Dumb smoker question?

I just bought a cheap smoker. From bottom to top it has a charcoal bowl, water bowl and then grilling grates. So where do I put wood chips? Do I just wet them and throw them in with the charcoal? I've smoked two things of meat but that was on a gas grill with wood chips in a metal box but it cooked too fast to get any real smoke flavor into the meat.

When using a smoker that uses charcoal for the heat source, I've always tossed the wood (chunks or split logs) onto the coals.

I used a smoker like the one you describe for a few batches before going to a model that has the fire box on the side. Once you go with that kind, it opens up a whole other world to you.

IMO, there's really no need to wet the chips. After trying both ways, I've found it really doesn't make a difference. The water evaporites too quickly to do anything. As Golddiggie said, for wood added directly to charcoal I'd use the larger chunks instead of chips. I'm guessing the chips would burn up faster than you want them to. With my UDS I just toss a couple chunks on top of the coals and they seem to last forever.

I'm sure some of the guys who've been slow smoking longer will chime in as well.

Yep, on top of the coals. The smoker you have described is pretty hard to work with for any length of time; don't get discouraged.

dont forget, you want your smoke to have a blue tint or almost translucent look to it, this means you have good combustion and clean smoke. If, on the otherhand you have billowy white smoke, this means you have bad combustion and dirty bitter smoke, so open the air intakes more. Good luck and dont forget, just like brewing, there is a learned art to using a smoker. also, you will find great information here www.bbqbrethren.com

I used to have a vertical smoker and i would throw the chips / chunks on top. I don't think soaking does much for wood chips...for wood chunks it slows down the burn if you soak them for a couple hours prior(however my cookshack smoker has a seperate bin for wood chips) if you throw them on charcoal they will burn up pretty quick. Some people make tin foil pans to set them on which slows it down a little bit.