Delay start

[sjhark]

Hi all!
  I've been lurking around the forum and finally came up with a topic that I couldn't find previously discussed. I currently am on my second OBS and it's getting near time for a new one. I usually smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving. I set my temp, then plug my smoker into a Christmas light timer, which automatically turns on the power at Ridiculous-Dark-Thirty. Then, I wake up an hour later and put my bird in and start the smoke generator.
  My question is, can I do this with the Digital Smoker, or do I have to set the temp once the smoker has been powered up? I don't want to have to get up at 2:00 am to turn it all on, and then get up an hour later to put the bird on. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

[manfromplaid]

you would have to set the temp when turning it on. my thoughts on this would be set the time for max and start your preheat just before going to bed. i don't know at what temp your using but if going in that early must be in the 225 range.  good luck hope the bird turns out great happy thanksgiving

[sjhark]

Manfromplaid: Thank you for getting back to me on this. You are correct about the temp; my OBS will only hit about 220-225 on a good day. You've given me something to think about; I'm not sure I'm excited about letting it run for that long while empty, and I know my wife would complain about wasting electricity. Thanks again for your input, and Happy Thanksgiving!

[Habanero Smoker]

If you go with the timer you should recheck that timer to make sure it can handle around 700 watts.

I don't have the digital, but if you now have the digital, after the timer turns on the electricity going to the smoker, I believe you have to push the on button, and then adjust the setting? I don't know if the digital has a power interrupt memory which if there is a power interruption the smoker will restore the settings once power is restored. If so, you can setup the Bradley on the timer to run a couple of minutes, then have timer cut off the power, and have the third timer setting to turn the power on at one hour before you get up.  You may want to do a practice run to make sure it will start to preheat when the timer turns on the electricity.

[sjhark]

I don't know if the digital has the reset or not. I haven't bought a new one yet, but using the timer is a big benefit to having the original smoker. Not sure what I'm going to do yet...

[manfromplaid]

I had to ask the wife if she would be mad or something like if I ran the smoker to keep it warm and she said put something in it. I kinda thought that is what I would do in your position but its good to know the boss thinks the same way.