I had trouble generating smoke when breaking in my new AQ. The first go-round it burned the chunk on the left to ash and barely singed the one on the right (after 8 hours finishing at 250*) The wood was a new batch from Cookshack that came with my smoker. So I experimented - next time I put two chunks on the left and they both burned to ash (still an empty smoker). After looking more closely at my heating element, it was tilted with the left side significantly higher than the right. I took the advice of others in the forum and gently bent my element up and leveled it out. The next run (albeit with meat) ashed everything. The element bends very easily and seems quite pliable, but I wouldn't mess with it too many times. Mine might be a special case - all of the innards collapsed during shipment which bent up two of my racks and left the smoke box holding up the weight of the casters and wood box which probably bent the element the wrong way. Still - I think this tip fixed my problem. Someday if I'm really bored I will season again with a chunk on the right.