I agree the fit and finish should be as good as the boiler itself and Portage and Main is working towards and close to achieving that goal. The unfinished corners between the outer door and the loading door have been addressed, the corners are finished off on the new models. You can close off your corners with some foil tape. There are some other minor fit and finish issues that will also soon be addressed at the factory. All boilers smoke out the loading door when opened, as smoke takes the path of least resistance. Because of our efficient four pass design this may be a bit more of an issue than your average straight shot boiler, but I think the benefits of our design in wood savings out weigh any smoke. If you let your wood burn down to a bed of coals before reloading there will be very little to no smoke. I recommend this to all my customers and it works well. Many of my customers comment that they like the float which is more convenient and easy to read versus the sight glass on their old boiler. If you put a boiler drain in your loop near your domestic hot water tank you can fill the boiler from the boiler drain on your domestic hot water tank using a washing machine hose. Or you could plumb to a domestic water line and use a ball valve to fill the boiler. All Ultimizer boilers should take their supply off the bottom and return to the top to prevent excess evaporation. With one pump, take off the bottom left and return to the top right, with two pumps it doesn't matter as long as you're pulling from the bottom and returning to the top. Do not add water to the boiler unless the float is completely bottomed out, the guage does not have to be on the full mark. If you continue to add water it will expand the next time
the boiler fires and spill out the top, let the float find its sweet spot and leave it. I am right-handed but being an old guy with a bad back, I try to do my chores half right-handed and have left-handed to balance out my back, loading the boiler like a lefty works well for me. Many brands of boilers have doors that open right to left. To me, walking to the back of the boiler to turn off the fan is no big deal, if it is too much of a hassle for you, install a toggle switch on the front and you can control the fan from there. Personally I don't like a light on the boiler, it shines in my face and no matter the boiler brand they all get sooted up over time. I recommend backlighting to my customers, a good solar light with a motion detector on a pole works very well. I don't see an issue with the depth from the fire pot door to the bottom of the boiler, never heard that before. All boilers are little different and there is a learning curve, if you work with it, you will have a better experience. All in all I don't think you will find a better boiler. Feel free to pm me anytime with questions.