Original Bradley Smoker BS611 4-Rack Natural Draft Vertical Electric Smoker

I'm a gadget geek with an irrepressible enthusiasm for new technology. Still, I can't be fed by electronics alone. Every now and again, I like to eat, and to feed my family too. I'm always looking for new and interesting ways to do that. I recently hung out at my friend Stan's house, and he was smoking a brisket. I examined the method he was using to smoke his meat, and to me it seemed cumbersome, messy, and above all, not safe for a blind person. He had a traditional smoker with a firebox, and he chopped the wood which was later placed in the box. I mentioned I like feeding my family, but wielding an axe to do so is a little more intense than I want to be. Once the wood has been chopped, you have to monitor the fire, throw in more wood as necessary, and wash the soot from the box when you're done. I don't know about you, but this doesn't sound like a particularly safe or pleasant experience. Still, once I tasted the results of Stan's work, I knew I had to find some way to do it myself. Thus began my search for a blind-friendly smoker, and I'm happy to tell you all that I found one. Today, Jamie Pauls and I had the pleasure of speaking with Mark Miller, a member of the Bradley Smoker sales team. Mark is a guy who clearly knows his stuff, and if you listen carefully to the audio review, you might just hear our stomachs growl as Mark describes all the things he has cooked in the Bradley smoker. It turns out that smoking isn't just about meat. You can smoke nuts, cheeses, and you can even dry fruit in the unit. If you can eat it, you can probably smoke it too. The audio link can be found at the Serotalk Podcast website. First, let's talk about what the smoker looks like. The best description I have for the main unit is that it looks a bit like a dorm refrigerator with a magnetic seal. There are racks inside where you place the items you're smoking. On the side of the unit is a cylindrical tube of sorts, and this is where you place your bisquettes. Bisquettes? What are those? These are round pucks of wood that are used to create the smoky flavor for your food. Mark explains that each bisquette should burn for about 20 minutes, and will then drop in to a strategically placed pan of water in order to safely stop the wood from smoldering. The great thing about having bisquettes, aside from the safety and ease of use factor, is that you can actually flavor your food with more than one type of wood. Mark gives the example of chicken, where he initially smokes it with hickory mesquite, and then finishes it off with a little apple wood. I've tried a number of different bisquettes, and you'd be amazed at just how many flavors there are to choose from. Some of the flavors I've tried have been awesome, and some were just not to my taste. But hey, I like experimenting, so I had just as much fun discovering the bisquettes I didn't like as I did finding the ones that made my mouth water. So what happens when you do find a bisquette you really like. That smoky flavor is incredible, but can there be too much of a good thing? Mark explains that it isn't always necessary to smoke your meat for the entire time it's inside the unit. In fact, you can cook food in the unit without smoking it at all. If you don't want to impart any smoky flavor to your food, such as when you're drying fruit, just don't place any bisquettes in the tube, or smoke generator. If you do want to add some smoky flavor but don't want to overdo it, that's ok too. Mark again discusses chicken, and explains that as you're smoking meat, you'll eventually get a nice carmelized crust. Once this happens, any additional smoke you add is simply going to bounce off and exit the unit through the flue. It's not going to go in your meat, so there's no sense in wasting bisquettes after a certain point. For chicken, Mark will cook it for a total of four hours, but he'll only smoke it for the first hour or hour and a half. Mark also mentions that smoking can be a rather slow process. While you can cook it for a shorter period at a higher temperature, you're going to have moister meat if you cook it longer, but at a lower temperature. Combining all these factors to produce the ultimate in tasty food definitely takes some experimentation, but if you're anything like me, you'll have a really good time doing it. We've talked about all the great food you can make in your smoker, but how do you go about getting it and setting it up? I should first point out that there are two types of Bradley smokers, the digital and the analog. The digital smoker has features that aren't usable for a blind person at this time, but the analog unit is great. There are actually two analog units, although one of them, the Bradley BTIS1, will be going away soon. You'll want to instead get the Bradley BS611, which operates exactly the same but has a slightly modified design. Once you get the unit, you can check out the completely accessible owner's manual to find out how to set it up. I was able to do this independently without any problem. If you have issues setting up the unit or just have questions once you've gotten everything up and running, you'll find that Bradley Smoker is available by phone, on the web, and even on Twitter and they are incredibly helpful and responsive no matter how you contact them. I got my BS611 here on Amazon, and they've also got a nice selection of bisquettes on Amazon as well. I could talk all day about just how excited I am to have this high quality, accessible smoker, but I have a set of chicken drumsticks that are demanding to be smoked, and who am I to argue. But before I go, I'd like to thank Amazon for having such a great price and review process for this and many other items, Mark Miller for taking the time to speak with us, and last but certainly not least to thank the entire Bradley team for producing such a fantastic product.

