I have a 66 and can tell you that they are pretty much set and forget. I do brisket and pulled pork. I figure on a 24 hour schedule from the time I start them until they are ready to eat. I put cold meat into a cold smoker so that I get a longer window of smoke on my product. These smokers are wood stingy. I use 4 to 6 Oz. of wood in for beef and some pork. I do not wrap anything I smoke in the 66. These smokers are very cook with a very moist environment. I start the smoker at 250 degrees in the mid afternoon and let it go at this temp until bed time. I turn the smoker temp down to 215 degrees when I go to bed, and then turn it back up to 250 degrees when I get up. Depending on what the remote read meat thermometer is showing by mid-morning I may crank the smoker temps up to 275 or 300 degrees. I start probing the meat when the internal temp. hits 190 degrees. When the probe goes into the meat and it feels like you are sticking the probe into warm butter the meat is done. I pull the meat out of the smoker wrap it in foil and put it into a warm ice chest type cooler for 2 to 4 hours. You will have plenty of bark and depending on what your tastes are like you should have plenty of smoke. When I started cooking with these smokers I did get way to much smoke on almost everything. You will not get a good smoke ring with these smokers simply because you are not burning enough wood to develop a smoke ring. The SMO 25, 45, and 66 do have a default setting for the first 30 or so minutes after they are started. The smoker will run on high during this start up time period.
