On my 1st attempt at making a refrig smoker about 2-3 years ago, my brother & I used an old 1920's era refrig we got from a customer of ours. We converted it no problem. We ran test smokes, everything ok. We decided to make some jerky for the 1st smoke while we were at work. I threw some cherry pits into the smoke pan and everything went normal. It was getting late and we were letting it cool down before putting into our shop and going home for the night. I forgot something and went back in our store/shop. I told him that our store really stank of smoke & we ought to load it on the pickup & take it home. We were going to a local watering hole for supper and he was going to follow me over there. When we got there the smoker was still smoking even though I had no wood in there. He told me on the way over there that I looked like a steam train with smoke following me the 5-6 miles we traveled. Hmmmmm, that's odd. I thought man that must really hold the smoke, Great seals. When we came out of the bar after supper (about and hour and a half later), the smoker was still SMOKING like I had it plugged in!@#$!! We had another 8 miles to get home. Well half way there, the sky lit up above me (have a sunroof in the old pickup). THE SMOKER CAUGHT ON FIRE!!! I pulled over about a mile after it caught & threw snow onto/into it. We thought we got it & drove another mile when it flared up again. The heck with it, we're getting home. Running down the highway with my truck all lit up! When we got to my house, we tried to outten it again, but that only made it smolder. We let it just burn. Turns out that the frig used wood as insulation & must have somehow got a hot ash or just overheated during the long jerky smoke and when we got air rushing while driving, it set it off. Live & learn. new refrig smoker much better but still like the bradley.
