Oh boy, now that's a whole nother thread! I for one abhor them. I've used one and did experiments with thermometers. they cycle on and off with great amounts of degree change in between, which is not really ideal for quality smoking of meat, and, I don't trust the pellets, how they're made or what's in them. A stick of wood on the other hand I trust implicitly. IMHO pellet smokers are for lazy smokers who don't really want to tend to they're smokers. Furthermore, the onset of these ungodly contraptions is a main cause for the price of brisket going through the roof. Smoking meat used to be something any poor man could do. Now it's too damn expensive, cause everybody and they're uncle got a pellet smoker. You'll never get a smoke ring from a pellet smoker like I do from an offset smoker. That's all I have to say about that!