New Bradley P10 smoker - cooktool ***

[gizy-CA]

Hi...is any Bradley New P 10 smoker user...use cooktool.exe Bradley software (program)to prepare different food recipe and save it do the Bradley stick.?
Do you have any problem with it.?
https://www.bradleysmoker.com/ca/product/bradley-professional-p10-4-rack-1000w-food-smoker/?v=3e8d115eb4b3

scroll down and you will see DESCRIPTION
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
REVIEWS
DOWNLOADS & FIRMWARE
WARRANTY

Click on downloads and
WARRANTY   Download
OWNER'S MANUAL   Download
BROCHURE   Download
COOK TOOL DOWNLOAD   Download
HOW TO USE COOK TOOL   Download
FIRMWARE   No new firmware updates for the P10

all download links works.

[Habanero Smoker]

I don't have the P10, and been having problems downloading the CookTool. I tried it 5 minutes ago without luck. I just tried it again, and it downloaded. My antivirus tried to block it, and I had to keep on "Keep" about four times in different screens. I'm going to check it out to see how to create recipes.

[gizy-CA]

You wont be able to do this without "Special" Bradley memory stick and.... P10 ....After creating the steps you have to upload it to the  usb stick    and then upload from the stick to P10. it is the only way to find out if works ok or not.
In my opinion must be something wrong with this cooktool.exe.
Let see .

[Habanero Smoker]

The link on the Bradley site did not work for me. The link you posted did work. I've downloaded the cook tool, and I'm able to play with it to see how it works. First impression, very basic, not enough instructions for help, and can't change the Celsius to Fahrenheit. You have to strictly follow what instructions provided in the CookTool manual. After some trial and error I was able to save one recipe with multiple steps. Whether that recipe would work after transferring it to the P10, I couldn't tell you.

[gizy-CA]

Agree to cooltool very basic stage.
I could save receipt to the stick...and upload to P10...but P10 read different settings then I saved to stick.
I try few times...to preheat smoker when I set in first step temperature for instance 40 or 30 or 50 ..it will always start at 60.
Than in step 2 when I want start smoke after 1 hr ...the smoke indicator goes on (light in blue) ...but it doesnt produce the smoke and puck is landing in container with water below.
Also cant save the second receipt to the stick...if I do is overwriting the first. One more thing.... when you preparing receipt you click on save button every finished step...or after you finish your last final step ?
I am going to ask you if you can email me the MENU.txt file you have saved of your receipt ? I will try it to use in P10 and let you know how it went.
I will PM you with my email address .
Thank you. 

[Habanero Smoker]

There has to be something wrong with the cooktool. After saving the one recipe, I closed the program. Today when I opened up the program, although I had programmed four steps, now there are seven steps listed. Each step was the same, and it was the last step that I had programmed in. I'm going to download the program again, and reinstall it. Still, for some reason if I don't use the link you provided, when I go to the Bradley site typing in the url, or clicking a google link; there is no cooktool.exe file to download.

When I programmed my recipe, I only clicked on the save button after finishing all the steps. According to the instructions, the save button saves the completed recipe to the MENU.txt file.

I should mention that I did order the P10. It arrived June 8th, but it was badly damaged on the top. All functions seemed to work, but after I contacted Bradley, they instructed me to send it back for a replacement. It took me three weeks to get in touch with them. My fault, I was sending emails to the wrong email address. It got shipped back to Bradley last Friday. So I'm hoping the replacement comes in soon; since they said as soon as they are notified by FedEx that it was picked up they immediately ship out the replacement. It seems they have a warehouse in Illinois, so it shouldn't take long.

[gizy-CA]

Problems and questions with programming a new custom recipes with Bradley cooktool.exe "software" .After programming first own recipe:for use in the future the same recipe you cant save it in the memory stick it will be overwrite by the second recipe you want to program ...can it be save storage  in P10 smoker? If yes for eg... you have already 5 recipes saved on P10 how you will remember what recipe is on # 2 or 3 or 5 ? Next how you can delete unwanted recipes from P10? Next after copy new recipe to BMS (Bradley Memory Stick) there is no option to edit and correct if needed the file to prevent any costly mistake.When you close cooktool.exe all information is gone and you have to start all over again.What this mean by:The Cook Tool can generate a total of 50 unique Recipes with 25 steps in each. Every step, has 4 commands.Does it mean you can store up to 50 recipe? 

[Habanero Smoker]

Did the Menu.txt file I sent you? Did it load and work in the P10?

The cookingtoool.exe on the US site still can not be downloaded. The cooktool that I downloaded from the Canadian site, I'm able to save multiple recipes in the software, and edit them. To edit the recipe that is stored on the computer, select the Recipe Sequence; use scroll bar to scroll to the step you want to edit, make your changes, then save. As far as saving to the stick and transferring to the P10, I should have more knowledge about that in a week. But I was under the impression that the menu.txt file on the stick overwrites all recipes that were previous stored in the P10.

[gizy-CA]

Yes...I copy the Manu file the one you send to me to BMS and then uploaded to P10. It shows like a number 1 and when I pressed indicator to start the smoke process it turn temperature at 107 and cook time and 1hr. I turned it off and didnt go any further.
Is sad that I cant see what I load in ...you cant edit the file before you load . Also when you have... if it is possible...eg saved on P10... 5 receipts how you will remember what is what..For instance what is smoked ribs or hot salmon or chicken etc.. In my opinion we have to see what is on the BMS and receipts on P10 should be shown by readable name not numbers so we can easy pick the receipt I want to cook today. Thank you for your input and help. Hope the Bradley will hear us and fix this problems very soon.

[Habanero Smoker]

I have to say the CookTool is close to being useless, and not working as it was intended.

