My boss at work bought one for the office for me to cook on. Unfortunately most of the time I've put charcoal in the smoking chamber and basically used it for a grill. The couple of times I've actually smoked ribs or sausage on it, it worked fine, definitely had a hot area near the firebox, a deflector plate would be a good addition. I used hickory splits only a couple inches in cross section and about a foot long. Any larger and it became a fire breathing dragon. The wind is always blowing 30 mph in Oklahoma on the day I plan to cook which doesn't help, at least it's small enough I can reposition it to prevent the wind from blowing directly into the firebox vent. All in all it seems to be a quality made unit, about 1/4" steel if I remember right.