Honestly, if she cooks over an open flame, she does not have a knack for it.
But on our Traeger she did VERY well!
I expect her to do well with the PG500 as long as she stays away from the direct heat.
But, fiddling with settings, etc. is definitely NOT her forte. So I will do the long smokes, cold smoke cheese (I cannot wait to do this!) etc.

What are your thoughts on how you will do the cold smoke for cheese to keep thing below 80°-90°?

I haven't cold smoked for a couple of years but on cool days I could set the HHt at 10 (or 15 if I was worried about a flame-out), put a bowl of ice in zone 4 and put the cheese in the warming drawer.  The PG500 worked fine at those settings and always made sweet smoke.  I didn't try it on really hot days.

I haven't cold smoked for a couple of years but on cool days I could set the HHt at 10 (or 15 if I was worried about a flame-out), put a bowl of ice in zone 4 and put the cheese in the warming drawer.  The PG500 worked fine at those settings and always made sweet smoke.  I didn't try it on really hot days.

This is basically the same technique I use with the PG1000, but I have never attempted it when the ambient temp is above 40 degrees.    With the double wall insulation it’s just too hard to keep temps low.

I noticed in the owners manual that it said to set the LHT and the HHT both to 15.
Then do the pan with ice.
I read how you did it before, and figured I would try that method to start.

I got mine years ago from Larry.  Its been going strong and I have never had a problem with it, although I did wear out the cast iron grill grate.  I use a 1 gallon paint can (a clean new one from HD) to catch the drippings and when full put the lid on and toss it in the trash.  The dog seemed to attack the little galvanized pail,  there was a little bit more space to get the tongue in compared to the paint can.

I like the empty paint bucket idea!  I’ve been trying to come up with a good way to keep the bucket from falling off the tiny little hook accidentally.    More than a couple of times I have knocked it off while taking my cover off the grill.