brand loyalty speaks volumes towards Bradley as a whole, still think I made the right choice in smoker and forum. Just a small technicality to get past.

[mybad]

I am aiming at the ones who sign up and there first post is just an asskickin to Bradley.

The problem with this is, if you go to Google, and type in "Bradley Smoker heating element died [or burned out]" the first three of four pages that come up is this site. Like most people do now, is hit the net when you want info.

It would take a minute for someone to gather the info they need, to remedy their problem if all the info was in one place. A thread titled Heating Elements with all the needed info to get a replacement, who to call, what to expect. Tell them how to respond.

Lock the thread down. Then when someone new comes along and posts another thread about the elements, PM them info thread and move their post to the trash.

[TonyL222]

Tony This all looks good on Paper and in theory it sounds like a really great thing. But Lets break this down a little and see why this idea of a sticky wont work.
One your wanting a sticky or centralized thread by Bradley to put all the information about the Heating elements in. The principle behind this is so that "lurkers" and new folks would have someplace to go to put this information and view whats been happening. Here is the problem with that idea. Most people are frustrated when their element goes out and they just want to post. So they don't look to see if there is a central place to post about elements. They just post and more often than not they post several times in several areas. This makes it look worse than it actually is. Besides there IS a thread started by Bradley all about elements that thread header is labeled "Heat Elements" and by the way we are posting and discussing elements in that thread at this moment. Yes my friend we are there now. Which proves my point some times the obvious is the hardest to see, so a sticky wont work.

Two I AM NOT AN EXPERT but I see the answers to all of the rest of the questions being done right here in this thread. Bradley has said that they are looking into it. They have requested dead elements from people. They have replaced elements. They are active on the forum and respond to questions, comments and concerns. That sounds a awful lot like a company that DOES care about its product and its customers.

I myself have a brand new 6rk smoker. Is the element bad? nope. Is it going to go bad? nope. Why can I say this because I have faith in the way things are and the odds are that there is more GOOD elements than there are bad.

Bradley moves post to threads of a better fit every day, so I don't see that as a problem..  Yes people will continue to post about this problem until it is resolved.  IMO the best way to handle that is to address it head.  Not discussing a real problem is like wanting people not to notice the 700lb gorilla in the room.

Do we get a little uppity when someone comes on and slags the smokers, YES because until someone can show us a better comparable price smoker than doesn't have any problems we will be loyal to the brand.

THAT is the frustrating part for me.  I LONG to be in that number.  Not sure how I can better say that I LOVE this smoker. But I've had two failures in short succession.  Hearing about the years of trouble free performance from long term owners just reinforces that fact there's something wrong with the newer ones.  In Six Sigma terms, there's some process that's out of control.

[Wade Bradley]

 Dear customer,

Lately we have been experiencing a higher volume of heating elements prematurely burning out. We have ordered new elements to replace any heating elements that are burned out. Some of these replacement elements have also prematurely burned out making for a very frustrating situation. We have always tested all components of our products prior to packaging & shipping. Like light bulbs, there is no way of knowing when a heating element is going to burn out.

Bradley has always been responsible & pro-active regarding our products. If your heating element is not working, please contact us immediately so we can arrange to get you a new heating element as soon as possible.

Yours truly
Wade Bradley
President

[Quarlow]

 I would say that this is being discussed quite a bit. And the fact that Bradley head office started this thread themselves shows that they will talk about it and that they are trying to work it out.
Tony if you hang in there you will be a longerterm happy customer too.  8)

[Quarlow]

Touche Wade, Touche.