Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I found other reviews on this product somewhat misleading. Sure, I made few minor modifications with the pliers, but other than that, the grill was easy to light and maintained its temperature - just be sure not to leave the valves wide open! After following the instructions, I used 20 pre-fueled briquettes to start the fire. I recommend using a blow torch to light any coal - it's much safer and less toxic than burning newspaper or cardboard to star t a fire, but I digress. After around 15 minutes, I started another small fire in the smoker box using pre-fueled briquettes. The grill maintained a temperature of 250 degrees with the butterfly and smoker valves open one quarter. I added 3 pieces of oak chunks to the main part of the grill on top of the 20 coals; then one chunk of mesquite on top of the 4 coals in the smoker box. The marinated chicken came out great and took around 45 minutes to reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. I'm not sure why other reviewers seemed to have problems with controlling or maintaining temperature. When I was done cooking, I opened both the butterfly and smoker valves to full and the grill temperature jumped to just over 400 degrees. The next morning when I swept out the coals, everything was DUST. I've never seen this happen with any of my charcoal grills in the past because there are usually 3-4 large chunks of unburned coals or wood. This is an incredibly efficient grill with a decent amount of surface area for smoking or grilling.