Bradley BTIS1 Original Fully Automatic 4-Rack Outdoor Food Smoker

by Bradley Smoker

• 4-rack fully automatic food smoker with 2,288-cubic-inch interior
• 500-watt cooking element; 125-watt smoking element; heats up to 280 degrees F
• Unique smoke without fire system features wood-flavored bisquettes that burn for 20 minutes each
• Runs for up to 8 hours without refueling; tray and drip bowl included; briquettes sold separately
• Measures 14-1/2 inches by 17 inches by 31 inches; 42 pounds; 1-year warranty

Product Details

See the owners manual for this product [PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 18 x 20 x 34 inches ; 44 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 49 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000FK2DNM
• Item model number: BTIS1
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (180 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #27,009 in Patio, Lawn & Garden (See Top 100 in Patio, Lawn & Garden)
  • #98 in Patio, Lawn & Garden > Grills & Outdoor Cooking > Smokers

Product Description

Amazon.com

Taste the great outdoors with the original Bradley smoker, a unique four-rack meat and food smokehouse sold complete with its own smoke generator. The smoker makes it easy for the expert or novice smoker to enjoy gourmet-quality smoked food without heading to the nearest BBQ joint.

The original smoker is about the size of a small fridge. View larger).

Smoking with a Bradley

The self-contained, clean-burning smoker is easy to use. The smoker works by burning Bradley flavor bisquettes for 20 minutes at a consistent temperature in the smoke generator, and then automatically advancing them off the burner. By maintaining a consistent, reasonable temperature, the smoker eliminates the high-temperature gases, acids, and resins that can distort the appearance and flavor of smoked food. The process is so clean that it produces no aftertaste, so guests will taste the natural flavors of the food first and foremost.

The smoker offers two smoking methods: hot and cold. In hot smoking, temperatures generally range between 180 and 250 degrees F, making it ideal for cooking meats or fish. The smoking time varies depending on what you're trying to accomplish and the type of food being smoked. Cold smoking is a longer process and is frequently combined with salt-curing foods like ham, bacon, and some methods of fish smoking. Cold smoking temperatures usually range between 60 and 80 degrees F. The original smoker also excels as a slow cooker or slow roasting oven.

The original Bradley outdoor food smoker View larger).

Construction and Appearance

The smoker is made of powder epoxy steel with an aluminum interior, helping it hold up to heavy use. Inside the smokehouse sits a traditional hot plate with a very low heating element, along with an elaborate feeding system for the bisquettes, which are made of cube-cut, not-too-fine sawdust. The bisquettes are the key to the clean smoke, as they don't burn down to an ash, need very little heat energy, and can easily be extinguished in the integrated water bath. Finally, the smoker includes a secondary heating element to control the smokehouse temperature.

The smoker accommodates plenty of food thanks to the 2,288-cubic-inch volume and four adjustable racks, which measure 11 by 13 inches each. And at 17 by 31 by 14 inches (W x H x D)--not including the side generator--the smoker is about the size of a small fridge. Additional features include a 500-watt cooking element, a 125-watt smoking element, a max temperature of 280 degrees, a rectangular tray, a drip bowl, and a recipe booklet (bisquettes not included).

Weighing in at 42 pounds, the smoker is light enough to carry around the patio or even to take to a friend's house for a summer get-together. The original smoker carries a 12-month manufacturer's warranty from the date of original purchase.

Product Description

The Original Bradley Smoker hot smokers, cold smokes and roasts to perfection. Unique smoke without fire system operates for up to 8 hours without refueling.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

221 of 227 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost the Perfect Smoker July 16, 2008

By JB

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. Read more ›

220 of 233 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars FIRE HAZARD units are out there - sort reviews by date! December 28, 2011

By I. Lipner

Amazon Verified Purchase

Nearly caught my house on fire with this product, and please do note I am not alone, especially lately - check out the customer photos and their dates. Either this product is too difficult to use safely for most consumers, or I had a defective unit. I really believe it was the latter, but if it's the former, you're going to have a hard time keeping this product clean enough to be safe.

I bought this smoker in July (five months ago). On the fifth use, it inexplicably overheated, melting the door seal. There was no fire that time. Bradley sent out a replacement door seal, saying that I must have kept the vent closed, but they'd help me this time. I hadn't kept the vent closed, and said I was concerned it was a defective unit and a fire hazard. They continued to assert it must have been a closed vent. I crossed my fingers I had just not noticed my error.

It took me nearly 2 hours to replace the door seal, a dirty job that made me swear to myself I'd maintain the smoker perfectly so there would be no potential of user error going forward. Every single time I removed every single removable part and steel wool clean it. I wiped down the sides each time, and removed any obvious grease.

Five smokes later and my wife looks out the window just in time - the whole thing was ON FIRE. I unplug it, douse it with water, and finish the turkey breast (not a greasy pork roast mind you, a turkey breast) in the oven.

I call them up, assuming the fire was proof I had a defective unit that would be quickly replaced. I figure, hey, they had a record of the first incident, so it shouldn't be much of a fuss. Ahem - no.

After a week of chasing, I finally got to talk to Brian, who is in charge of "fire incidents...." I explained the situation, the previous problem, my exact experience and use of it, and he said it's because of user error - that I hadn't cleaned the smoker thoroughly enough, and too much grease is why it caught fire. Then he offered me a "deep discount" that he didn't actually reveal.

I tried to engage him in simple logic. If you're saying this unit, that has caught fire, is NOT DEFECTIVE, and I'm saying that I've used this as responsibly as possible, what you are saying is either A) I am lying to you about how I maintained the product or B) that this product carries a very reasonable risk of a fire starting through normal customer use.

Brian didn't really want to say "A" but he essentially did when he refused to acknowledge the possibility of a defective unit. He said the chances of a defect were "slim to zero," explaining to me about how the components are each inspected before assembly. When I raised the possibility that it had been improperly assembled or perhaps my unit was otherwise defective, he basically said no. When I noted that I noticed others on Amazon were also having this issue, he literally laughed and said every product on Amazon has negative reviews from a few people.

This was pretty insulting given the time that I had invested and my earnest belief that I had used this product right and it was a defective unit. But at that point I realized that any company that would rather insult a customer than acknowledge the possibility that they could make a manufacturing error was not worth a minute more of my time - other than helping assure other people aren't in my exact situation.

I wish I had taken others' warnings seriously and not written them off as being posted by careless people who didn't bother taking care of the unit properly.

You need to know that this product has the potential to catch fire, even if you use it very responsibly - and even if you are as careful as I was. I'm not some random Internet troll - I'm a regular suburban father who wouldn't bother posting this review if the product just stopped working.

It's a dangerous product, and even more dangerous that Bradley isn't taking the recent swell of customer fire reports seriously. Read more ›

76 of 79 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Smokin' hot! January 9, 2007

By A. Graves

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!

73 of 77 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love it! Best Smoker Yet! July 10, 2007

By Colin M. Anderson

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!