Hello Army,
I am hoping I can provide a little more insight that can shed some light on three areas of discussion so far.
A PID is a temperature control devices. The Bradley runs like an electric stove. It turns the element on and when it detects that the temperature is at what you set it too then it turns the element off. the heat will continue to climb until the insulation value allows the cabinet to start to cool. Then once the temp gets below the setting you have set it will turn the element back on. Again the cabinet will continue to cool until the elements heat over comes this effect and the temperature starts to climb again.
The PID pulses the heating element on and off rapidly. The allows you to maintain a more consistent temperature (+- 2 Degrees) than the standard programing. (on a side note I run a wireless heating prob next to the meat and adjust the Bradley's temp setting until the meat probs setting is where I want it.)
The second heating element mod. The Bradley is designed for low and slow, and it does it. It is commonly felt that the heating element is under powered for a lot of uses. It will not heat up quickly. it will drop when the doors is open, it will take time to regain temps and it will struggle with large meat loads. All this being said these are things many smokers show issues with. I would suggest you look at what you want to do with the smoker. if you want to cook 12 racks of ribs, or 6 pork butts or 2 briskets, to 10lbs of snack sticks then you are probably going to struggle with the stock heating element. If you are more of a hobbyist then this may be a good fit. As always let the meat speak for itself as to when its cooked and always leave lots of time to get the job done. Another thing is that once the smoke has been applied you can switch it to a over to a oven (at this point they are basically the same thing) to finish at higher temps.
Breaking Down. Like all mechanical devices the Bradley sometimes breaks down. This will ring true with almost anything you decided to use. One of the reason you may read a lot of negative emails is because people seldom go online to craft a strongly worded email about how everything worked perfectly. I will say two things about break downs. Although I have never used them I often hear about how great the customer support for Bradley's is, and two, this site right here will provide a lot of help when it comes to mechanically issues. I would venture to say they can provide a solution for 80% of issues.
My first smoker was a Bradley and it was a great unit for my first ribs, pork butt, and snack sticks. I have a PID (this was done because of my addiction to creating snack sticks where precise temperature control is important). I have ungraded to a second heating element because I was running 2 runs of 10lbs of snack sticks every 3rd weekend and the single element kind of topped out at 8 lbs. I also own a Webber Smokey Mountain because I spend 4 months a year camping off grid and needed something to do while out there and away from electricity.
My suggestion is to figure out what you want to do with it. If any of your must have features go beyond a Bradley's stock functionality than you may want to search for something else. If you decided a Bradley will work than and understand that 0 sometimes happens in the best of times than a Bradley will serve you well.
Good luck and happy smoking.
