Pretty much in the same boat here Cando, if I had looked at Heatmaster, that is the furnace that would be here instead of the P & M. This model is quoted for heating 15000 square feet, IN A PIG'S EYE!!!!!, maybe on a warmer spring day, but these nights we have been having here lately with minus 25 etc., I have to load late at night like say 10:00 p.m, load twice as much wood in as our old Empyre took for it to carry through to 6:00 a.m, that's an 8 hour burn time!!!!!!!! Smokeless, not hardly, even neighbors driving by have mentioned seeing big billows of smoke wafting out of it. I have to go to an extra effort with this furnace to clean out between the bricks, then when I blow my nose after I see how much ash I have breathed in from having to do it. This furnace should have had a larger water jacket, like say another 100 gallons like the Empyre had.
Funny how this topic just came up, my Father and I had just stated the other day, and again tonight the drawbacks to this furnace,
1-- Should have a light on the front for loading at night
2-- Needs a larger water jacket for heating two houses and cushioning the "blow" when it gets real cold
3---Needs a better way of cleaning the ash out between the brick {like the Heatmaster with their moveable grates like the old Duo Furnace)
4-- Could use another pass or two for the heat exchanger, with a door at the back for cleaning out the extra passes
If SCOTT is reading this, I am really interested in the new Heatmaster model, if the company would consider building a larger model to replace the 10000E, for 10000 square feet, with say around 280-300 gallons water jacket, I would be interested in being the guinea pig, running a demo unit