Help! New Years Eve dinner in trouble...

[bostonsmoker]

Got up early to preheat bradley and take out my ribs and pork butt from the fridge... but 1.5 hours later the cabinet heat is still not close to temperature - its about 70 deg. i just figured out that the element is not working, so all heat is being created from the smoke generator.

Any suggestions?

How long should i leave the meat in the smoker to absorb some smoke before I then move everything into my oven? I'm concerned about food safety issues.

Thank you.

[Wildcat]

If I were you and IF the butt is still cold, I would keep the door cracked open enough to let some cool air in and let it smoke for an hour or two and then transfer to the house oven. You just do not want it to stay too long in the danger zone. The smoke will slow down the nasties from forming on the exterior surface for a short while. If the butt is already warm, you may want to consider just cooking in the oven without smoke. Not as good in flavor but still good enough to eat. Just be safe with this.

Check these links:
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?7-Food-Poisoning-and-Food-Hygiene-Part-2
http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?9-Food-Poisoning-and-Food-Hygiene-Part-1-From-Paul-Woods

[bostonsmoker]

thank you. i kept in smoker for 1.5 hrs, and just moved to oven.

[TedEbear]

Now that everything is cooking in the oven you can troubleshoot your Bradley.  When you plug the tower directly into a wall outlet does the heating element eventually glow red hot?

[chiroken]

I've fallen victim to not having the plug firmly pushed in on one end of the power cable running to the smoker. You'll feel silly if this is the case but better than a broken element. ;)

[bostonsmoker]

Thank you for the help.... "plug the tower directly into a wall outlet" - do you mean to bypass the smoke generator?

[Keymaster]

Thank you for the help.... "plug the tower directly into a wall outlet" - do you mean to bypass the smoke generator?

Yes, but just long enough to see if the heating element glows orange.

[pokermeister]

When I was troubleshooting my NOBS, Brian said to plug directly into smoker box from wall outlet. DO NOT let temp go much above 250, or auto shut off on smoker will kick in. Plugged in directly, my smoker reached 250 in about 10-15 minutes. Found out I had a bad rheostat on temp knob, and Bradley office sent new smoke generator in 2 days (pretty amazing).

[bostonsmoker]

Just plugged the cabinet directly into wall - still doesn't heat  :(

[TedEbear]

Just plugged the cabinet directly into wall - still doesn't heat  :(

Remove the wire off one end of the element and use a multimeter to check the resistance through it.  A working element should read around 27-32 ohms resistance.