Let me just say I love my A-maze-n Smoker. I have the one that is a maze and uses dust, and it works great. The only little "hang up" if you will is I usually have to bake the sawdust at like 300 or 350 degrees in the oven for like half an hour. Other wise it's a royal BITCH to start. Though to be fair I hadn't read letting it burn for 10 minutes before, so I may try that. Also I didn't realize it'd work with the pellets as well, might have to try that too.