smoker temp

snowmon · July 18, 2008, 04:36:03 PM

I'm cooking first meal in the DBS6. It's about 90 degrees here and the highest the temp has been is 200. I have a full smoker. Is this a normal temp under the conditions, 90 degrees and a full smoker???

westexasmoker · July 18, 2008, 04:38:21 PM

With a full load it will take awhile for the temp to recover and 200 is not to bad. How long ya been holding 200?

C

FLBentRider · July 18, 2008, 05:09:01 PM

If you have 6 pork butts in there, that is great!

Gizmo · July 18, 2008, 05:54:58 PM

What is your set temp?
Check to make sure your heating element is red and actually heating the box. With 90 deg ambient and 150 deg from the puck burner, you may not have power going to the heating element. It doest take a while for the box to get to temp with a full load as the others have said.

Leifostberg · August 23, 2008, 09:10:13 AM

Thank you all for your help; I just had my first session with my DBS6, and had problems as well bringing the temp up to speed.

beefmann · August 23, 2008, 01:02:42 PM

hello all,

easiest fix for the tempture if you want it to be a quicker recovery and having a steady cooking tempture + or - 7 degrees F is to replace the 500 watt bradley heater and put in its place a 900 watt finned heater in its place.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/4E266

I have been running this heater for 9 months and no problems at all with close to 200 hours of cook time on it, fast recovery and holds + or - 7 degrees with a typical PID controller with build in relay ( not aan ssr ) been working with out a hitch.

pullinpork · August 24, 2008, 02:03:15 PM

Hello Beefmann,

Will this 900 watt bolt right in without any modifications?

beefmann · August 24, 2008, 03:21:26 PM

pullin ,

a small mod for the bolts to hold the heater. its a simple mod .. just drill 2 holes through the back of the smoker inline with the holes of the heater and use 5 /16 bolts through the back of the smoker box with a fender washer on each side, a nut on the inside then a 1 inch all thread nut, another standard washer heater then washer and lastly a nut to hold the heater. this concludes the mounting. ( and yes remove the back cover and remove any insulation that may be in the way )

wire useing high temp connectors and bypass bradleys box thermocuple on the back and wiredirectly directly to the heater from tempture conoller ( PID )

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=6943.0

the link to give you a better idea of the install, I do have a blower in mine to help with heat recovery after close to 250 hours of smoking / cooking after mod with no problems. any other questions please ask
beef

pullinpork · August 24, 2008, 03:58:56 PM

Thanks Beef,

I am gearing towards this mod for mine. I am sure I will have more questions once I start. Thanks for the help so far.

DrtiBird · October 27, 2008, 12:57:40 PM

Quote from: beefmann on August 23, 2008, 01:02:42 PM
hello all,

easiest fix for the tempture if you want it to be a quicker recovery and having a steady cooking tempture + or - 7 degrees F is to replace the 500 watt bradley heater and put in its place a 900 watt finned heater in its place.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/4E266

I have been running this heater for 9 months and no problems at all with close to 200 hours of cook time on it, fast recovery and holds + or - 7 degrees with a typical PID controller with build in relay ( not aan ssr ) been working with out a hitch.

I followed the link and enjoyed your pics. The question I have concerns the fan you installed. Can you supply info on it and maybe some pics of the install? Does the fan provide the same/similar benefits of a convection oven?

beefmann · October 27, 2008, 02:27:27 PM

Dirt,

welcome to the fourm, will try to help you as much as i can,,, The heater is a 900 watt finned heater, the Blower is an updraft blower for a furnace both are from graingers. The blower doesent need to be high volume .. about 70 cfm will do, one other mod that is not in the pictures is I took a piece of sheet metal and bent it 90 degrees and made it long enough and wide enough to cover the top heater opening of the heater housing and placed it under the bottom shelf

wiring diagram for the smoker generator and heater/ blower you will notice one 3 position swtich called a pwr switch this switch turns on the smoke generator, then off.. then over to the PID controller which controlls the heater and turns on the fan

the "fan switch" controlls the speed of the fan with center off... the PID wireing you should follow the manifactures wireing procedures.

in this picture you see the motor of the blower, mounting bracket for the motor and if you look closly the bolts for the inside heater... and yes you need the bracket for the weight of the motor

back of the smoke generator with all connections made and a longer cord to reach the outlet.

front of the smoke generator after install the red switch in the middle was left alone along with the light and all still work along with the advance button..

and the back of the bradly is a bit of a mess and I need to get it cleaned up and make a new back,,

think through the process befor you make the mistakes like i have..... this was the 3 rd mod untill i was happy with it... look at all the mods befor deciding on which one u want...

here are the pictures of it compleated

the heater inside

heater and bower

cover and smoker generator in place

and finally with the V tray in place..

hope this helps

DrtiBird · October 27, 2008, 07:45:17 PM

Very impressive Beef. Gonna leave mine pretty much stock for now, but I do like the bigger heater and the fan! In reading about the higher temps in the lower back I wondered about a fan of some type.

beefmann · October 27, 2008, 07:59:59 PM

Dirt,

Made this mod almost a year ago and has over 250 hours of smoking and cooking on it with no problems.. With the 900 watt heater I have more then enough heat to do 20 pounds of meat at 220 box temp even if i do open the box and let the temp drop to 150.. with in about 10 minutes its back close to 220,, and the blower has a fan blade between the motor and back support that you can not see.. ps this motor does run hot notmally even without the heater on

your concerns are justified and remember the unit is fused and protected with a gfi recptical

Habanero Smoker · October 28, 2008, 02:12:59 AM

Quote from: DrtiBird on October 27, 2008, 07:45:17 PM
Very impressive Beef. Gonna leave mine pretty much stock for now, but I do like the bigger heater and the fan! In reading about the higher temps in the lower back I wondered about a fan of some type.

Several members have installed a fan to help circulate the heat. Here is a link to the instructions.

Circulation Fan