looking to buy a add on wood furnace

[glacialhills]

I was in the same boat as you back in June. I looked at enough Furnaces to make my head spin. The main things I wanted was high efficiency, very safe, low creosote, ease of use and long burn times. I really liked the caddy but then found the Kuuma Vapor fire 100. It is the top of the line in regards to safety and efficiency. It is not cheap though. Just comparing the weight between the caddy and the vapor fire the Kuuma comes in at 800lbs. caddy about 500. What is the difference? I believe thicker steel and much more insulation. I am getting 8-9 hour burns in mine with cherry and while it is a good wood it is mid line in the btu scale of hardwoods. I cant wait to see what a load of hickory or white oak will do for my burn times. We went away Saturday and I loaded the stove at 830 am we got back home at 11pm and the house was still 60 degrees. And still a few coals left to get it fired back up. It keeps the temp a steady 70 upstairs throughout the entire burn and is completely computer controlled so all you need to do is load wood and clean out ash every few days. And customer service is the best I have had with any product. See my other post in the boiler room for more info. Worth taking a look at if you want the best. But you pay for that quality just like anything else.

 

[Gator eye]

The only problem I've had with a forced draft system is during the spring and fall there is not enough call for heat so your fire ends up smoltering and producing cresote.

After my first year of using my Yukon Jack I am learning to shut the forced draft off and use the manual draft, it's made it alot easier to keep a steady fire, which cleared up the cresote problem I had the first year I used the furnace.

I am going to wait for it to get a little colder before I turn the force draft system back on. If the furnace keeps up I don't know that I'll ever turn the forced draft back on, I am getting good burns by using the manual draft.

As for the heating power of the Yukon......I sleep with the windows open more in the winter than I do in the summer, the wife likes to keep it around 80 in the house. I am heating 3200 square foot.