I bought a gen 1 liberator a year ago. The claim that it will burn for 8 hours on 40 pounds of pellets is false. 3 hours max. As far as burning sticks and scraps, good luck with that. When you try with the included burn grate it will not self feed and requires constant attention as the housing for the burn grate is smaller than the size of the feed tube. When you try without the burn grate the burn tube fills with hot coals and clogs up, at that point the fire goes up the feed tube and the exhaust and smoke goes into your house.
