"Reg" > wrote in message
...
> Pensrock wrote:
>
>> I'm looking for pros and cons about the Bradley digital smoker. Also
>> where is the best place to get the best deal on one should I decide to go
>> that way. I do not plan to do much hot smoking although it appears it
>> will do hot smoking. I mainly want to smoke sausages, cheeses and jerky.
>> So most of what I will be doing is cold smoking. I'm sure I will be
>> tempted to try my hand at some hot smoking/cooking. I've wanted to try to
>> smoke fish, poultry, beef and pork.
>
> For cold smoking the Bradley is a good value, especially if
> you value your time. It's exceptional in that it can keep a very
> low temperature. It's very steady all on it's own, without the
> constant tinkering that most smoker setups require to keep such
> a low temp.
>
> It's very expensive though, relatively speaking. The little
> prefab wood pucks cost about a buck an hour of running time.
> You should work out your total costs over time and decide from
> there.
>
> How many hour per week will it get used? I run my smokers,
> both hot and cold, at least 20 hours per week. Sometimes a
> lot more. At $1 per hour it would cost me at least $1000
> per year. That's the cost of a high end grill, every year,
> forever. Too much in my book. So I use the Bradley only for
> cold smoking and other much more economical units for hot
> smoking.
>
> --
> Reg
>

Yeah but the real beauty of the Bradley is that it can operate as either a
smoker and/or oven, with our without smoke. For example, smoking a boston
butt can take 12-16 hours in my Bradley, but I only apply smoke for the
first 4 hours when doing a butt. So yes, you may be operating the Bradley
for 16 hours, but it certainly doesn't cost you $16 for those 16 hours.
Generally foods will only absorb smoke the first few hours of the smoke,
after that you're just wasting smoke. You can get the Bradley wood pucks
directly from Amazon with free shipping for .75 cents per hour (not $1/hr).
Smoking a boston butt (4 hrs) for example, costs me $3 in pucks. You also
have to keep in mind that the Bradley produces some pretty fine smoke, and a
little bit goes a long way. When hot smoking salmon (one of my favorites) I
generally only apply 2.5 hours of smoke, even though it is in the smoker for
5-7 hours in all. So while you may be operating your smoker for 20 hrs per
week, do you require smoke for all 20 hours? probably not.

I don't find the Bradley any more expensive to operate than any other
smoker, when you figure in the cost of lump charcoal and/or flavored wood
chunks used in other smokers. Just buying meats on sale and smoking larger
batches at a time and you can more than make up for the cost of the wood
pucks, imho.

Matt