I bought this for Christmas and it arrived December 19th so I had time to break it in with a rack of St. Louis Ribs for familiarization. Proceeded to smoke a Rib-eye Roast for Christmas dinner and have subsequently smoked salmon, whole trout, Baby Back Ribs, bratwurst and duck breast. It is really easy to operate, although it does run a little hot, closer to 275 than to 225 which I would prefer. Only real negative is that it arrived in damaged packaging and as a result there was damage to the lower edge of the main box body that I am afraid will rust fairly quickly due to loss of paint in that area. It could definitely have been better boxed for shipping.