You should be able to know what you download to the P10, because what is listed in the "Recipe Sequence" list, is what should have been downloaded onto the UBS. And each time you download to the P10, you are not adding to existing recipes that are already stored in the P10, but completely overwriting the existing file.

I'm able to edit existing files with the CookTool, but it doesn't seem to save them correctly to the stick. Like the file I sent you; was for a simple pork loin smoke/cook. It only carried out the first step of three. If you had open it up with the CookTool, you would have seen the three steps, and the first step was a preheat to 107°C for one hour, no smoke, no temp probe; the second step should have indicated 2:20 hours of smoke, for cook time 2:20 hours at 107°C, and the temp probe #1 at 60°C; the final step was no smoke, cook 3 hours at 107°C, probe #1 60°C. Maybe it shut off because it didn't detect temp probe #1, but the probes will only read up to 100°C; so I wouldn't place a probe in there unless it is inserted into a piece of meat or something like sand saturated with water.

I agree, the read out would be better if there was a name. The only way to know what number equates to what recipe is to have a written log that you can refer to. Such as recipe #1 - Smoke Ribs; #2 - Hot Smoked Salmon; #3 - Jerk Chicken; etc. Those numbers should matchup with the recipes listed in the "Recipe Sequence" in the CookTool software. I'm still waiting for Bradley to fix the link on the US site.

I got my replacement yesterday, and again it came in badly damaged on the top. The electronics work, so I should be able to download a Menu file to teh P10 and see if it will complete all three steps. Today the weather is not cooperating, so I will have to wait until tomorrow.

[Habanero Smoker]

I now see what you mean about the cooktool not being able to read a menu.txt. Today I did two quick tests, one for seasoning the smoker and the other for an ABT recipe (with empty smoker). Both recipes had two steps, with no probes involved. Both recipes performed both steps, before shutting down. When the weather gets better, which is looking like Wednesday, I'll do a short smoke/cook, maybe chicken thighs, and use one of the probes.

As for the reason your bisquette may have dropped into the water unburnt. The bisquette burner does not heat until you turn on the smoke cycle. So during preheating, you need to turn on the smoke cycle, and don't load the bisquettes until you load your food.

[manxman]

Very interesting reading the comments about the P10 Habs and looking forward to more posts about it, also sorry to hear the first two were damaged presumably in transit?

Are you getting another one sent out?

[Habanero Smoker]

Manxman;

Don't get me going!  ??? ;D ;D First I have to say I'm suffering from "Coronacosis" (a social condition cause by social isolation for too long of a period due to the pandemic).

For some reason both came in with the top badly dented in. I'm not talking about dings, but serious dents. The first one the carton was seriously damage on the sides, but there was no damage on the sides of the smoker. No apparent damage on the top of the carton, when I got the carton off  three corners, not the center; were dented in. All the electronics seemed to worked - Bradley sent me a replacement. There was a slight miscommunication. They were suppose to ship out the replacement Bradley as soon as FedEx verified the picked up the smoker from my house, but they didn't ship it until it reached there warehouse in Indiana.

The second one arrived last Friday. No damage at all to the carton, and this carton had additional packaging, and the hand grips on the sides of the carton were reinforced. I got the top off and there was a severe dent in one corner; just over the keypad. All the electronics seem to work properly. I did not want to go through an other return and get another damaged smoker. After looking at the smoker, I realized that the top can be taken off by removing six screws. So I emailed them and I ask if they could send me a replacement top. They agreed to that. So I have a replacement top coming, and they are throwing in a couple of boxes of bisquettes for my trouble. The smoker is fully functional, so I can use it while waiting for the top to arrive. In both shipments there was no carton damage in the area the smoker was damaged. I feel the damage is happening when the smoker is being packaged in the carton at the factory.

I know I was one of the biggest critics about all the delays they had in releasing this smoker, but my initial impression is that this smoker is well thought out. I usually wait until a product has been on the market for a while, but like I mentioned earlier; I'm suffering from "Coronacosis", and the 10% discount hooked me in. I feel the main target for this smoker is commercial kitchens and restaurants. The convivence of storying recipes is a work in progress, at least I'm hoping they will improve that app. Also, I missed it in reading the spec, but smoker weigh about 75 pounds. Initial trials with an empty cabinet, indicates about a 5 - 10 degree overshoot of the temperature, but it zero's in and stays mostly from 3 - 5 within the set temperature. Some of that variation in temperature could have been cause by the sun shining directly on the smoker.

My area is going through a weird period of weather - thunderstorms and/or showers almost everyday, so I don't know when I will get a chance to fully give it a try. I'm hoping to smoke some chicken thigh tomorrow.

[manxman]

Coronacosis

Try as I might Habs I cant find that term in any medical dictionary ;) but nonetheless a condition to be taken seriously! I was lucky, had my boat on the driveway so could legitimately do some work on it and also despite being about 18 months into retirement ended up going back to work on and off which helped keep the coronacosis at bay!  8)

Glad that Bradley have fingers crossed got you sorted, a damaged unit inside undamaged packaging perhaps suggests a quality control failure in this instance? However hopefully the weather will improve and you can provide more feedback positive or negative on the P10, I am particularly interested if you think it is suitable for cold smoking given its design now that you are using one in anger so to speak?  :)

[Habanero Smoker]

Without ice or ice packs I can't see how else one could cold smoke with this. My area is going through a period of higher temperatures than normal, with overnight lows not getting below 65­°F. Every time I turn the smoker on it is always 2 - 3 degrees from the ambient temperature. I'll give it a couple of dry runs, one without ice and one with ice that will give me an idea how high over the ambient temperature it will get. I'll also run some smoke, when using ice to see if that interferes with the draft.

I just posted on my first short cook.