Beerich, i've been using Embers (heard its RO scrap oak briquettes) and it does the same thing.
What i've found helps is to always use new charcoal at the bottom of the basket.
What i do is take the left over charcoal and dump it into a
chimney starter, dump out all the ashes out of your smoker into the trash... pour new charcoal (fill the ring half full or more) into the the basket so that there are air gaps between the briquettes for better airflow.
Now with the chimney, add more charcoal so its 3/4 to 7/8 full.. light it up, let it get really blazing so the top charcoals start getting ashy.. you want a strong fire with no smoke and flames coming out of the top..
now dump it into your basket right in the middle, it will look like a mountain. use a stick to pull some off the peaks off to the side but still have a hump so the fire is concentrated in the center..
now make sure all bottom vents are open 100%, make sure the lid is always open 100%.
Put your smoker back together.. watch the temps climb.. when it comes near 200, maybe like 180 or so.. reduce the bottom vents to 1/3 for 225 or slightly more for higher temps... wait 15 mins and live with whatever temps you get (dont mess with it too much)