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Product Description
The Original Bradley Smoker hot smokers, cold smokes and roasts to perfection. Unique smoke without fire system operates for up to 8 hours without refueling.
Feature
- 4-rack fully automatic food smoker with 2288-cubic-inch stainless-steel interior
- 500-watt cooking element; 125-watt smoking element; heats up to 320 degrees F
- Door-mounted thermometer; uses wood-flavored bisquettes that burn for 20 minutes each
- Runs for up to 8 hours before needing to be refueled; tray and drip bowl included
- Measures 14-1/2 by 17 by 31 inches
CustomerReviews
Great for a beginner, easy to use
A simple, straightforward machine. Just slide in the trays, follow the instructions, season and smoke. Take pictures of the shiny, new machine, because after use, it will never look like that again. Clean up takes some work; but compared to cleaning up a full size propane grill, washing a couple a couple trays and grates and wiping down the cabinet is nothing. Leave the copper-colored smoke residue there; it's the seasoning for the cabinet.
A couple of small caveats:
Contrary to what the wiring diagram indicates, Original Bradley Smoker purchasers do not need a sensor cable; this is for Digital Bradley Smokers.
Common issues involve the case cracking at the bottom of the cabinet, exactly where the temperature slider is located; have not experienced this myself but others have.
Be careful when refilling the water drip bowl in the smoker; the temperature slider is located at this spot and many users spill water on the slider, causing damage. Design flaw; the temperature slider should be in a different location.
Users have reported problems with broken door hinges; be gentle when opening and closing the door.
Be sure not to damage the door gasket when inserting trays and racks. The door must be completely wide open so that the trays and racks do not catch or tear the rubber gasket door seal with the sharp metal tray and grate corners
Start out with something simple, such as a pork roast; spare ribs can be tricky.
All of this great advice came from the very helpful members of the Bradley Smoker Forum (google it). Thanks to them, I know the pitfalls and a lot of the ins and outs of smoking without wasting meat and know how to best use and care for the smoker.
Amazon shipping was swift.
BIG caveat - watch the price fluctuate on this unit - it dropped $38 after I purchased but it is now back up again. Catch it when it goes to $170 or so and you'll be getting a great deal. (April/May 2010). Buy the bisquettes when they are on "4 for 3" promotion and save a few dollars there. Not all the sizes and flavors may be included.
Dispelling a few complaints
I received my Bradley smoker about a month ago, and immediately smoked some pork ribs, just to test it. All went well, but I didn't consider it a critical test. The weight of the ribs was less than three pounds, I only smoked them for two hours, and I finish my BBQ's in the oven once they've smoked long enough. I know, I know, purists will boo, but here in Florida, where the summers are a synonym for sauna, I'd rather spend the last 8 hours, of a 13 hour "low and slow" BBQ inside where the conditioned air is drier, and cooler.
Today I did a real test: two Boston Butts, and three racks of baby-back ribs, 26 lbs. of pork total. I'm not new to smoking. I started about three years ago, decided I enjoy the doing, and love the eating; but I'm a little lazy, in that regard the electric Bradley is a great replacement for my charcoal fired, wood chip fed first smoker.
Before I purchased the Bradley I read the customers' reviews carefully--5 star to 1 star--the negatives that bothered me--there were only two--were, first, "It never got up to temperature", and secondly a few comments concerning reliability. The following concerns itself with what I did to address the first issue. Regarding reliability, it's too early to tell.
The heating element in this model Bradley is 500 watts, not very powerful, but I did some things to offset its wimp-iness.
I like to put a dry rub on ribs and pork butt. Usually, I apply it the day before I smoke, and leave the meat in the refrigerator overnight. I didn't want to spend the time heating the meat from 40°F, so I put on the rub, covered the meat, and left it at room temperature for six hours. An hour before starting, I preheated the Bradley, set on high. It had reached 300°F, when I loaded the meat, The interior air temperature plummeted to 150°F. I actually was surprised it didn't drop lower. Within the first hour it reached 200°F, and shortly after (approximately 20 minutes) it reached 225°F, the maximum temperature I use to BBQ pork butt and ribs. The remainder of the smoke I spent calibrating the heating control--It's only markings are "Low" and "High"--to pinpoint the 225°F sweet spot. It wasn't difficult. I removed the ribs after 2-1/2 hour, and replaced them with a second batch; more about why in a moment. The butts were at 160°F when I removed them to finish in the house oven. Clearly, they would have reached the target 190°F final temperature in a reasonable amount of time.
This I considered a critical test. I am delighted with the results.
A few other things to consider: I purposely placed the smoker in a sunlit area. I don't know how much the sun's energy contributed to reaching the desired temperature, but it's worth remembering the ambient air temperature, and location (in or out of the sun) will contribute to the heating speed. Subjectively, I'm in a "wait and see" mode relating to its reliability. The smoker arrived with a crack in a piece of non-critical plastic trim. I didn't submit a complaint. Again, subjectively, it feels a bit flimsy, but only time will tell. Clean-up, compared to my charcoal smoker, is easy: all but one piece of the removable pieces--racks, water pan and tray--fit in the dishwasher. Only the grease shield/drip director (my words, not Bradley's) requires hand cleaning. It will fit in the dishwasher, but the drippings are voluminous, and bake hard onto the shield since it's located near the biscuit-burning tray. The interior coats with smoke and cooking meat vapor condensation, but that's a plus for a smoker, therefore, no cleaning required.
