First go - mixed results

got some ribs and chicken from today, and had my first cook on my excel 20. ribs were pretty small (only about £2.50 per rack), so i tried them 2:1:0.5. i used american mustard and a rub loosely based on the one in the bbq manual, but wanted to try them without any sticky glaze yet, despite this being how i'd ideally finish them. they were pretty good, very tender but needing to be 'peeled' off the bone, which i like. i did spritz with a mixture of apple juice and coke a couple of times and put some in when foiling, which had a go at balancing the rub, but wasn't robust enough really. next time i'll be doing a nice sweet glaze/ bbq sauce.

the chicken however though tender, tasted pretty odd. the reason being that i injected it with coke. thought it would be an interesting experiment, but i'll leave it for pork butt when i get round to it. future chicken cooks will just be as it is, and maybe a bbq sauce on for the last hour or so. it was pretty small, so got up to 170F at around the 3 hr mark

overall, well pleased that i bought the excel, and the temperature was pretty rock steady at 225F using the water bowl half filled with hot tap water. i didn't lump on loads of smoking chips, as i've read stories about over doing it, but the smoke ring of the ribs was pretty prominent. can't wait for brisket and pulled pork!

Welcome to the forum!
Sounds like you were trying too many experiments at once, I would suggest starting simple and make small changes until you get a result that satisfies your tastes.