"Nonnymus" wrote in message
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Matt wrote:
wrote in message
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My name is Jerry and I lurk here. There is a lot of good information
passed around here. And some interesting recipes too. Thanks.

I've been BBQing for years. I started out minding the fire for making
the coals for a large open pit BBQ under a shed. "Put a couple of
shovels full right there, lad." Every other Saturday, all spring and
summer, our closest neighbors (half mile away) had a "Musical".
Friends, relatives, and musicians came from miles around to eat, play,
and nip at the shine, and dance a few Jigs.

60 years on, I still have to have my BBQ'd ribs and brisket, with an
occasional pork butt thrown in.

I'm in the market for a simple to use BBQ setup that I can take on the
road. I've retired and I travel in a 5th wheel for months at a time.
I have just spent some time on Goggle groups researching past posts
here on the pros and cons of a Bradley Smoker, which seems to fit my
criteria for an easy to use, portable BBQ unit that will be used a
couple of times a month.

After all my research there are some questions that I haven't been
able to answer satisfactorily.

1) Aluminum Pucks? Obviously I'm missing something here. I don't
seem to understand how the feed mechanism works. Why do you waste 2
pucks each use?

In a nutshell; the puck burner plate is several puck widths away from
the puck feed tube. The way the puck advance mechanism works, the pucks
push each other. One by one, the wood pucks drop down the feed tube, and
then are pushed forward by a small mechanism that is timed at 20 minute
intervals. The first puck is dropped down, then pushed forward, then
another puck drops down and again is pushed forward, and so on. It takes
several pucks feeding through in order to push the pucks out onto the
burn plate. Once the supply of pucks is exhausted, the puck advance
mechanism continues to advance every 20 minutes, but if there are no
pucks to push, the whole process stops. Because the feed tube is several
puck widths away from the burner, when the supply of pucks is gone, the
last couple pucks don't actually make it to the burner plate because
there are no pucks left to push them. They remain next to the burner
plate where they get hot enough to smolder a bit and are wasted. Say
you want to smoke something for 2 hours, if you were to only load in 6
pucks (each one burns 20 minutes) you would actually only get 1 hr and 20
minutes of smoke because the last two pucks wouldn't ever make it to the
burn plate. Instead they would remain next to the burn plate and would
partially smolder and be wasted. So the way the Bradley is currently
configured, if you want to smoke for 2 hours, you really have to load in
8 wood pucks, one or two of which would be simply be wasted in the
process. This is where the aluminum pucks come in handy and save you
pucks. You load three of them on top of your last wood pucks, they then
feed through pushing all the wood pucks through. When all the wood pucks
are burned, only the aluminum pucks remain on and next to the burner. No
half burned wasted wood pucks. This makes sure all the wood pucks are
burned completely and then extinguished into the water bowl as intended.
It prevents you from having to load extra wood pucks which would just get
wasted.


2) As I understand it, even though it is a digital controller, it is
still basically an on/off setup with no PID control. When it reaches
the set point it kills power and then after a temperature drop of
several degrees it turns on again?

Correct. Instead of the Digital Bradley, I would recommend going with
the Original (non-digital) model and then using a home-built or ebay
bought PID controller. This method will cost you the same as a Digital
Bradley while giving you better, more stable temp control. There are now
plug and play PID's available on ebay designed for the Bradley. Or there
are plans available on the net for building your own PID for the Bradley.


3) If this is the case, what kind of fluctuations are we talking
about?

4) Is the Digital model's temperature controlled better than the
Original?

The Original simply has a slider control to control the heat. When the
knob is to the left, it makes not heat, slide it to the right, it makes
heat. You have to adjust it as the process goes along, but once the temps
stabilize, not a whole lot needs to be done. The digital model uses the
same heating element, but it has a built in thermostat that will turn
on/off the element to control the heat. But again, it is not PID, and
because of the nature of the heating element the temp does fluctuate a
bit, more than some folks prefer. While probably a step up from the
Original Bradley when it comes to temp control, it is still far from
perfect. That is why I still would recommend an Original Bradley with a
PID controller for a truly set it and forget it smoker. You can even get
programmable PID controllers that will alow you to set variable
time/temps for the ultimate control.

5) Is temperature control in the original a problem?

No, I've been using my original Bradley for almost two years now. I do
everything from cold smoking cheese for 1 hour to several briskets at a
time for 20 hours. I do over night smokes a lot for things like briskets
and butts with my original with no problem. Like I said, once the temps
stabilize there isn't whole lot of messing with it. I'm happy with my
Original as is, but I will be picking up a PID in the near future. I
have two small children, a 1 year old and a 3 year old and it can be a
bit of a chore tending to the smoker while also keeping an eye on them
too. So to make my life a bit easier I'm going for a more set it and
forget it approach by adding a PID to my set up.
And finally,

6) Anything I should know about that I haven't asked before I pick up
one of these units?

Some people will try to talk you out of the Bradley saying that the wood
pucks are too expensive, etc... but it's really not. All smokers cost $
to operate and I find the Bradley very reasonable. Where I get my wood
pucks, it costs me $1 per hour of smoke to use my Bradley. When I'm
smoking a couple butts or brisket for instance, it may take 12 to 16
hours in the Bradley, but I usually only use smoke on them for the first
4-5 hours, after that it is just heat, no smoke. It's not like you have
to smoke/burn pucks the whole 12-16 hours. That's another benefit of the
Bradley, you can control how much or how little smoke. When you aren't
burning wood pucks, the Bradley acts just like an oven.

I would also think long and hard about picking up a Maverick ET-73 smoker
thermometer for use with your Bradley, along with the aluminum pucks.
Check ebay for the aluminum pucks, they are all the same so go for the
cheapest price. And again, I'd opt for three of them.


I agree totally with Matt's comments. In my case, I cannot recommend the
solution sold by the good folk at Barbecue Guru. It is a digital
differential thermostat setup with a PLL controller that regulates the
interior temperature of the Bradley from the level of the grates. In
addition to virtually no temperature swings (latency), it has a probe
that's inserted in the meat. As the meat temperature reaches 25f of the
desired interior temperature, the cooking temperature is reduced by the
controller gradually, until they meet at the meat's desired interior
temperature.

http://secure.thebbqguru.com/Product...ic_smokers.asp

I liked mine so much I got a similar setup for my son's Bradley. It's
literally a set and forget installation, and consistently cranks out
excellent 'Q.

I'd say that consistency is the biggest plus for the Bradley smoker with
the Power Raptor installed. With experience, you can learn how long to
smoke independently of how long to cook foods, since smoke production is
independent of the heating/cooking function.

As for the aluminum pucks, IMHO they dramatize the main "problem" with the
Bradley. All that I've encountered will occasionally fail to feed pucks.
The problem seems to stem from a weak feed mechanism coupled with a high
coefficient of friction between the pucks. A tall stack of pucks, coupled
with 2-3 aluminum pucks simply weighs too much and is too 'sticky' for the
weak feed mechanism. I solve that problem here by only placing 6-8 pucks
in the stack at a time, and waiting until the end of a smoke before adding
the aluminum pucks.


Nonny, I do the same with my aluminum pucks, I don't load them until the
wood pucks are almost gone. I've been using my Bradley for almost two years
now, and personally, I haven't had a single malfunction of the puck feeder
yet. (knock on wood) If the puck feeder ever were to fail, at least I know
I can get replacement motors for $10-$15 online, if necessary. It's just a
microwave turn-table motor.

Matt



Still, it's a good package and both Bradley and the Barbecue Guru folk
stand behind their products.

--
Nonny

Nonnymus
Never believe a person who is
Drunk, Horny or Running for Office.