A Cookshack smoker without any meat load in it will heat up to temp very quickly and stay at that temp due to its good insulation. Therefore the heating element is not "on" for most of the seasoning time, and therefore not "burning" the wood chunks. When you load the smoker with some meat, you will find the wood is reduced to ashes unless you are doing a very quick smoke (such as 30 mins for shrimp). I avoid putting the wood over the holes in the wood box so as to let the heat into the wood box and to keep the ashes off of the element. In the two years I've had my AQ, I have tossed out a lot of ashes and virtually no chuncks of black wood. That's my 2-cents worth.