Bought this smoker about a 3 weeks ago. Have already smoked about 6 things on it. Gives the meat a great flavor and tenderness. Holds temperature really well, even in the freezing cold and wind gusts. Can burn extra coal when super cold out. Otherwise the coal burns at the rate they give you. Starting it takes some getting used to. Definitely get some fire starter sticks. Little wooden sticks that have some oil in them so they burn for 10 minutes or so, once you get those it'll start every single time first time. My only complaint so far is that sometime it doesn't burn all the wood chunks. The wood will get buried in all the coal dusts and not smoke anymore. I have just been using a stick to move the chunks around every so often and that usually does the trick.