ALTERNATE SOURCE FOR ELEMENTS

[oakville smoker]

Hi All

Major frustrationhas here....   just blew another element out of my DBS4
This is the 4th one since June and honestly usage has been minimal since I bought my Keg
As luck would have it, I had an 11 pound butt in there last Friday night humming away nicely at 225
It was being turned to pulled pork for a 70th birthday party on Saturday afternoon, only 30 people coming for this celebration
All was well when I went to bed, went to add some more time to the element at 7 AM before heading to the golf course.....   AND
a 54 degree cabinet temp bid me good morning and another element gone bye bye
I saved the butt in the crock pot on high for 6 hours not knowing how far along the  butt was and at what time the element died

Disappointed would be an understatement
I am losing confidence in the reliability of this thing and its starting to look like a 400 dollar broken bar fridge with a smoke generator stuck on the side of it

I have called Bradley and waiting for them to call me about a replacement

But I am guessing with all the mods and retrofits and dual element installations happening around here that someone must be aware of an alternate for this element.  Maybe higher wattage, better quality and reliability ?

Any help would be appreciated.  I used to  be a huge promoter of Bradley Smokers but when people ask me about mine I wind up telling them about element nightmares and detract more than promote.  Promote....   it works good when it works but you never know when and for how long it will work

[beefmann]

here is a link for the heater that  i use in my obs with a Pid with all the controls bypassed in the bradley it is a 900 watt heating element and i do recommend running a blower or fan on this beauty, i have ran this unit sense early 2008


http://www.amazon.com/Finned-Strip-Heater-120v-900w/dp/B004JCYLQY/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319726753&sr=8-1-fkmr1

[Cleaver]

I installed a second element and run a PID controller running both elements in parallel.  That way I always have heat.  But I to am on the 4th element and I keep on spare.

[oakville smoker]

Hi

Still waiting for Bradley to step up on this one so still pursuing an alternate

I see there is a 500W element similar to the 900W
Could I simply sub the 500 for the existing element?
I really dont want to get into the fans and stuff like that

Thoughts ?