Switching from stick burner to gravity fed

I'd say that the smoke flavor is much less pronounced with a gravity fed vs a stick burner. With that being said, the convenience factor is more than worth it, and unless someone is comparing them side by side I doubt it would be a noticeable difference. There's been more than once where I forget to put wood chunks in the chute and it still tastes great with just the lump charcoal.

You are at a crossroads that I was at about 6 or 7 years ago. I was running stick burners for the first 4 years I was in business. Staying up most of the night as business increase 3 to 4 nights a week caused me to begin to have health troubles among other issues and it simply became too much. I made the move to an FEC120 pellet cooker and the answer is yes it will change your product but with time and learning new ways you can still produce and great product. I'll say this, anyone, who is unwilling to make a move to change their cooking ways from traditional cooking must figure a way to either A) hire a pitmaster to cook while you run the daytime operations whether that is catering or selling in a food truck or B) hire a business manager to run day to day operations while you be a pitmaster and stay up most of the nights. If you continually try to be both you will eventually crash and burn.