We bought a Heatmax back in January from Farm and Home in Corunna, MI for $1,444 with the intention of installing it in the spring/summer. After the last fuel oil bill I decided enough was enough and we spent the money and put in a chimney and through wall installation kit into our basement. We just bought this house last November and I had been cutting lots of nice, beautiful oak but nothing was seasoned.
We've got a 1,200sq ft ranch with straight run ductwork. It was built in 1973 and it's pretty drafty. It was a very simple installation for the chimney and furnace. I made some special trips to find some dead, standing ash and got plenty nearby. The moisture level is low so we started with a couple small fires to burn off the oils and everything of the new furnace. It was pretty stinky and had to air out the basement for most of the day while initial running. We started running it with only two 45's on top to blow air through the basement because I couldn't get the proper HVAC supplies for a couple days. It kept the furnace from running but didn't do real well warming the house (which was expected). Once I got it hooked up to the ductwork it's been awesome! Temps have been hovering around zero outside and nice and toasty inside. My wife loves it! It's easy for her to load when she needs to and we are starting to fine tune our cycles now. It seems to like to go through an entire burn cycle instead of throwing a log or two on here and there. When the house reaches temp and it shuts the air supply, the secondaries look like an oven and burn cherry red. My uncle across the street has a Yukon Eagle and he's really jealous of the glass door. We are planning on building a nice family area around the furnace because it gives off good radiant heat and it's nice to sit by the fire. I'm very happy so far as I was considering a Caddy before this one showed up in the showroom. I would've been happy with the Caddy no doubt but this was a fraction of the price.
In the week or so of running it, I can really see a big difference in running well seasoned wood versus slightly wet wood.