I've been having nothing but problems. Used 4 times, and the fire went out every time after about three hours. Have my top vent at one half, and the damper at 1. Use a ring of fire (tried volcano on first cook and it skyrocketed)with my new charcoal basket. Last cook I walked it up and everything was great for around 2 1/2 hours, then it overshot to 300 (set at 225), and then it killed the fire. I've been using Mali lump, which, according to the lump review website is very hard to light, so maybe that is part of the problem, so I'm gonna try with some Frontier or Stubbs briquettes. I have been trading emails with Matt, but if this keres up, I'm just going to return it.