Heat Problems?

[mikes30911]

I got my bradley smoker about 2 weeks ago and i have noticed it has serious problems geting to an optimal cooking temperature. Today for example it is nice and about 16 degrees Celsius outside, little wind not much, and I cant get the heat to climb over 200F , i've been smoking a small turkey in there for just about 3 hours, I opened it just twice to add some water/wine in the drip pan.. anyhow this is quite frustrating , is there a way to get this thing to heat up more? Please advise.

Thanks

[GusRobin]

do you have the vent wide open?

[devo]

A turkey will suck up the heat. Like GusRobin said you should have the vent wide open for chicken and turkey. Do you have a external temp probe to stick in the Bradley to see if the temp is right? Sometimes the Bradley can be way off

[mikes30911]

I have it semi opened. I will open it all the way, i'm going based on what the Bradley says the temp is at... i'm going to go open it up right now hopefully that helps! Just a little nervous now , i know there is a 40-140 within 4 hours is needed or the turkey could be dangerous to eat.. not sure i'm there yet and its been pretty close, my meat thermometer reads 130.. so i dunno i'm just frustrated, i wished this thing would get hotter cooking a turkey at 200 dosent sound safe to me..

[devo]

The Turkey I just did took 6 hours to get to 165*F IT. I do have the duel mod so i'm not sure if that makes a difference. The bradley was at 220*F I believe from the external probe but the bradley reading said 203*F

[mikes30911]

I dont have the dual mod, I think i'm going to get it, where do I buy that? 

[muebe]

I have seen a near 50 degree difference between the actual temp of the cabinet with the PID and the door temp gauge...and the door gauge is always showing lower then the actual temp. My guess you are probably at least at 220F if not higher ;)

[devo]

Check this out

http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?578-Additional-Heating-Element-for-OBS-with-On-Off-Control

And this
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=151

[mikes30911]

wow , now only if I truested myself to do this! Hah it looks very complicated.. Perhaps Bradley could offer a new unit with a stronger or a double heating element to fix this heat issue.

[muebe]

There is a plug & play model that comes in single and dual probe...

Single...
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=72

Dual...
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=14&products_id=151

These controllers do not require any technical skills to install. If you can plug in a electrical cord then you can install one of these ;)

[devo]

Hey mike its not that hard at all. The hardest part I found was drilling the hole for the new element. The heat shield is very thin and tends to rip rather than drill a hole. I first drilled a smaller hole and used a dremel with a tapered bit to get to the size of hole I wanted. I'm sure there are different ways of doing this but that's all I had. I think a drill press would have worked better but like I said I used what I had. Adding a switch is an option that I didn't do. Some will tell you that its needed but I don't see any use for it. Either the elements are on or not so why add a switch. Just a matter of opinion that I won't get into here. I had a electrician from work look at what i did and he said it will be just fine. So all I did and others too was to just run a wire from one element to the other. So the elements where a daisy chained  to each other. Works just great.

[Habanero Smoker]

I believe you have the digital, if so the plans for that is posted below. You can also add an on/off switch to the digital, but you will have to install the switch on the back panel.

The switch is a handy thing to have, if your PID fails or if you just doing a quick smoke and don't need to hook up the PID or you want a gentle rise in heat; you can just turn the second element off. Since I store my smoker outdoors, every time I smoke/cook I have to hook up my temperature control device. There are several times I don't need the device, so I just switch the second element off, so I use the switch often.

Additional Heating Element