This is my first meat smoker, cannot compare brand-to-brand, but I know the result I was looking for and this smoker does the deal! First cooking effort was a brisket from Kroger, the meat department guy suggested I try a 'corned beef brisket' and just leave off the corning spices, bad idea, I didn't know what exactly to buy, the smoked product tasted like a smoked corned brisket. Oh well write that one off to inexperience. Second effort was salmon, boy was that good. Third and forth effort was more brisket (get a large raw FLAT brisket cut) and both were absolutely mouth-watering good. You can cut a large brisket into two or three sections and the meat will fit just fine on the Bradley grill racks! This, in my opinion does not compromise the moistness of the cut sections. Keep in mind that smoking takes time and you have to use a (not included) external meat thermometer. Get one before you start. Pay some attention to the smoker box temperature - which is very well controlled by the Bradley - and considerable attention to the MEAT PROBE temperature - which is your job. Smoking takes time, the heater temperature setting on the Bradley works really well, but you have to be around for a good bit of the time to watch the meat temp. The little wood pucks feed smoothly and predictable into the Bradley, unfortunately they are not "cheap" but neither is the $50 brisket from Sam's... setting on the racks inside! Lots of recipes out there on the web, in general, the brisket should be covered with a mixture of salt and BBQ rub, wrap in plastic and set overnight in the fridge, next day heat the smoker to about 225°, use PAM or similar on the grill racks, put the brisket cuts in the provided racks UPSIDE DOWN so the fat layer is up, cook to 160° internal temp, remove from the smoker, wrap in aluminum foil, put back in the smoker with NO wood pucks in the feeder tube - cook until the internal temp hits 200°, turn off the smoker and allow the meat to set inside for about two hours. Get ready to overindulge. It's a learning curve, expect some mistakes. One learning curve item, check the top hinge pin on the door. when you first set up the smoker. My top hinge pin came out of the socket when shipped and my door did not close evenly. I cooked twice before I finally looked up the crooked door thing and found the problem discussed on the internet. Doh! I am in the process of purchasing a remote thermometer from Amazon so I don't have to continually look out the back door of the patio to try and scope out the temperature of the meat. A wired (type) thermometer probe is hard to see at a distance. One more thing, don't plan on smoking on your patio if it has a roof cover extension from the house. The smoke will back up into the house attic. I added a very simple 'chimney' to the top of the Bradley, light weight but very effective to get the smoke above the house roof. Solved that problem Yes, five stars so far. I like it. :>)

