My wife bought this smoker for me several months ago. This was the first real smoker I have had. I fired this thing up a couple of weekends ago and did a brisket. I was used to my other small one so It took longer to smoke than I was used to. I have a lot to learn as far as regulating the damper and the smoke stack but overall I loved it. It is well made. I am doing some ribs today so we will see how this goes.