I bought this smoker several months back and waited to give it a review until I got a chance to use it for a while. This smoker has its pros and cons, overall I am happy with the purchase, but with a few caveats.
First, the positive aspects.
- This is definitely a much easier cooking process than the traditional two barrel BBQ unit. Load the meat, load the chips and let the magic happen. In most cases, getting started early in the morning gives you enough time for a tasty dinner. Ribs and chicken came out perfect, turkey and Boston butt were great too, but with some additional work (as explained below)
- Customer service is exceptional. A live person answered the phone every time during the official calling time. I had to replace some parts and they were shipped FedEx the next day with Saturday delivery. Moreover, I had trouble with the cooking temperature and they have people on the phone who are experienced cooks and had some recommendations for the cooking process.
Now, not so good aspects.
- In my opinion (which is shared by some folks on the Bradley forums), the unit is underpowered to be a true BBQ machine. Small loads (one chicken, one or two racks of ribs) worked great. A large load (two boston butts, 15lb total) or a medium size turkey (12-15lb) will bring the temperature down of a pre-heated smoker to less than 150F and it would take over two hours to get it back to 210F. And it would never go above 220F. Bradley support recommended trying opening the vent, but it did not help much. Pretty much every time I made large quantities of pulled pork, I had to finish it in the oven. The same with turkey, although when it was cut up in pieces instead of whole, it worked better.
- The overall quality did not live up to my expectations. I may just had a bad unit. Within one month of purchase, the plastic box housing the temperature control cracked. A few months later, the door started to crack and the rubber seal on it corroded. Bradley is fast to replace the parts while the smoker is within one year warranty. But I wonder how long the unit will last after the warranty expires.
So, overall a good product. I would recommend it, especially to a novice BBQ cook. If the next models up the wattage on the heating element and addresses the overall quality, it would be a superb unit.