electric smokers & smoke volume

[Gunpowder]

I have the Brinkmann Gourmet electric 2 rack smoker. You use wood chunks instead of chips. It works well and has the large volume for picnics and briskets.

I see some of you are using the square Bradley digital 6 rack. Do they use chips?I wonder how the smoke volume works verses the orange electric Brinkmann I have.

Mine runs est. $110. I wonder if the Bradley is worth $500?

 

[jfields]

It is a matter of getting what you pay for. I've had the Brinkman smokers before. They don't do to bad, but have a tendency to dry out the meat and require a lot of tending to.
I went out and paid like $350.00 for a Cookshack electric smoker that's airtight other than the vent hole. I can put the usual ribs, chicken, or a boston butt roast on, walk away, and come back to perfectly smoked meat when the time is up.............Stick it in and forget about it! Being able to control the temp is key, you really can't do that with the Brinkman all that well.

I've cooked a few Prime Rib Roast that were to die for in that thing too. :love:

 

[Shooter]

Electric cabinet smokers are okay.

The main problem with them, is their ability to regain temp. Once you open the door it takes forever for the heat to come back up. Unless you the type to stick one thing in a smoker clse the door then walk away. I have 4-5 things in my smoker going. Some chickens, a loin, jalepenos, garlic.. you get the idea. Also if you going with jerky you will be rotating your racks every hour or so.

Go with a propane cabinet, if your a busy smoker.

 

[ELittle]

The Bradley smokers use an automatic feeding system that feeds in "pucks" of pressed wood chips, that way you don't have to open the smoker to add chips, it's fully programmable. The only down side of this is that the wood bisquettes cost a bit more than wood chips or chunks.

What shooter said is true about electric smokers taking a while to come back up to temp after opening them. I was reading the Bradley forums, and they recommend using 2 regular bricks placed in the bottom of the smoker to act as heat sinks. The idea is that the bricks retain a large amount of heat so the cabinet will come back up to temp faster after the door is opened.

I've also just run across quite a bit of negative feedback about the Bradley smokers. Apparently they aren't too accurate or something in terms of temperature regulation, but I don't know if this widespread or what. I guess I'll find out when I get my smoker.

 

[Shooter]

The Bradley smokers use an automatic feeding system that feeds in "pucks" of pressed wood chips, that way you don't have to open the smoker to add chips, it's fully programmable. The only down side of this is that the wood bisquettes cost a bit more than wood chips or chunks.

What shooter said is true about electric smokers taking a while to come back up to temp after opening them. I was reading the Bradley forums, and they recommend using 2 regular bricks placed in the bottom of the smoker to act as heat sinks. The idea is that the bricks retain a large amount of heat so the cabinet will come back up to temp faster after the door is opened.

I've also just run across quite a bit of negative feedback about the Bradley smokers. Apparently they aren't too accurate or something in terms of temperature regulation, but I don't know if this widespread or what. I guess I'll find out when I get my smoker.

Yea the have a wide margin of temp fluctuations ... Say you set it 220, it will heat up to 220 maybe drop down to 180-190 before the heat kicks on. May not be that big of a swing, but in the forums you can find all their workarounds. I went with the great outdoor smokey mountain cabinet, the big one. They call it the brick. I can set the temp and go to bed, when I am smoking a pork shoulder which takes 24hrs, every time I wake up in the morning it is spot on.

I so wanted a Bradley but just seemed to be hit or miss and for 189 bucks vs 600 (and a kid on the way) the choice was simple. Plus I can fit 4-5 turkeys in there, its a monster.

Good Luck with whatever you go with.