Also, I could only use three racks for this smoke: two held the Boston Butts; because of their height they had to be separated by one empty rack space. I tried to put the ribs in that space, but one butt was too high to allow it. It did just fit above the second butt. I'd anticipate this when I bought the smoker, so I was neither surprised, nor disappointed. I only smoke rib's for about two hour, and butts for about five, consequently I was able to smoke three racks of ribs (all I had) concurrently.
I considered giving the Bradley only four stars because of the reliability question, but doing its primary job it's, well...smoking! (Sorry I couldn't resist.)
The Super Automatic Smoker is a reality
I had been looking for some type of meat smoker for a while and I had never even heard of this one until I searched on Amazon. I love smoked meats especially ribs and I was prepared to buy one of the many charcoal fired barrel type products out there and figured that I just have to accept the fact that it takes lots of babysitting to keep the temp right and that you need to keep making adjustment and adding wood chips over the course of a day in hopes that you did not wait too long and burn the food up or let the fire get too cold.
I love my Super Automatic Espresso maker, you just press the size drink you want and out comes a perfect espresso every time. This smoker is just like that, no hassle, no babysitting, no guessing and you can start it up in the morning and walk away until you are ready to eat. I do understand that some people may want to be involved in the day long cooking and fiddling process of other smokers and that it may be relaxing and fun but for the rest of us, this is the ticket.
The quality of the metal, paint, other parts is exceptional and had I paid twice the price I would still be impressed. The packaging alone is beyond belief, they are serious about this thing arriving with no damage.
The bottom line is that by following the simple recipes that it comes with, I have had amazingly good, ribs, pork roasts, chicken, fish and brisket so far and it is as good as any I have ever had and I have had a lot in my life. The smoke flavor is very sweet and subtle, not burnt and unpleasant like out of control smokers can produce.
My advise is to buy cheap pork roasts and ribs since all of the fat drains out of the meat anyway and makes for a more moist texture. I look forward to experimenting with other wood flavors and spices. I also find that even sitting outside on a windy 40 degree day I never saw the temperature change more then a few degrees.
Great Cold Smoker!! So So at Hot Smoking
I got to tell you, we do ALOT of smoking. We love good barbeque here so I've tried a lot of different equipment trying to find the perfect smoker that is: simple to use and provides consistent results. There are some definite pros and cons to this smoker. Let's get the bad news out of the way first:
1. Temperature control is very difficult & inconsistent with the slide control. I'd highly recommend purchasing the digitally temperature controlled model over this model for more consistent heating if you want to hot smoke (cook).
Pros:
1. THIS IS A TRULY GREAT COLD SMOKER!! Just turn the slide heat control off. You can smoke heat sensitive foods like fish, cheese, bacon, hocks, hard boiled eggs, salt & more with a wonderfully sweet smoky flavor and consistent results!
2. The pucks cycle on their own. Just set it and forget it. They provide a constant supply of smoke in a wide variety of flavors (although I myself only use Mesquite for beef and Hickory for everything else).
3. The smoker is compact and is fairly easy to clean.
While it's not great for cooking purposes, it does turn out some truly great foods. Try buying a 2lb package of thick sliced bacon from the grocery store and cold smoke it with hickory for about 2-3 hours and you'll TASTE & LOVE the difference! Smoke some cheddar cheese or kosher salt. Hickory Farms will be jealous! I just can't recommend you purchase this particular smoker for hot smoking. Remember, the digitally temperature controlled model can do all of this, PLUS hot smoke.
Good Smoker In Spite of Some Bugs
With our local commercial smoker getting increasingly proud of his product, we decided to get a home smoker for ourselves as a belated Christmas gift. When the smoker arrived, I immediately "cured" it per the instructions, and everything seemed to work perfectly. When I tried to smoke some sausages, it was a different story. The smoke generator started advancing the smoking discs like a slot machine paying off in Vegas. I made two calls to customer service, and each time the folks were helpful, trying to give me tips on how I could repair the smoke generator myself. After the third call it was apparent to them that the problem was beyond my capabilities, and they agreed to send me a new smoke generator.
The new replacement part arrived in a timely manner, and I have had no problems since then. I would, however, recommend that if you decide to purchase this somoker, you go the extra expense and get an Auber PID to control the temperature. The existing slide control and temperature guage that come with the Original Bradley Smoker are kind of rinky-dink and make it difficult to control accurate temperatures. The Auber PID solves this problem perfectly.
Even with the initial problems, I think this is a pretty good smoker for the cost, and I have nothing but good things to say about Bradley's customer service department.
More Info: Bradley BTIS1 Original Fully Automatic 4-Rack Outdoor Food Smoker
More Info: Bradley BTIS1 Original Fully Automatic 4-Rack Outdoor Food Smoker
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