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This little smoker is a gem. It's easy to assemble, and easy to use. This barbecue is perfect if (like me,) you just want great eating with only modest fuss. It's more work than grilling meat, but much less work than with a more expensive smoker. Brinkman doesn't give you much control over the heat. And because of that, there isn't much to set wrong and ruin your dinner. The guys for whom barbecuing is a lifestyle, scoff over this unit. That's fine, because they love to tweak every minute detail in the quest to get the perfect ribs. If you're like that, you'll outgrow this unit quick. As for me, I set it up, check it once in awhile and happily eat great food a few hours later. The first time I used it, I lit too much charcoal, and I couldn't get the tempurature down to where I thought it should be (mid to low of "ideal range." It was getting late, so I swallowed hard and threw a rack of St. Louis ribs on it. They were supposed to smoke for 4-5 hours. But because it was so hot, they were done in about 3. You know what? They were fantastic. The next time I over compensated and used too little charcoal while smoking about 20 Sausages The tempurature fell, and wouldn't come up. So I just added charcoal, and waited a bit longer. We still had a great dinner that night. My point? Brinkman designed it so that it is forgiving, and dummy friendly.

The ad above mentions that it can be converted to a charcoal grill. Yes it can, easily. The unit has 3 main parts. The charcoal pan, the tube/cylinder and the lid. You can take just the pan and lid, and use it as a table top/portable charcoal grill. It's a little larger than a Smokey Joe grill this way. Or, you can also sit the tube/cylinder straight on the ground, and set the charcoal pan on top of it. That way you don't need a table, or to be on your knees. We are a family of 4, and find it to be just large enough for the four of us. If you're throwing a party, you're going to want to smoke something anyway, and the smoker can hold a whole lot of meat.

If you do buy this unit, it will work pretty good right out of the box. But for about 10 bucks and 30 minutes, you can make a really good modification that will make your charcoal burn longer. I did it, and it works great:

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So far, I've done briskets, pork shoulders, chickens, turkeys and salmon, and everything has turned out grat. It's easy to use, easy to feed and keeps food moist; the water pan works as a buffer.

The review would be 5 stars except that the temperature gague says "warm" "ideal" and "hot," but neither the manual nor the company knows exactly what temperature range those words correspond to. I actually contacted them and asked, and the answers I got were imprecise.

I've found, for example, that "ideal" is great for doing a chicken in 2-3 hours, but you want it at the high end of "warm" cooler if doing brisket for 10-12. Otherwise, though, no complaints.