I am not really happy with this smoker so far. I know it is not top of the line, and not rocket science. The outside finish seems very durable, but...the paint is peeling off the inside of the lid and inside of the barrel after the first use. I expect it will begin to rust fairly quickly now. Shame on me for not keeping my receipt. I would take it back and buy a different brand.
Furthermore, I am not crazy about the reflector shield, used on the bottom of the unit. Place the wood chips around the element,on the shield and...some of them smolder, some of them don't.
The last model I owned (I think it was a Weber, for over 10 years) used lava rocks surrounding the electric coil. Then spread the chips around the lava rocks. Seemed to work a lot better.

so, i actually bought mine from home depot, which worked out because since i was severely missing parts, i was able to go back the next day and get another one. i made it a point to purchase the first one with an intact factory seal., mine also was missing all the legs and the screws.. its clearly a charbroil issue, not a merchant return issue. its frustrating because you get very excited to put it together and as soon as u realize u have no screws, its quite annoying. the 2nd one i picked up had everything with it. but u really need to get in there and look thru the box.

I've had good success with this smoker. I did have trouble keeping the temperature high enough when it's cool or windy outdoors. But since it's only used outdoors away from the house, I throw a heavy old towel over just part of the top to keep the heat in. The smoker doesn't get hot enough to ignite the towel, and I don't think there'd be any huge danger in the very unlikely event that happened.

Just what the title says. It's a good smoker for the price. You WILL get smoked foods if used properly, and it is easy to use. The two complaints that I do have is that when your bottom rack is full, it's difficult to add water to the pan. Adding charcoal is easy, but because of the placement of the inside bottom rack, it's very difficult to add water. The second complaint is that the lid doesn't fit. I think it's more of a quality control issue than a bad product, but gaps can let heat escape and cause for irregular cooking temps.

If you're new to the art of "cue" and don't want to invest a bunch, it's a good buy. If you have experience, you may want something else.

We have not been able to get food cooked above 120 deg. F. We live in the desert above Palm Springs and tried for 5 hours to cook a 1/4 chicken and were unable to get a satisfactory temp. The supplied temperature guage never gets to ideal and the meat never gets to a safe temp. using an instant read thermomerter,( we tried 3 differant ones). Very dissapointing. Don't buy this smoker!