Soaking only delays the smoke start point so not seen as necessary. When the soaked chunk dries out, it smokes just the same as the original chunk. In addition, with the electric smoker, the element is the hottest during the warm up phase of the smoke. When the box temp reaches temperature, the element goes into pulse mode and may not provide enough constant heat to get a full consumption of the chunk, 1/2 charred chunks at the end of the smoke.