My first smoker was a Masterbuilt that I bought at Home Depot. It was the nicer $400 electrical unit and for the first smoke it did very well. Unfortunately the Masterbuilt on the second smoke failed. The internal temp probe failed and the unit wouldn't temp up beyond 200 degrees. Home Depot was awesome and let me return the unit, no questions asked. That's when I decided to research and buy the Bradley from Amazon. And man am I glad I did. This is an incredible unit without all the bells and whistles. I found out that I don't need a front window, internal temp probe, or bluetooth, that is just a bunch of crap that has a potential of failing. The Bradley is a simple unit that self feeds the flavor pucks every 20 min, so there is no tending wood chips. The only thing I recommend is to check the water level in the bowl every 3-4 hours to make sure there is still water in it. You don't want the wood pucks to burn in the bowl. I have used this unit 7 times and it has created some amazing meals. So far I have used Applewood and Pecan pucks in the unit and both leave an incredible flavor in the meat. I use the "Supreme Home Cook Wireless Oven and Grill Digital Long Range Meat Thermometer with Timer" Supreme Home Cook Wireless Oven and Grill Digital Long Range Meat Thermometer with Timer with the Bradley and it has worked fantastic. I love the preconfigured meat and temp selections on this unit and the price is right! In closing, the Bradley is a great reliable unit and in my opinion, I would recommend these to anyone looking for a decent smoker at a reasonable price. Bradley makes a couple of different versions, ones that are bigger and can set manual temps but if you don't smoke 6 turkeys at a time, this small unit will hold temps and work perfectly fine.

Smoking takes work and time. I don't want to babysit a smoker all day but I do love to make kielbasa, pastrami, ham, etc. If you're like me and would rather be drinking beer than cooking all day, this is the first part of a total lazy man's smoking system. I say "first part" because there are 2 things you need to do to make this perfect. First, buy another heating element and add it in parallel to the existing one as the heat recovery time stinks. This will make it 1000 Watts rather than the stock 500 Watts. I can open the door in the middle of winter and it will recover in several minutes rather than the hour or so of the stock unit. There are forums out there explaining how to do it. Second, get a digital SCR controller from Auber Instruments (model WSD-1200GPH). It plugs right into the smoker and gives it super accurate control. Not only that (and here comes the lazy man part) but it is fully programmable so you can set it and forget it. I can set it to preheat to 225 for 1/2 hour, then turn on the smoker and maintain 225 till the meat hits 150, jack up the temperature to push it through the "stall", drop the temp back down to 225 and continue smoking until the meat is done. I don't have to hang around watching it all day, just occasionally check to make sure the wood pucks don't get stuck and change the water. Now that's my kind of smoking! Both my brother and my neighbor were so impressed that they have the same setup. So, why the 4-star rating? Well, the stock unit is workable but may be frustrating to get good results since setting your temperature is trail and error, temperature control is inaccurate, and God forbid you open the door to check the meat temp and set your cooking back an hour! Also, you're kinda stuck with using their wood pucks (I've seen videos on people making their own). Why not buy the digital version of this smoker you say? Reading the forums will tell you that the digital versions do not do a very good job of temp control, and you're still stuck with only 500 Watts of heating. Too expensive you say? Yeah, it's pricey, but after your first smoke you'll realize that it's WELL worth the money with all of the time you save.

This will be the last update! I'm changing my rating to one star. After 28 months of use I put it out with the trash. First, the heater burned out... bought another from Amazon, then the heater burned out... bought yet another from Amazon. (And by the way, they are VERY difficult to change.) Last week the Bisquette burner failed. Took the thing apart (the box on the side) and verified that the burner was in fact dead (and would also be hard to change).. I called the Bradley customer service number and talked with a very nice representative who informed me they would send me a new one right away for only $49.99 plus shipping and handling. I realized that this would bring my expenditures for parts to about $100.00 with no end in sight. Reflecting on my original reason for buying the Bradley, which was my expecting relatively unattended operation and noting to myself that it provides anything but, with the need to constantly supervise the temp and clear jammed bisquettes, I decided I was through with it. I still believe the concept is really eloquent, but they need a good or maybe a even a so-so engineer to rework the product! Another Update: I don't know why it took me so long to realize this. The control on the front of the puck feeder is NOT a thermostat control. It is simply a rheostat controlling the voltage to the heater. This explains why the setting on this control for a particular temp varies with the air temperature. Now that I know this, pre-heating the smoker is much faster as I turn the voltage (the knob actually) all the way up. The heater comes on full and gets the job done in a few minutes instead of 1/2 to 1 and 1/2 hours. Update: The first box of "pucks" (120 size) had the problem mentioned below. However the next two boxes fed just fine. Seems that I got a bad box of pucks (not from Amazon, which may be the problem.) This smoker does exactly that. No problem with results. However.... it is not without problems. The first is simple to fix but not obvious. The problem begins with the internal temp rising. At first just ten to 20 degrees without having changed the thermostat. Within and hour to two the temp will reach over 350. Here's why. The bowl which one fills with water is designed to extinguish the wood "pucks" when done. The bowl is way too small to handle a 12 hour smoke. That would be 36 pucks. The pucks end up piled above the water and act like charcoal, continuing to burn white hot. The second problem is the puck feed... or the pucks themselves. The system will hang up, sometimes every time and sometimes only a few times over several hours. The only way to fix this is to check every 20 to 30 min for a jam and if there is one, clear it. These problems, once understood, don't effect the food. The result is excellent. You just have to stay with the unit during the entire time it is in use. Sad but true.

