I first impression of the smoker when it came out of the box was wow its very well built. All the lips and rings at the mating surfaces match and meet up very well. It has very minimal smoke leakage through out the entire system. The side doors are fixed to the smoker and actually seal up unlike a WSM. The side latches holding the segments together are just the greatest Idea ever. We switched out the two cooking racks while cooking allowing us to get the chicken closer to the heat in less than a minute. If for some reason the coals needed sturring one maybe some more added just unlatch the bottom two latches lift the hole assembly sit it off to the side do what you have to do and lift the whole assembly back in place and set the latches again. And with two twenty inch cooking rack you have tons of cooking space. The smoker also has three air dials on the bottom to aid in the adjustability of the heat but unlike the WSM with only three air ports these dials have four air ports.
Things that I had problems with the first time out with it where. Uneven heat disbursement There was about a constant 20 Degree difference bettween the bottom rack to the top rack and my temp gage on the top of the smoker was way off from the other temps I had on smoker. It also took some time to get up to temp. But at the end on the cook we closed all the baffles and airports to choke off the coals and I had a bunch of unused coals in the outer part of the smoke basket just because its such a big basket.
Over all I believe its an excellent smoker. It will just take some time getting used to controlling the temps. If you can get a hold of one, this is the time to buy one. I know I paid more than some other on the board but I believe I still am getting every pennies worth out of my purchase because this is just a great smoker.
