I preheat, but don't put my wood chips in until the meat goes in. Great idea Bear about boiling the water first. I'll start doing that. Also, ditto on what Todd said about foiling the water pan and the drip pan. I also have the AMS smoker and it really is awesome with the MES. The only regret I have is getting the unit with the window. I find it to be useless unless I spend hours cleaning it, plus it has a small leak. Other than that I am happy with the smoker.