My analysis of my entire "Bradley Experience" is this:
Bradley, to their credit, sought to give us as many technological advantages as they could - but at a price point most of us would find justifiable. The problem is - that there was need to make compromises in order to keep such a device at a price point that was very appealing for such a cooker. Reliability suffered. When you couple that with a proprietary fuel source - their "pucks"...that are not as available as wood chips - or even wood pellets nowadays - it just became too much of a task to keep it fed and functioning - only for it to crap out ONLY when I had it loaded with food to feed a number of guests....
I do not mean sound like I feel any animosity toward Bradley, I do not. I do believe that they attempted to deliver great value to the consumer. But, I also believe that they missed the mark - as far as the durability/reliability. This is an opinion shared by many but there are many that have had no problems with their Bradleys...So, perhaps the most fair thing to surmise is that the Bradley digital units - because of the complexity of their design and attempts to keep the costs down - were the problem. Most of the folks I know that have the Bradleys with simpler models - without the digital displays and such...find them pretty reliable. Aside form the issues common to both styles - those being the puck feeder gaming or having issues and that the heating elements going out or being weak/under powered by some folks estimation....
