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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 40 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
120 of 123 found the following review helpful:
 I like my smoker and I like the quality of this smoker Nov 27, 2007
By C. T. Vanderdecken
"In the Art & Style of a Gentleman"
It looks like a very small refrigerator.
Every piece of sheet metal is sanded on the edges, no cuts from sharp edges.
Easy to put together, no more difficult than putting together a refrigerator.
Quiet as a refrigerator too.
Read the instructions and season it first as directed.
You will need extra wood pellets. It does not come with any in the box, so order some extras. Each pellet lasts about 20 minutes.Bradley Apple Bisquettes 48 pack
NOTE: you have to put at least 4 pellets in the stacker to get it to burn 1 pellet. Just the way it works. I put in two pellets and nothing smoked. It needs 4 pellets to push the pellets along the tray to the burner. Not a problem, just try to remember that 3 of the pellets won't burn.
So, if you want to cook for 4 hours you need: 3 pellets per hours x 4 hours = 12 pellets + 3 pellets to get them to burn plate = 15 pellets.
I tested a Butterball Turkey Breast first. I followed the Bradley instructions in their cookbook Bradley Recipe Book Volume 1 for the turkey cooking temperatures. I used their glaze recipe under the skin. I also used a wireless remote meat thermometer Oregon Scientific AW131 Grill Right Wireless Talking BBQ/Oven Thermometer feed the probe wire through the roof vent of the smoker. I used the apple pellets from Bradley Apple Bisquettes 120 pack
I sat back and waited. A few hour later the Oregon Scientific AW131 Grill Right Wireless Talking BBQ/Oven Thermometer began to chirp "almost done" "Almost done". The wireless thermometer is great because I was smoking the week of Thanksgiving and it was in the 30's outside so not having walk out to the smoker to check the meat was ideal. (My wife was concerned about the smoker being able to maintain cooking temperature in the cold outside. This smoker was stable, the temperature stayed steady. the outside of the unit did not get hot to the touch, except around the smoke vent which is to be expected.)
I used a Taylor Analog Instant-Read Dial Thermometer to verify the temperature of the meat when the wireless told me it was done. Both thermometers were within a degree of each other.
I took the turkey breast out of the smoker and let it rest for about an hour. The color was extremely golden skin. Not black or Smokey but as if was dipped in golden lacquer. A gorgeous turkey breast. No burnt places, not excess smoke, perfect. When I carved the Turkey breast it was as moist as a wet sponge. Unbelievably tasty, nothing like store bought smoked turkey. The taste of the turkey was like that of caviar compared to fish sticks, it was rich, smooth and wonderful.
This smoking robot works. Just add a Oregon Scientific AW131 Grill Right Wireless Talking BBQ/Oven Thermometer to you don't have to walk outside and let it do its job.
Also, we ran the smoker on our back porch, about 10 feet from the house. It only exhausts a small amount of smoke while working. It did not look like a fire at the, just a little smoke, less than the steam from a tea kettle. If you cheat and peak while it is cooking you will get your clothes smoked and have to change for dinner, but the smoke from the smoker did not get into the house otherwise.
Easy to setup, easy to control and easy to cook with. Oh, the trays are 11x15 so you could put a 12-14 pound turkey in it. Next is a Roast, Ribs and some Cheeses. The Bradley Recipe Book Volume 1 also includes recipes for cheese, fruit, and more. Just follow the instructions and be patient. It can do both hot and cold smoking.
34 of 37 found the following review helpful:
Bradley Digital Smoker 4 Rack Apr 04, 2007
By kromane
"Smokin Master"
This electric smoker makes the job easy. I wanted to stick to our grill but my wife talked me into this. It's great. The smoke delivery system is great and precise. I decided against propane and charcoal for many reason that an electric smoker overcomes, e.g. electronic timer, automatic brisquet feed, digital temp control, etc. Reason this isn't 5 star: 1) packaging not sturdy enough. Box didn't look damaged but upon opening the first delivery, metal was rippled and door edge crimpted (bent) obviously due to being dropped. Amazon exchanged with no problem. 2) Construction/fit quality not perfect (FYI-made in China) 3) becasue it is electric, it has a great compact design but I need to set up a table outside to set it on to avoid bending over to view digital read out or to access internal shelves. I paid $449 3/07. Brisquests are available thru amazon at the best price when shipping is considered. They can also be purchased locally thru Bas Pro Shop.
18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
Excellent - no hassle smoker Jan 03, 2009
By JH
"Bubba"
I've owned the OBS for about a momth now and have smoked all kinds of meat. It's so simple and easy that I know I will be using it far more frequently than a standard smoker just because it's easy. I'm able to run it on my deck without worry of torching the house since it cooks with electric element.
One of the cons of this product as I was researching it is that you have to buy Bradley's wood chips (biscuits) to use in the feeder mechanism and the cost associated with that. I don't see that as a problem at all since you'd be spending money for charcoal and or standard wood chips anyway. True that running this unit would be a bit more expensive than another electric smoker. But, it's well worth the additional operating cost to be able to run an overnight smoke without having to get up in the middle of the night several times to add wood for smoke or stoke a fire.
One last thing....if you're comparing the Original Bradley to the Digital Bradley; buy the Original and purchase the Auber digital PID with it instead of buying the Digital Bradley. The Auber digital component is a plug and play digital temp control unit that is much more accurate than what is provided with the Digital Bradley. I find on the Bradley forum that many who bought the Digital Bradley end up purchasing the Auber PID to override the standard Bradley digital component anyway.
22 of 23 found the following review helpful:
Smoking made elementary but will never crisp the skin. Jan 14, 2008
By Daniel R. Cruz
I have one and I love it. Its effortless with the smallest amount of maintenance so far, just keeping that box clean and free of debris is the most youll have to do. As for the smoke, the flavor is spot on. When it comes to smoking birds, youll never get the thing up high enough to crisp the skin like a charcoal smoker. Yes sometimes a smoker wants high temps. This little baby will never do it, not on its own. But when it comes to cold smoking or smoking at 220ish to 240, this baby cant be beat for the ease of use and perfect meat flavor. If you got the cash pick her up.
40 of 46 found the following review helpful:
 Very Disappinted Customer May 18, 2010
By F. G. Orr
Note, comments relate to the 6-rack digital but I believe are largely applicable to all the Bradley Smokers
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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