I spent $250 on a Masterbuilt about 10 years ago. 5 years ago I bought a Bradley for $500. The only differences that I see in electric smokers is the accessories, # or racks and bells and whistles.

I wanted to automatically time my smoke and heat at different levels over the cook period. Willing to pay more for that convenience.

Good idea to go on the cheaper side for a first timer. Be sure you like the cheater smokers. You can always upgrade later.

I'd never smoke with only fruit woods. But to each their own taste.

Agreed. I alternate with hickory and fruit.

So recommendations for pork then?

I always like to add some Oak when smoking. The only exception is with Salmon or Trout and then it is Apple only.

I run half hickory half apple in my rig. Not sure if you can do what with the bradley deals. Maybe alternate apple and hickory?

Yea you can, you just alternate or arrange the pucks how you want them to go in. Each puck lasts 20 minutes before another is kicked in.

So, how exactly does one do the wood chips in a Bradley puck electric smoker? Please edumacate me.

Simple. Place pucks in stack on left. Set to automatic and it self feeds them in every 20 minutes. Alternate pucks for adding different types of wood.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/image..._Front-750.jpg

NOT the pucks. I have the Bradley, but someone earlier said they use wood chips in theirs. Not sure how that works without having to open it all the time and reload.

I'll let GloryDayz clarify because I don't really get it either but he said heat it up past 150 and then he just throws some wood chips in the water pan when he doesn't want to use the pucks. I don't really get that either but he says it works and he's a God around here.

So you are part of the Bradley crew!? Oh boy, I feel pretty cool now!

I have one, but don't use it much as I don't get the quality of results I had when I was using my offset smoker. But it was free, so I can't complain. I probably need to use it more so I get better at it.

I always heard offset smokers are harder to use and lack the quality of vertical smokers in getting smoke to the meat. Again this is just reading and no idea if it's true. I'm pretty much a n00b.

I don't understand throwing it in the water pan. You need the water so the meat doesn't dry out, so if you're throwing it in the water pan, you must not be using water?

And would it work with larger chunks?

Lew, one thing I learned early with the electric and pucks - make SURE you keep water in that pan. If you don't have water, the pucks will drop into the pan and continue to smolder, and after that 20 minute burn they start emitting off flavors.

I liked mine and used the shit out of it, and (generally) had outstanding results. It could be tricky to keep a constant temp, but I never had problems getting smoke to the meat. I think that's more a function of how the smoker is built. You want the vents so they draw the smoke over your meat.