On 5/16/2012 2:26 PM, Steve Pope wrote:
> George > wrote:
>
>> 6) The Bradley smoker doesn't get hot enough to suit me. I've talked
>> with them on the phone and they say it is working the way they designed
>> it to work. In the future, I will pre-heat it, load it with meat and
>> run the smoke feature for 5 hours... then take the meat and finish it in
>> the oven.
>
> Is there a way of configuring an additional heating element into
> the oven part of it? Say an electric element.
>
> I also do not think any piece of meat (of the cuts you were using) should
> have gone 12 hours at 205F and still not become completely tender. So
> I'm not sure what's going on there. It almost implies there must be cool
> spots, or cool drafts, or something.
>
> It seems a shame that one would need to switch from a smoker such
> as this to another oven.

According to Bradley,

1)I should preheat the smoker for at least an hour before putting in the
meat (I was up at 5 AM and didn't do this)

2) I should bring the meat to room temperature before putting in the
smoker. OK... the pork might have been a bit cold.

3) The smoker will get to 250 degrees if empty. (I did this as a test at
Bradley's request) I guess this is where the pre-heating comes in.

4) The nice lady at the Bradly service line suggested that maybe loading
over 30 pounds of roasts into the smoker might be a bit much for this
model. She also mentioned that the mass of very thick pieces of meat
increases the time needed to bring the smoker up to higher temp. True
enough. When I smoked things like ribs, chicken and sausage, the
cabinet temperature was higher, quicker.

5) there is a water pan... and I should fill that with hot water rather
than cold. (Duh)

They don't have a higher rated heat element that will fit in this model.
I'm not unhappy with the machine. The smoke generator works very well
and I love the flavor of the meat. Since I am only going to use it a few
times a year, it isn't much of a problem to finish big pieces of meat in
the oven after they are smoked, but in hindsight, I would have bought
the bigger model.

George L