Indoor wood furnace, fire cheif fc700?

[Woodcutter_Mo]

 As time and weather permit, I'm working on an addition on my house to put a wood furnace in. After deciding to scrap the idea of fabing my own furnace, I was planning to buy a brand new HotBlast furnace due to my budget being prety tight. Now I've been looking into the Fire Chief 700 furnaces which are similar to the Hot Blast but appear to be a little better made. If I go this route, I'll be buying a good used one though as the brand new price is a little out of my budget range.

Does anyone here use a Fire Chief FC700? What do you think of it?

[uplander]

 Several questions come to mind regarding your plans. The fire chief is going to consume a great deal of wood.
Do you produce your own fuel on site? If not you will be hauling a lot more wood than with a more efficient appliance. That fire chief is old school burning technology, there are other units on the market that will extract a lot more BTU's to your structure. That forced air combustion is also going to contribute to using a lot of wood.
Does your dwelling have existing duct work? Good if it does but I myself would not vent heat out of it without ducting it to where it needs to be.

The FC700 is noted as being non catalytic. I don't see it listed as having secondary air combustion. That will also contribute to using lots of fuel. A lot of unburned BTU's are going to up your stack with it.

The price on it is more attractive than units that burn more efficiently. If you have access to lots of wood nearby and don't mind working to process it then maybe the Fire Chief is right for you. Myself, I would look at more efficient appliances.

I am running a Yukon Eagle but if it was available when I built my house I would have purchased a Kuma, Vapor Fire. Currently the most efficient forced air system on the market. Probably twice as expensive as what you are looking at but it will consume a lot less fuel.

[Woodcutter_Mo]

 I do cut all my own firewood on site.

My house is currently heated with a regular Ashley wood stove which I plan to keep for part time use and during power outages ect as it doesn't require electricity. It just doesn't get into all the rooms due to the layout of the house unless I leave all the room doors open and have fans everywhere.
I do plan to add duct work for the Fire Chief for this very reason. 

[Woodcutter_Mo]

I did see a Yukon Eagle furnace for sale a while back with the shed to put it in for $1000 but had already sold just before I called about it.

The used FC700 furnaces I've been seeing have been anywhere from $800-$2000. There is one for $500 but looked to me like it had been overfired at some point so figured I'd stay away from that one.

[uplander]

 My Yukon has been a decent furnace for me. No issues with it. They absolutely must have dry seasoned wood though. Otherwise they will creosote like you cannot believe. Most wood fired furnaces will.
The Yukon design has been around a long time, close to forty years. They were quite the advance in solid fuel technology when they first came out. I have heard stories of them running for thirty heating seasons and have a coworker with one over 20 years old.

I have heard a rumor that Yukon has some no designs-upgrades to their units that are going to up their efficiency and meet the new EPA air regs.