HELP bad element?

[browning92]

So i have been using my smoker for maybe 3 years now and have had many successful smokes but while doing some ribs this weekend it seemed as if it took abnormally long for the temp to come back up after I put the ribs in. now for the details i had it preheated to 230 prior to putting a single rack of ribs in. after putting the ribs in i opened the vent most of the way and the temp dropped to around 130 ish and took almost 3 hrs to reach 230/240  the ambient temp was around 55 degrees F with a very slight breeze.   is normal? or is my heating element going bad?

Thanks in advance!!!
 

[Habanero Smoker]

That recovery time for such a light load is not normal. If your cabinet eventually reached a high temperature after 3 hours, it would not be your heating element that caused the problem.

Is there anything you did differently this time that you didn't do in the past; such as not letting the ribs sit in room temperature for an hour or two prior to placing them in the smoker? Positioning a temperature probe in a different location?

There are times when opening the vent too much, can also bring your cabinet temperature down; especially with small loads that will not produce a lot of moisture in the cabinet. In this case maybe opening it too wide, you are allowing too much heat to escape, when a smaller opening will allow enough moisture to escape, and retain more heat. It is easy enough to test. If this happens the next time you smoke, try closing the vent a little bit. If you see the temperature begin to improve, close it a little more, until you my notice a decline in temperature; I generally will not close my vent to more than half closed.

[browning92]

Thank you. I had the ribs out for at least 1-1/2 hr. Ill give it a go agin this weekend and shut the vent more. I didnt have any other probe was just reading off if the display maybe thats going waky

[beefmann]

good advice from habs,,,

Also  if you are  running the  smoker on a long cord or on a  circuit with a load on it ,, this  will drop the  voltage to the heater causing it not to  put out the full wattage of the  element causing it to take longer to recover for  heat temps,

wind and  weather also  play a  factor though the  weather you  were  talking about does  not  seem to be that  bad..

[tskeeter]

Bradley's don't like wind.  Seems to suck the heat out of the smoker unless the vent is sheltered from the breeze.  Possibly your problem?

Elements, they usually either work, or not work.  Performance usually doesn't decline noticeably as they age.  They just suddenly stop working.