You must use water. Without it, your meat will dry. Both smokers came with a pan for water. I've never had an issue with the pan running dry.

The problem I've had is the grease off the meat, like when I cook chicken running into the pan of water. Creates a problem with the wood burning evenly.

I've done a 14 hour pork butt with no issues with water running out. Don't know how it would do at higher temps.

Great! I plan to only use the bisquettes if I won't be around but if I am around I plan to use a similar wood chip mixture to yours mentioned.

I know this is a n00b question but you put the chips in the water pan and they give off enough smoke? I guess I've never heard of that?

I usually don't go over 200 degrees. I like to slow cook in the electric smokers. The pan is never close to being out of water.

We don't usually cook for a ton of people so I am hoping the 4-rack is enough to meet our needs. I'm not sure Mrs. Lewdog is ready to drop $500 on a smoker as I need a new grill also. :D

Yep, fill it up to the line in the pan. Throw your hickory/oak in then when it warms up and hits about 150 degrees, throw on the apple/cherry chips. Alternate flavors as needed to keep the smoke going as desired.

Whatever happened to Bump? (sorry Lewdog, not meaning to hijack)

I've considered getting an electric to be able to smoke hotdogs and sausages at lower temperatures consistently.

There are a million ways to set up a lower temp smoking thingy, but the easiest thing to put together is the hardest to control temp.

Does anyone know of an electric that doesn't require proprietary brisquettes? My schedule can usually afford me the time I need to not leave a project unattended for a great deal of time.

Dinny

From what I am reading the Bradley goes about as low temperature wise as an electric will go. I myself am not going to do the brisquettes all the time either so I am glad BRC stated a way to use this smoker with and without them.

Seems like the best of both worlds and gives you options for whatever your schedule allows with this smoker. And if temp control is what you are after, this seems to handle that quite well.

As far as the water thing, I have a Weber Smokey Mountain 22.5. The water pan in it holds a max. 3 gallons. I seem to get ~ 3 hr/gal @ ~225F. If I stuff it full with charcoal/chunks and 3gal water, I can get 8-9ish hours unattended. This is what I do on an overnight project.

Dinny

edit: I love the Weber because you can really control the temp, which is difficult to do when burning wood.

Just use regular wood chips. It's no different. Just make sure you use the thin chips, not the thick ones. They don't burn evenly and to hard to control the smoke. Thin chips work great. Been using them in the Bradley and Madsterbuilt electric smokers for over 10 years. Like these below.
http://www.grillingcompanion.com/wp-.../2008/07/5.jpg

Here's another n00b question. You don't honestly mean to tell me you just throw wood chips in the water pan without doing anything to them first and they ignite enough to smoke? Don't you have to ignite them in a smoke box first and then dump them in there.

Nope. Just throw them in there. Remember its a electric smoker. The wood is about 2-3 inches from the heating element.

Sometimes I soak them in water overnight. But, now I skip that step. I've learned to control the smoke. I used to mix the woods together and cook together but it seems the meat has better flavor when rotating the wood flavors.

Also, if you guess wrong on your smoke just open or close the release valve on top of the unit to correct. When your cooking at low temp like I do, opening the door throws off the temp.

Haha. You know it!

Is that dude still alive? I haven't seen him around for awhile.

I have a master built and I think it goes down to 100 or 150.