Bradley Bisquette heater temp.....

[Scottminetspoint]

Just wondering if anyone knows the design temperature the Bradley Bisquette heater is actually supposed to run at. I'm looking to upgrade mine to accomodate modifications I made to mine but need to be sure of the temp I need to attain or actually surpass. Thanks in advance.

 

[nlife]

I just looked it up on the Bradley smoker site. It appears as though the puck burner gets up around 550f and will raise the temperature of an empty box to about 120f. Of course you have other variables that affect the box temperature so it kinda depends. Ambient temp, temp of the food you put in, moisture etc. all play a role.

I've been contemplating the mailbox mod and a PID controller for my Bradley. I'd like to get away from using the Bradley pucks. I also want to be able to cold smoke cheese which often requires you to mod the setup anyways.

What mods did you do to yours?

 

[BGKYSmoker]

I was a Bradley rep for years and used all the Bradleys. Never did I get 550 from the puck slide. 180-238* the slides all had diff readings.

 

[nlife]

Oh I took the question as how hot does the plate that burns the puck run at, but looking back at it, it does appear OP was asking about how hot the overall temp runs at.

 

[Scottminetspoint]

I just looked it up on the Bradley smoker site. It appears as though the puck burner gets up around 550f and will raise the temperature of an empty box to about 120f. Of course you have other variables that affect the box temperature so it kinda depends. Ambient temp, temp of the food you put in, moisture etc. all play a role.

I've been contemplating the mailbox mod and a PID controller for my Bradley. I'd like to get away from using the Bradley pucks. I also want to be able to cold smoke cheese which often requires you to mod the setup anyways.

What mods did you do to yours?

I have upgraded to the 900 watt tempco heater and modified the generator to accomodate small screw to metal tins that I modified as well to fill with pellets. I use them instead of Biquettes. They are slightly taller and no as big in diameter so would no run through the unmodified generator. The reason I am looking into the Bisquette heater temperature is the tins are a bit slower to make smoke than Biaquettes so I was hoping to swap the heat plate for a hotter version.

 

[Scottminetspoint]

Oh I took the question as how hot does the plate that burns the puck run at, but looking back at it, it does appear OP was asking about how hot the overall temp runs at.

Nope...looking for the run temp on the surface of the Bisquette heater....

 

[Scottminetspoint]

I was a Bradley rep for years and used all the Bradleys. Never did I get 550 from the puck slide. 180-238* the slides all had diff readings.

Agreed...mine runs at 480f fairly steady there.

 

[dsk]

It is not a controlled temperature. It is simply a 125W resistive heater, IIRC (I measured mine once.) The plate temperature will vary depending on if there is a puck on it or not, if the puck is smoldering, generating additional heat, and what the chamber temperature is. I imagine Bradley experimented with different wattages during the design phase and settled on a value that worked pretty good across normal smoking temperatures.

I think the pellets you are using are slower to get going because they don't have as much surface area in contact with the heating plate.

 

[Scottminetspoint]

I just looked it up on the Bradley smoker site. It appears as though the puck burner gets up around 550f and will raise the temperature of an empty box to about 120f. Of course you have other variables that affect the box temperature so it kinda depends. Ambient temp, temp of the food you put in, moisture etc. all play a role.

I've been contemplating the mailbox mod and a PID controller for my Bradley. I'd like to get away from using the Bradley pucks. I also want to be able to cold smoke cheese which often requires you to mod the setup anyways.

What mods did you do to yours?

It is not a controlled temperature. It is simply a 125W resistive heater, IIRC (I measured mine once.) The plate temperature will vary depending on if there is a puck on it or not, if the puck is smoldering, generating additional heat, and what the chamber temperature is. I imagine Bradley experimented with different wattages during the design phase and settled on a value that worked pretty good across normal smoking temperatures.

I think the pellets you are using are slower to get going because they don't have as much surface area in contact with the heating plate.