I watched the video that Big Dave posted, now it's off to procure some lava rocks. I appears that I did not load the wood correctly. I could see flames coming from around the shield. When all else fails, read the instructions .

In that video all I saw was high-quality smoke, blue, light blue and invisible.  That seems to be perfect.  Here's hoping that it does as well in a more conventionally shaped pellet pit.

I watched the video that Big Dave posted, now it's off to procure some lava rocks. I appears that I did not load the wood correctly. I could see flames coming from around the shield. When all else fails, read the instructions .

I'm far from the expert here.  I did watch the videos, there was talk of overloading.  That's why I'm splitting the wood.  The lump is my own idea and I asked Dallas at Smoke Daddy about it, he said go for it.  Only caution was to not overload the boxes.  Two cooks ago I had a bit of unburnt lump after the cook (hickory was ash).  So far so good, haven't experienced any overshoot on temps since the first cook.  I have yet to fully figure out how long the extra smoke lasts (full fire combustion vs smoldering).  I haven't tried the lava rocks, don't think it's necessary. 

My wife bought the wrong size lava rocks (too small) so I used small cherry wood hunks with lump charcoal as mentioned above. It worked great, very little temperature overshoot and lots of smoke.

My wife bought the wrong size lava rocks (too small) so I used small cherry wood hunks with lump charcoal as mentioned above. It worked great, very little temperature overshoot and lots of smoke.

Excellent!  I'm trying to get two of my local friends to try as well (Traeger/GMG).  I'd like to have some more input to ensure I'm not simply too excited to have a balanced opinion.  This simple product really makes a big difference.  The more feedback the better!  What really surprises me is that there's a 5 year old Heavy D video on youtube.  How this has been out there for 5 years and we didn't know about it is shocking to me?!?  It was actually the woodwinds/Campchef smoke box that got me thinking along these lines.