I just received this machine. I owned an original Bradley Smoker that gave up the ghost. When I saw the digital one for sale I thought that it would be more precise and a "set and forget" solution to smoking. I have tried it four times now and have discovered that the temperature variation on the unit is as much as 28 degrees over the set point and as much as 16 below the set point for a temp swing of 44 degrees. It turns out that Bradley has a forum for owners and those interested (look at their web site). Quite a number of new owners have been dismayed and disappointed in the temp swing on this unit. When I called Bradley they just said "that's the way it is with this unit" and told me it is similar to my house oven. I doubt that my home ever varies that much. The cycle time for this variation is 15-20 minutes so the food is never at the set point for very long. I don't recall swings like this with my old one.
If you look carefully at what you get for the hefty premium, it is not much. The basic unit has the automatic biscuit feed and when its out of biscuits there is no more smoke so the smoke timer on the new one means nothing. The timer on the cooking side has a time limit according to the Bradley owners so you can't leave it more than ten hours without going out and resetting it. The temperature control is not reliable so what do you get for the extra bucks. Not much to my way of thinking.
By the way, look at the photo carefully. This unit is not aluminum. It has a door that is painted an aluminum color and the body is black. I have to say that the fit and finish is very nice on the unit.
My advice is buy the original model and save yourself the extra bucks.
I have had this unit for a little over 2 years now and I have used it at least 50 or more times. It is very easy to set up. You have three "plugs". One is a chord that runs from the smoker box to the smoker. Then another plug that does the same. Finally you have the plug that powers the unit. Simple. Inside you find the bowl that holds water, obviously 6 racks, drip tray...normal stuff. Some people debate on this or the 4 rack version. Go bigger every time when it comes to bbq. You might say you would never use it but you are wrong. Every time I am invited to a get together I am always asked to smoke something. People buy the meat, I do the prep and the cooking. Just did 2 12lb turkeys on Sunday. By the way, 2 12lb turkeys fit perfectly. I have done 4 8lb pork shoulders as well. No problems.
Another nice thing about this smoker is the ability to cold smoke. Though some mods need to be done before you can do, or you need to live in a cold area, but cold smoking cheese is great. Every winter I smoke enough cheese to put WI to shame.
The instructions are easy to follow for the most part. I did months of research before I bought this so I was well prepared for what I was getting into. If you can't find the answer in the directions go to the bradley forum, those guys over there are the best at helping you out.
The negatives about this smoker, as one reviewer already pointed out, the temp is ungodly wrong. I bought a nice double, wireless, thermometer. Absolutely essential for smoking, no matter what smoker you have. This thing tells me what the temp of the smoker and the meat is, as well as alarms that I can set. So if my smoker drops to a very low temp, say below 100 degrees, an alarm will go off. This is good in case the unit becomes unplugged, or you and your buddies have had a few too many and forgot to reset the cooker timer. (By the way, 10 hours is plenty of time. No, meat is usually not done by then, but within 10 hours you are guaranteed to walk outside and check on your smoker at least once) The other problem I have with the temp is the lack of an extremely high temp. To get a good bark on a Boston butt sometimes requires a temp of over 300. That can be a problem with the bradley. Poultry skin comes out crispy either way, and shoulders are perfect, sometimes I just want a little more. Other than the temp, this thing is perfect.
I love this unit. If you have been using wood smokers, water smokers, vertical smokers, offset smokers, your old bbq as a smoker (which I have used all of these)....whatever, this unit will be a welcomed, headache free, addition.
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I had just bought the four rack smoker and came to the realization that I should have bought the six rack. I like the idea of the digital smoker as I can set it and go away or to bed for that matter and not have to worry if I am over heating and burning food. I would say both units are good. but if you are only smoking once or twice a month the manual unit is fine but daily like I do spend the extra money
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I was really excited to get this product and spent over a year trying to get it to work. After a year and a bunch of research I came to the conclusion that the product is crap. You are welcome to do your own research but I think what you will find is that this product is very easy to use. However, the ease of use comes at the cost of a smoker that does an unsatisfactory job of actually smoking. As you know the key to good smoking is maintaing conistant heat and the Bradley is simply not designed to do this.
