Went about curing this new smoker I just got today. Laced it down with veggie oil and started a fire to season it for hopefully many great meals. What I soon found out though was the thermometer is way off! It was showing 150 and when I set another thermometer inside the smoker I was over 300! Perhaps it can be adjusted, I'll have to play with it. Anyway, you can bet that I'll use the other thermometer tomorrow when I cook my first pork shoulder. I highly doubt that charcoal alone will work with this smoker, it'll take wood to get temps to maintain at 200-225. If anyone else has this smoker please realize that the factory thermometer is inacurate!