My experience with new OBS

[bullsfury81]

I received my smoker for father's day (first father's day and wife set the bar REEAAALLL high for one's to follow) and was ready for a weekend smokefest. But, like others I have read, I had issues.
     Generator (puck) element would heat, no problem. Pit element would heat, no problem. But would not advance pucks when puck advancement button was engaged (nor when I turned the unit on which I didn't realize happens until after my unit was working properly). Called the company, no problem, that sent out a replacement motor and micro switch. From reading posts, this seems like the standard practice. Package shows up in a couple days. I'm by no means an electrician nor one who will dive in head first removing bolts and screws and, in essence, completely taking apart the structure of the generator in order to replace the motor (also warranty void concerns). But I did and replaced the motor to no evail. The switch that was sent was not for my model but I took out my multimeter and performed my own diagnostics on the original switch. More or less I just winged it but it seemed to make a circuit when the button was engaged so I knew that as long as there was power running to switch, the switch would serve it's purpose. I wasn't about to delve into  the circuitboard to figure out where the issue was.
       Call them back up, kind lady verified that they did send me out the wrong switch but instead she would send out a whole new generator unit. Arrived in two days Awesome service!!! Now she is a fully functional smoker ( I haven't named her but she is a female... blows a lot of smoke) and since father's day I have smoked the Chicken Gordon Bleu recipe that I found in this forum( or the forum dedicated to Bradley recipes), pork ribs, pork shoulder, and beef ribs. I have been learning as I go.
       I hook into common external outlet that has the  built in breaker (not sure what it's called but recomended as oppose to a basic wall outlet found inside the homes). I went to the main breaker to see what else is running off the same fuse and found to be my full basement and half my kitchen. I swear there is a plethora of switches in my breaker but about five run the whole house... go figure. Hence why the blow dryer and microwave and vacuum will break the switch. No worries. I just tell the wife to do one thing at a time  ;D . But I make a valient effort to turn off anything that is not a necessity that is also running off the same switch as my smoker outlet. I also purchased a 8 ft 14 gauge outdoor extension cord.
       I can reach over 270 degrees when preheating (Maverick 733 dual probe). To get up to temp can vary depending on how much meat you are smoking. As soon as the meat begins to get up to a "warming" temp, the recovery is much shorter. My biggest discipline I have learned is you can't rush it. Forums might say 6 hours or 8 hours at 210 degrees should put you where you want to be. Perhaps when it is fully at 210 degrees, that is the case. I have not invested in an Auber PID nor have I added a second 500W element or replaced with a 900W element. Not until I got a good feel for my smoker and learn the principles of smoking will I invest in "pimping my ride". It's like buying a turbo car and upgrading to a stage 2 turbo kit before driving off the lot. Maybe a nice police detector (MAV 733 temp probe) but get use to the car before going crazy. I can see where some extra juice to get to temp and having a device control your elements to maintain a specific temp would be a nice "set it and forget it" accessory but going outside and adjusting the rheostat gets you in tune with what the smoker is and isn't capable of.
       And to bring up the "temperature adjustor". I read on a post where someone was asking if it made a difference to crank the adjustor to "high" when trying to recover your temps after opening the doors and a few people responded "NO. that the element is either on or off and that shouldn't make a difference". I, correct me if I'm wrong, learned that the adjustor is a rheostat and it will change how much juice is going to the element, hence why the bulb get's brighter the higher it goes. So in my opinion is that YES it will impact how fast you recover because more juice to the element is more heat and so on and so forth. At least on the OBS. The digitals or just that, a digital thermostat.
        Long story short, you can't judge by time. Mmmaybe a rough estimate. My pork shoulder (5 lb) went in at 2330 and didn't reach 187 degrees internal till 1530 (16 hours) and I should've let it go to low 190s and that would have been at least another hour in my opinion ( I was "cooking" at 210 degrees). I tried the 3-2-1 method for ribs and I totaled about 7 hours and they should have been in longer. And I probably won't do the 3-2-1 method again. Not sure if it's recovery time or what but I don't think it's beneficial to repeatedely open the door. Maybe when I add the stage 2 turbo it won't make as much of a difference. Plus there is a great article by "Pachenga" (forgive me if I destroyed the name) entitled "smoking naked" or something like that that really breaks down the foil wrapping and why it's done and the benefits and disadvantadges of it. For me, it's not getting the bark that I want that will make me steer clear next time.
       Anyways, that's been my first month experience with my smoker and I have pictures but will post only when they are up to my approval!!!HAHAHA. I must say though that the beef ribs were amazing and won't hesitate to do them again even though the yield isn't that great (Long Ribs). My project for this friday will be a Prime Rib @ 210degrees and remove @ 125 degrees. FTC for 30-60 minutes and convect broil in oven for 6-8 minutes for a nice coat. Might take 6 hours but I'm pepared for a 10 hour slow cook. My wife has created a monster...

[piratey]

Welcome to the forum.  Sounds like you are off to a great start.  Post some pictures when you can, as we all like to drool at our monitors.