Janet - being a dedicated wood only cooker for about 30+ years, it was
difficult for me to transition to a bullet cooker. Until I got my
WSM, I thought only weenies used anything but wood they cut and
seasoned themselves.

Now that I am middle aged and tired all the time, some concessions
have been made. ;^)

I was trying to decide which new pit to buy, as the old one finally
fell apart after 15 years of great service. I settled on the WSM, but
read a lot about all the bullet cookers along the way.

Like Marty said, the bullet cookers were designed for use with
charcoal. Almost all of them were designed in the 50's, and charcoal
was the newest, latest and greatest thing to cook on. So their roots
are in their fuel.

When I cook on my WSM, I like to use Royal Oak charcoal with 4 - 5
fist sized chunks of well seasoned wood in the mix. Also as Marty
said, the Minion method is a must. THAT is how you get the perfect
fire in these bullet cookers.

My best buddy has bought several ECB smokers and loves them. He found
that his worked best on a mix of charcoal (NOT lump) and wood. Easy
enough to solve as all hardwood charcoals seem to be easily available
these days.

We noticed something different from his ECB to my WSM. The middle
rack of the WSM runs cooler than the top rack (my results confirmed
with many other WSM users) as the bulk of the heat goes around the pan
and sits up in the heavy lid (mine is squeeze tight to fit - no leaks
around the rim) waiting to escape through the open vent. Dual thermo
monitoring has proven this out many times.

But on his ECB, the UPPER rack is cooler. Only our considered opinion
after many beers, but we both opine that the ECB having a much thinner
lid and a more "airy" construction lets the heat and smoke out much
faster. In that case, the rack closer to the fire gets the most heat.

Swapping out the racks should take care of that as it has for him. We
calculate that about 1/3 of the way into the smoke (about the time he
has to add more fuel) is the time to swap. We also turn the meat on
his end over end when we swap, so the top end is now facing down.

Works like a champ!

Robert