I come from a stick burner background. I use the A-MAZE-N adjustable length for longer burns, you can also use it for short burns just don't fill it all the way. I ONLY use wood chips in mine and it adds the heavy smoke flavor that we are all used to. I tried it with pellets and it was the same as not having one, flavor wise. The pellets IMO lose the robustness of actual wood in the sawdust process and forming/extruding. Adding the tube with actual wood is a game changer.