newbie to BDS and love it!

fishrMN · January 12, 2008, 11:52:05 AM

Greetings ;D Newbie here from Minnesota.
Bought my new BDS about a month ago and been a smokin madman ever since!
Thanks to all on this board for your usefull advice.
For my small investment in this great smokin machine, I have recieved many
great dividends.

Now where was I?
Oh yea, smokin ribs/ beer? (I heard rumors they go together) :D

Mr Walleye · January 12, 2008, 11:55:37 AM

Congrats FishrMN on your success and welcome to the forum!

Ribs & Beer.... Ahhhhh... Just doesn't get any better! ;)

Mike

iceman · January 16, 2008, 10:54:15 AM

Welcome fishrMN:
I think I read it the smoke house rules book somewhere that it is indeed illegal to smoke ribs without cold beers in the immediate area. :D ;D
Enjoy your new toy.

bullsi1911 · January 16, 2008, 11:35:35 AM

Newbie here, too. I'm on my 4th smoke, I think.

hillbillysmoker · January 16, 2008, 11:57:38 AM

Welcome to the forum. Plenty of friendly folks here who are always willing to share adventures.

bowmiller · January 22, 2008, 06:35:24 PM

just brought home my new BDS today. season tomorrow, then I'll be on the hunt for a big hunk o pork. ;D haven't even plugged the thing in yet and have already learned some good tips from poking around here for 15 minutes. lots of good stuff here, a wonderful resource for a Bradley virgin like myself. gotta get me some bubba pucks, pronto. man, I'm anxious to get busy smokin'. cheers!

Mr Walleye · January 22, 2008, 06:44:43 PM

Welcome Bowmiller, glad to have you aboard.

Keep us posted on your smokin' projects.

Mike

Gizmo · January 22, 2008, 09:57:44 PM

Nice to see so many faces,
Welcome Bowmiller.

bigredsmoker · January 23, 2008, 07:51:39 AM

Welcome to both of you! I remember being the new kid on the block (it was only a couple of months ago) and I am still a newbie, but there are so many new faces all the time I don't feel so new anymore. With the wealth of information and help on this board you can hardly go wrong. I am amazed at all of the good eats that can be produced with the Bradley. I think the rule book acually read "a cold adult beverage is required while smoking" for those of us who like our scotch. ;) ;D

sherlock · January 23, 2008, 10:18:10 AM

RIGHT

COLD adult beverage

;D

bowmiller · January 23, 2008, 01:10:55 PM

thanks for the warm welcome fellas. just came in from seasoning new BDS. happy to report that everything worked properly. happy also to report that the digital thermometer on the control panel is fairly accurate. the probe I dropped through top vent ran with in 5 degrees or less of the readout on the control panel for the better part of the two hours I ran the oven at 150. made smoke for first hour per the owners manual destructions, then just ran the oven for observation purposes. trying to get adequately acquainted with temperature control before I put my dinner in there. :)

ok, then, here is my first silly newbie question: when I turned on smoker with oven set to 150* the temp inside rose to 178 on both thermometers in about 15 minutes, heating element shut off and temp dropped to 138* within 30 minutes or so, and of course rose again when heating element kicked on, and this 30-40 degree temperature swing went on for the two hours I watched the smoker. it is only about 20*degrees outside today with bright sun and a 5-10 mph breeze. I made no attempt to block wind as I was only seasoning and observing temp readings. my question is this, should I expect broad temperature swings like this as normal, or is this more pronounced when it is really cold outside? all in all, the average temperature for the two hours I ran smoker was fairly close to 150*. will a smoker full of food fluctuate more or less than one that is empty?

KyNola · January 23, 2008, 01:29:23 PM

Welcome Bowmiller,
I'll take a quick stab at this and then yield to the long term experts. It will take much longer for your BDS to recover when you first load it with meat as the temp of the meat will knock down the temp in the box considerably. Most of us preheat the box for quite sometime so you have a much higher temp than your smoking target temp. Also, you might place a brick in the bottom to help retain heat and fill the bowl with very hot water.

Some guys who have been at it much longer than I will follow up behind me with better advice.

KyNola

SmokinHotMama · January 23, 2008, 01:38:02 PM

Hiya Boys.... Welcome to the forum... I am rather new myself, but just since I started coming in here, right before Christmas, there have been a ton of newbies that have come through... Welcome... Be sure to keep us all updated on your recipes and any ideas that you have to offer... We look forward to hearing from you.. YEY! ;)

Mr Walleye · January 23, 2008, 02:46:20 PM

Quote from: bowmiller on January 23, 2008, 01:10:55 PM
thanks for the warm welcome fellas. just came in from seasoning new BDS. happy to report that everything worked properly. happy also to report that the digital thermometer on the control panel is fairly accurate. the probe I dropped through top vent ran with in 5 degrees or less of the readout on the control panel for the better part of the two hours I ran the oven at 150. made smoke for first hour per the owners manual destructions, then just ran the oven for observation purposes. trying to get adequately acquainted with temperature control before I put my dinner in there. :)

ok, then, here is my first silly newbie question: when I turned on smoker with oven set to 150* the temp inside rose to 178 on both thermometers in about 15 minutes, heating element shut off and temp dropped to 138* within 30 minutes or so, and of course rose again when heating element kicked on, and this 30-40 degree temperature swing went on for the two hours I watched the smoker. it is only about 20*degrees outside today with bright sun and a 5-10 mph breeze. I made no attempt to block wind as I was only seasoning and observing temp readings. my question is this, should I expect broad temperature swings like this as normal, or is this more pronounced when it is really cold outside? all in all, the average temperature for the two hours I ran smoker was fairly close to 150*. will a smoker full of food fluctuate more or less than one that is empty?

Bowmiller

There are no silly questions. ;) It's the only way to get things figured out.

What I have found is the temp will very more with an empty cabinet. When I studied my DBS I found that the heat cut in at about a 10 degrees drop. Now because the heating element is not instant (takes a minute to heat up) the temp would fall 1 or 2 more degrees be for begining to rise. Once the temp hits the target temp the heating element shuts off. Now, also because the element does not cool instantly the heat would continue to rise a degree or two unitl it begins to fall. You will find once you throw a big hunk of meat in there it will act as a big heatsink. It will take a while to get back up to temp after loading it and this is why a number of people will use a brick or two stuck in by the water bowl. It just helps with recovery time. As already mentioned most people also preheat (including the puck burner with no pucks) to a much higher temp. I usually preheat to around 260 degrees. Once I load the meat I reset the temp to where I want it (usually around 210 or 220).

Mike

bowmiller · January 23, 2008, 03:46:55 PM

thank ye Mr. Walleye, et al.

bubba pucks and dual probe thermometer on the way here from yardandpool.com. I knew that buying this smoker was a dangerous proposition. :D I can see that smoker cooking will likely turn into another borderline unhealthy obsession for me. so much to smoke, so little time... ;D I see pulled pork in my future.