I have to say I love this thing. Been cooking with it a couple of times a week. Can't imagine using other units where you need to watch the wood, etc. This is really set and forget. For what it's worth, I have also found that I prefer really light smoking...40 minutes and then let it cook without smoke for a few hours. A couple of notes: - Managing temperature and humidity is the key to great BBQ (60-70% relative humidity for red meat)...and it's a bit of a challenge on this device....especially at low temperatures. Well done is the enemy of good. - You can get rock solid temperature and humidity control using a PID (a thermometer that switches off the oven when it gets too hot and on when it gets too cool). I use the Auber two probe PID. It's a bit difficult to use, but has proven to be extremely accurate. The Bradley digital unit that appears to have these features integrated has gotten mixed reviews. If you want a good bark (a yummy dry rub exterior), you want between 60-70% relative humidity. Knowing the air and meat temp (dry and wet bulb temp) lets you measure the relative humidity. If you are cooking your meat to around 140F, you want the air temp to be 155-ish. If you are cooking your meat to 165F, you want the air temp to be about 180. If you are are interested in diving deeper, type this into the Google: psychrometric calculator with wet bulb, dry bulb and relative humidity measurements. I use the one from sugartech, cuz it pops up on the top of the search list. This only sounds scary. It's not...and it will take the mystery out of BBQ. A bit on food safety: Food pathogens generally live on the surface of meat. Sear your meat for 30 seconds a side before smoking. It keeps you safe and improves the flavor. FDA guidelines say that you can cook store bought pork (not wild boar) to medium rare. Unlike in the 50's, it is now required to be frozen before sale...which kills trichinosis. Holding meat at an internal temperature over 140f for 90 minutes will kill just about anything else that can be killed.

Just starting on the smoking journey but this makes it easy. Simple to set up, easy to use and makes a great smoked brisket. Easy clean up afterwards. Was skeptical of the smoke biscuits due to not having many options but after using it and purchasing some extra packs, I’m satisfied I made a good choice. Trying a salmon at the moment and I can see this being a staple of my household and not collecting dust in the garage. If you want good results with minimal effort, this makes it easy and tastes great.

Great smoker. Many complements on the amount of smoke and the food

Un fumoir bien fait, avec des bon matériaux. Fonction parfaitement.

Great smoker. I did have to return it as the magnetic strip on the door was warped. This was causing the door to not seal properly and made keeping the temperature even was almost impossible. I wish there was after market bisquettes rather than using the ones from Bradley. They are a little pricey in my opinion. Still a five star rating as it works so well.

EXCELENTE AHUMADOR MUY PRACTICO 100 % RECOMENDABLE LO ÚNICO ES QUE SE TARDO EN LLEGAR APROXIMADAMENTE 2 MESES

Works like a charm. I am very pleased with my new smoker!

El precio viene golpeado. Y funona pero está en mal estado