The heat is very stable.
I was amazed just how even the heat is from front to back.
I have never used a reverse flow too, so far I like it a lot.
The temp adjustment on these East Texas Pit are out of this world too.
Small adjustments gets you fast changes.
As for the smoke I closed the vent on the fire box the last time I cooked in it (by the way it took no time at all for the fire to go out).
It took just second for the smoke to start flowing out the stack.