So - to answer my own question - you bet your butt, it sure flares up. I'm on my 'seasoning' run, three chunks of wood (2 of the Home Depot cherry, one chunk of the supplied hickory) at 250 degrees. It started belching about 25 minutes into the process, temps up over 300 degrees. I turned the element off, and am waiting for it to cool back down. I guess I'll have to either soak this wood overnight before I use it, or just toss it in the campfire when we get moved to the campground for the summer, and order something decent online. Not much available in my area except this stuff. Oh, well.