Another Advance Problem/Question

[earlyman55]

Hi Gang -
It seems that I am now having some advance problems too. I have read all the topics/posts/ recommendations pertaining to the problem of bisquettes not advancing properly.

I smoked a turkey breast on New Years day. I manually advanced to the first bisquette. It smoked happily away. When I looked in on it on it 40 mnutes later, there was no smoke coming out. When I checked, only the first bisquette advanced and burned. When I pressed the manual advance button, there was a click, but no advance. After rapping on the side of the smoke unit with my hand a couple times and then pressing the button, the  next bisquette moved into position. From that point on, all bisquettes advanced properly.

So this morning, I opened the unit and powered it up. When I pressed the manual advance button, it would cycle every time, sometimes clockwise, sometimes counterclockwise. There was no rhymne or reason to it. Is this normal functioning? I thought I read somewhere that it was ONLY supposed to cycle counterclockwise.

But after another button press, I believe that I replicated what happened on New Years day. When the lever arm completed its cycle, it stopped squarely in the middle of the micro switch. When I pressed the manual advance button, I heard a click, but no cycle. I had to move the lever arm ever so slightly with my finger to get the cycle to begin. Out of the 20 to 30 times I pressed the button, only once did it stop in the middle of the micro switch; all other times it would stop on either one side of it, or on the other side of it.

So, is a call to Bradley in order? Do they monitor these boards? Does anyone have any suggestions? I've only had my smoker since Christmas, so I know it's under warranty. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Mr Walleye]

I would definitely give Bradley a call because it's new, under warranty, and Bradley will make it right. It sounds like there is problem with the micro switch for some reason but I would definitely call them and let them correct the problem. Their customer service is really good.

Keep us posted

Mike

[Habanero Smoker]

As Mike stated, give Bradley a call. In the mean time did you check out the Recipe Site's FAQ section.

Briquettes not properly advancing Automatically every 20 minutes.

[earlyman55]

Update -
Well, I called Brian at Bradley around the 12th and explained the problem to him. He said that he had heard from a couple customers that squirting a bit of WD40 into the microswitch might work. I gave that a try before smoking a bunch of Atlantic salmon this past weekend, but found that after squirting the switch the advance didn't work AT ALL. (Even the manual advance button did nothing). So, I had to babysit my salmon and drop in a puck every 20 minutes. Salmon came out great, BTW!

So, I called Brian back on Monday to report my findings; Thursday FEDEX pulls up with a new smoke generator, courtesy of Bradley! To say I was impressed with their customer service would be an understatement! Way to go Bradley!   ;D

I'm got the generator running on the kitchen counter with a bunch of bubba pucks in it and so far, so good!

Earlyman

[Mr Walleye]

Excellent news Earlyman55!

Their customer service really is second to none. Thanks for reporting back on this. It's always nice to here the result.

Now get that puppy smokin'!  ;)

Mike

[OliverB]

I'm on the verge of ordering the original unit, but I'm getting a bit discouraged by these puck advancing reports. I really do not intend to babysit this unit, or I'd get a cheaper charcoal/wood smoker. Fast replacement service is great, but a great product that works as intended out of the box is certainly much better! How many smokers have this problem?

I really really hate stuff that does not work as it's supposed to, it puts a serious damper on my enjoyment of a gadget. The idea of having this nagging little guy asking me "is the puck advancing, is the puck advancing???" at 3am is not all that appealing to me....

Does Bradley have an official statement regarding this obviously not all that rare problem?

[Smoking Duck]

Oliver,

I've never had a problem with pucks advancing and I work my Bradley pretty hard in all kinds of weather.  Seems like all you hear about are the ones that do have problems but I've never read a post where someone who has just gotten their Bradley comes on and says, "Everything worked great."  Perhaps that is why it seems their are lots of problems when in reality it's much smaller in occurrence but we never hear about it when the machine works properly. 

SD

[drano]

OliverB
Go ahead and get your OBS, and rest easy you've got a great product. 
I've had mine about 5 years, and works great. 
Only issue I had was the manual advance switch was pinched because the hole was a touch small (pinching the switch activated it/kept it in the depresses position, and it cycled all my pucks into the water pan).  Removing the switch, and about 3 strokes w/ a file on the edge of the hole had the switch moving freely.  Life has been great since that tweak.
And as Mike said, everyone is here to help--and so is Bradley. 
Buy with confidence.  The Bradley is a great smoker.
get smokin
drano

[OliverB]

ok ok, I'll order this weekend! Can't wait actually, so many plans for good smoky things!

[Smoking Duck]

ok ok, I'll order this weekend! Can't wait actually, so many plans for good smoky things!

Now you're talking........you won't be disappointed!

[Yooper Jim]

OliverB

Order your BS.  I've had mine for over a year and have had no problems other than those I created myself.  I love mine.  It takes some getting used to vs the old Weber, but it is the best move I've made.  If you can afford an Auber PID it will make life much easier.  Got a PID recently and could not live without it now!  Enjoy your purchase.

Jim