Pretty good product

I was given this smoker as a gift and have been very pleasantly surprised at its ability to make excellent smoked meat. So far I have smoked baby back ribs, country style pork ribs, chickens, a couple of pork shoulders and salmon. The only item that I was not happy with was the baby back ribs (too dry). Generally I have had rave reviews by the family on all of the other stuff, except the salmon (which I did not share with the others and it was very good).

It is easy to use. I did add a medium bag of lava rocks to the small amount of lava rocks that came with the smoker. My thought was to try to keep the wood off of the electric element to reduce fire potential. This helped a lot, however I had to learn the hard way that you do not load the smoker up with wood, because it will catch fire and get way too hot! It is much better to soak the wood for a few hours and load it lightly more often rather than putting too much wood on the lava rocks.

I am having a lot of fun trying to determine just the right rub for my ribs. The first set of ribs I cooked came out perfect, but I did not keep a record of the ingredients in my rub (just had a little of this and that). My next batch wasn't quite as good and I have been keeping records on my rubs and timing since. They are getting better with time, but have not matched the first batch. So the best advise I can give is to record exactly what you are doing and you will learn how to repeat good results.

Good cooking. Have fun.