I've owned this smoker for 3 years and have been very happy. I've cooked ribs, brisket, picnic shoulder, boston butt, and salmon and they all have come out fantastic. Using the Bradley is very simple. I've tried smoking the traditional way but for the occasional weekend smoker keeping the heat low and slow is nearly impossible; the constant monitoring of heat and fuel for 6-12 hours took out all the joy of eating. Bradley is the way to go!

Besides making sure there were enough "pucks" of wood, you have to check the water pan to make sure it doesn't go dry. If you're smoking something fatty like a boston butt, I would recommend tossing out the oil and ash that drips into the pan after 3 hours or so and add more water. Other than that it's set and forget.

We don't have a much of a selection of wood where I live (mesquite is king) so it's great how easy it is get different woods to try and mix them like the pros do. It's not expensive to run, Bradley recommends that you only need to smoke the food for only half the total time it takes to cook your food, so if it takes 12 hours to finish, you only need 6 hours worth of pucks.

The only reason it doesn't get five stars is because it doesn't get hotter than about 250 degrees. If it had a more powerful heating element it would have greater versatility and you could cook perfect chicken with crispy skin, or use it during colder outdoor temperatures.

Side note: Just as important as the smoker is the rub and sauce. The best cookbook for BBQ I've found is Peace, Love, & Barbecue: Recipes, Secrets, Tall Tales, and Outright Lies from the Legends of Barbecue. It gives you the REAL award winning recipes, not the common "based on" recipes from some well-known BBQ pros. In addition, there are valuable hints on prepping and cooking that most other books don't give and a great guide that will help you develop your own signature rub.

I bought this for my husband for Christmas to replace an old (scary-looking) smoker. It was a real pain having to ask his folks to send mesquite wood from Texas to Massachusetts, then cut it up, soak it, etc.

We tried the Bradley smoker this weekend while we had the unusually warm weather. It comes with pellets of wood which get fed in automatically; much easier. The prime rib was done in no time at all; we finished it off in the oven for a crispier outside. We also smoked fresh kielbasa. Both were amazing. Can't wait to try the cold smoke feature!

First off, GREAT choice looking at the Bradley Smoker!

I have a barrel smoker I have used for a few years and I needed to get something to make my life a little easier so I could smoke over night and not have to get up every hour to add wood.

The Bradley Smoker 4 Rack is an awesome tool backed up by an awesome company. I have had mine for about a year now. I have smoked, ribs, brisket, pork butts, and cold smoked cheese. I have chicken wings, pork belly, and other meats lined up for the rest of this summer.

I do not suggest the digital smoker as it resets itself every 10 hours or so and requires you to unplug and restart. The Original Bradley Smoker has a sliding knob at the bottom that is used to control the heat. Normally you start out at max and leave it there for a while. After a time you will need to move it over an inch to set the temp.

Yes you do need to buy special briskets from Bradley but they are on sale here at Amazon and else where most of the time. I purchased one box of each flavor and have not needed to resupply in months and I do a lot of smoking.

Check out BradleySmoker.com and their forum and see for yourself. Great Product, Great Company! There is also a 6 rack/shelf unit out there and some come wrapped in stainless steel for a nice look!

The one and only downside to this smoker, it does not produce a smoke ring. There is NOTHING missing from the flavor but there is no smoke ring. My solution to that is starting meats in my barrel smoker for a couple hours then moving it to the Bradley Smoker for an overnight cooking!