I thought it did great on the efficiency. I loaded the fire box about a third of the way with briquettes and pecan chunks and it used a less than half of that (guessing about 6-8lbs loaded and 3-4lbs burned). According to the Fireboard, the top rack was rock solid at about 245 and the bottom rack was at about 240. Total cook time was about 5hrs (3 unwrapped, 1.5 wrapped, .5 unwrapped). I figure I am gonna burn a lot at the beginning to get the larger pit up to temp, and then it will settle into a more efficient stage once its up to temp and the intake/exhaust are throttled down. If I took the time to warm the pit with a torch, I could probably improve on that. Heating so much area for small cooks is one of the things I did consider when making the purchase, but I was happy with the trade off for having the capability to cook more when I need to.