# Anybody have a DAKA wood furnace?



## wdchuck (Oct 15, 2006)

Did a search in here for DAKA, no hits, so thought I'd ask, anybody have one or hear about them?


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## paladin (Oct 16, 2006)

Two of my neighbores have them and so far they seem good. They both just installed them last heating season so this will be the second season. From the way they look to me they seem good not great but good. Best advise I have is try to look at alot of diffent brands and after a while you will be able to see the good from the not so good. One other thing I have noticed on burners is that some are rated for wood and some for wood/coal ,the wood/coal should be a tougher unit.


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## wdchuck (Oct 17, 2006)

This will be the 3rd winter for us with a DAKA.

I'd be real interested no how their installs went, did they do everything themselves or did they get professionals to help them with some of it. 

So far, as the add on wood furnaces that are locally available, the big green one at Tractor Supply in Mukwanago sure looks like a nice unit, decent secondary burn chamber, but there is no way I could get that in the basement by myself. The Daka was the only one I had come across and it was managable, barely. 

The Yukon Eagle seems to be pretty nice unit but only looked online at it, the company has a nice selection of products as well as options depending on what a person wants, not in my price range right now, maybe when its time to upgrade/replace.


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## paladin (Oct 17, 2006)

One of my neighbores had the chimmney installed by a installer the other one bought his own pipe and installed it himself. I installed my stove about seven years ago and it didnt go bad. I looked over the install of my neighbore and it looked good. The main thing with installing the chimmney if you are useing the stainless steel pipe follow all the instructions and clearances and dont skimp. You can never be to save on the air clearances.


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## wdchuck (Oct 17, 2006)

It's the relationship between the add-on wood furnace and the existing forced air furnace that I am most interested in. 

What they did to have the main blower run/or not when the temperature from the wood furnace dictated. 

The other item would be if the A/C condenser comes on at all, or was a relay installed to prevent that. 

Granted, the chimney installation is important, but it's probably the easiest part, stainless lined black smoke pipe, and then double wall, insulated stainless the rest of the way up.


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## paladin (Oct 18, 2006)

On the duct work he just tied in to the duct work from the top of the stove into the furnace duct work. The unit it self had a blower on it that kicks on when the burner gets to certin temp. That is problem I have seen with the add ons because unless it is realy cold out the house can get to warm. Another person I know had jenson add on and he had the same problem I think that they bulid them that way because you always want air flow around the unit so it wont get over heated. So I think you need to regulate house temp by how hard you run your burner. I know he had some other questions about his burner and he called the company direct, so you could ask them if the unit would be damaged if the blower was shut down when the burner was up to temp to reg. the house temp. Any questions about furnace controls I am not sure of ---sorry.


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## hautions11 (Oct 18, 2006)

*ducts*

Here is my 20 yr old Royal. Cold air comes in to the independant blower on the wood furnace from the house cold air return. The hot air exits the furnace in to the regular duct system. See pic below.








The wood furnace blower is controlled by a TC in the plenum of the furnace. The fire box has a blower that is controlled by a thermostat upstairs. When the house is cold the thermostat kicks on the firebox blower and blows air to feed the fire. Furnace heats up and the TC in the plenum kicks on the fan, circulates air in the house. when the house is warm, the blower to the firebox goes off and the furnace idles. It still kicks the house fan on when ideling but it is not very often. The TSC stoves have an optional burn box blower. It looks like a hair dryer on the loer front of my furnace. Hope this helps.


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## wdchuck (Oct 19, 2006)

haution11;

Your description of operation is what mine needs to be, and that will happen this fall yet. 

My house furnace has a plastic secondary so I cannot use the cold air return to feed from the wood burner, it'll disintegrate and destroy the furnace. So my setup has to be a little more involved but not much. 

The DAKA can be outfitted with a burn chamber blower like yours and I'm considering it for mine, should use less wood.

THanks for the feedback and pics everyone.


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## dpracetime (Dec 22, 2012)

*daka woodburner*



wdchuck said:


> Did a search in here for DAKA, no hits, so thought I'd ask, anybody have one or hear about them?



i have a daka wood burning furnace that has been in use for 3 winters now and i am very pleased with it.This unit has performed flawlessly and at a bargain price of 749.00 at menards.I installed the burner in my attached garage so the mess was kept there and the garage is always heated,i piped the warm air into my basement and a cold air return back to the unit along with a fully enclosed box around the two blowers one of wich a rarely use.I couldn't be happier!

Dan View attachment 269073


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## KindredSpiritzz (Dec 22, 2012)

I had the choice between a Daka and a Volzang when i bought a furnace. I chose the Volzang and paid a little bit more because looking at them side by side i thought the quality on the volzang was a bit better than the daka. Im pretty sure Daka is made in the USA .


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## fields_mj (Dec 22, 2012)

I've got an old (1980) energy mate add on that is very similar to what Hautions11 has. My install is VERY similar to his. The only difference is that I draw my cold air directly out of the basement. I pipe the hot air over to the cold air plentum via a 10" duct. It goes in about a foot above my air filter. I have the thermostat for my centeral air system set up to run the main blower all the time, and my basement door has a pretty good size vent grate in the bottom of it. You can feel a decent breeze standing in the stair way, and it's on the oppisite end of the basement, so I figure I'm getting pretty good air circulation through the house. The furnace is located under the bedrooms, and my main cold air return is in the living room which is where the basement doorway is. Over all it works pretty well for me. Took me a year or two to figure out how to run the furnace so that the house wasn't 85 degrees when it was 36 outside. Wife complained a little about the heat that first year (and she likes it warm). She got the hint when I told her to open a window and don't touch the #$#@ thermostat LOL. Depending on whethere it's sunny, or raining and windy, I can run my wood burner when it's as warm as 50 degrees outside (low 40s if its bright and sunny). Just have to make sure I keep the chimney cleaned when I'm doing that. 

Just my 2 bits,
Mark


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## brenndatomu (Dec 22, 2012)

dpracetime said:


> i have a daka wood burning furnace that has been in use for 3 winters now and i am very pleased with it.This unit has performed flawlessly and at a bargain price of 749.00 at menards.I installed the burner in my attached garage so the mess was kept there and the garage is always heated,i piped the warm air into my basement and a cold air return back to the unit along with a fully enclosed box around the two blowers one of wich a rarely use.I couldn't be happier!
> 
> Dan View attachment 269073



Doesn't your firebox get awfully hot when the power goes out? (downdraft ductwork) That would scare the @#&% outta me without a heat dump safety door on it!


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