big red king griller Kamado smoke

good questions...maybe have more luck posting here?:  http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/f/108/charcoal-smokers

I'm starting to shop for one of these myself and will be scouring that section...

I use lump charcoal for cooking, and chunks of various woods for flavoring in my charcoal smoker.  Steve

You are going to love it, That thing will do it all, low and slow all night. Sear a steak at 600° and cook a pizza hotter that that, of course that will take the seasoning off of your grate. Many have used hi temp silicone to seal around the lower air adjustment but so far I have not made any changes. You will need some sort of heat diffuser to cool low and slow, A pizza pan will sit on the lower 3 tabs and work, others use a 22inch replacement Weber grill grate and put a smaller ceramic pizza stone on top of it to defuse the heat. And for smoking yes mix some wood chunks in with the lump to smoke the meat. I hope you have the one with the black top cover, the older ones that are still out there for sale have a silver one that doesn't seal as well. There is a ton of info out there on these. I have been using mine more than my Lang this season.

I wire brush. but their have been stories about bristles coming off and folks ingesting them lately. or just rub down with crumpled foil. when you do a higher heat cook, they just seem to clean them selves. Just keep them oiled or sprayed with Pam to maintain the seasoning