My list of issues are as follows:
1) The six rack smoker has the same heating element as the four rack smoker. So while it is significanlty larger it has no more power than the smaller model. I believe its heating element is only like 500 watts and I believe my wifes hair dryer has more power than that.
2) The heating element in the smoker is way underpowered for the six rack unit (and I suspect the four rack one as well). It takes over an hour to heat up to 200 degrees and then drops way down when you open it up to put the food in and takes well in excess of another hour to get back up to tempeture. It was so under powered that I would just leave the unit set at its highest setting, like 300 degrees, and I do not think I ever got the unit up past 250 degrees. Since it was so underpowered it took very long cook so that towards the end of my use with it, after the smoke had set, I would take the food out and put it on the gas barbque at 250 degrees to finish off.
3) Owing to the design every time you have to open the unit to check on the food you loss all of the heat (i.e. there is no effective heat sink) which then takes for ever heat up. Think about it, to service the unit you have to open the door competely allows all the heat to escape.
4) the design of the heating element creates hot spots along the back of unit and it is significanly hotter at the bottom than it is at the top. Bradley themselves recommend rotating the racks front to back and top to bottom to get an even cooking. This means you need to open the door which allows all the heat to escape.
5) the digital thermostat is located just above the heating element so it reads high. The spread between the tempeture reading on the digital unit and one taken manually from the top of the unit is like 30 degrees.
6) the digital thermostat has like a 20 degree varience between starting and stoping when it is at tempature. Do research, I read that people recommend buying the orginal and an after market digital thermostat which is far superiour and overall cheaper than buying the digital Bradley.
7) An electric smoker will not give you a smoke ring. The smoke ring comes from a chemical reaction related to the carbon burning off from charcol or wood. The smoke ring is a sign of good smoked food.
My reasoning for giving it 2 stars is because the smoke generator works wonderfully well.
The cons in my humble opinion so far out weight the pro's that a cheap guy like me gave the Bradley away. Spending almost $500 on a smoker to dump it becasue it does not do a good job hurts, expecially when all of the issues that I listed above are well documented on the net and I failed to do the detailed research before hand.
Rather than trying to modify the Bradley to try to get it to work I decided to buy a Weber Smokey Mountain. While WSM is lacking the electronics it is wonderful to use. It maintins the heat like an oven, I actually cannot believe how fast it heats up and how long it will maintain a constant tempeture without any adjustment. There is lots of support for the WSM on the internet and I really do not see it being any harder to use. Personally, I also like the idea of cooking with charcoal, it just adds to the mistique of smoking food and impresses the neighbors.
This product in my mind is just a gimmick which produces an unsatisfactory product. Please, do yourselves a favour and read the Bradley sites on the net and you will see all of the issue I mention above are documented and the modifications people are doing to deal with heat and tempeture issues. Knowledge is power.
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I have owned a Bradley Digital 4 rack smoker for 7 years, I have been very pleased with it. In the past I used it very infrequently until I discovered the Bradley forums, then after reading peoples experiences I increased my knowledge and branched out into the smoking world, I just recently experienced a small grease fire in my smoker which pretty much burned it up, I am replacing it with a 6 rack digital. After reading the negative reviews for this product I had to give my two cents. Yes the factory temp sensor is inadequate, but any fault with this smoker can be overcome. First you can add a small fan kit which will circulate the air inside, you can also add an additional heat element which will greatly inprove the cooking times. If you are a serious smoker you will see the need for a PID which will control the temps far better and is highly accurate. Yes you will spend some extra money but the end result is far worth it. My best advice is to do some research before you purchase one of these smokers, you may decide that this one is not for you, if you get one you will not be disappointed once you realize what its potential is. Also visit the the Bradley smoker forums, any possible question you may have about this smoker has already been asked by someone else and has been answered.
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This is the 2nd time I've been invited to write a review of this purchase ... long story, but I can sum it up ( again ) in 4 words: GREAT ITEM, HORRIBLE SELLER.
