that's categorically untrue!
JUCA are not smoke dragons.... they are one of the cleanest burning stoves that I'm aware of... this includes EPA rated stoves.
yes... I can and do burn green wood with little to no creosote. reason for burning green wood is to slow the burn down while generating more heat.
how clean your wood stove burns is easily told by how much smoke your chimney is putting out. a truly clean burning wood stove will put out little to no smoke going full bore.
all wood stoves will smoke while getting up to operating temps. what counts is... does your wood stove smoke for the entire burn? if so you will have creosote buildup.
I've now gone 4+ season with almost zero creosote buildup with my JUCA. This includes burning a large amount of green wood.
Note: DON"T burn green wood. JUCA is the only wood stove that I'm aware of that can do so cleanly. there may be others, but I'm not aware of them. Juca makes no claims it's stoves can burn green. this is what I'm saying from experience.
some of the claims are BS... but most are not. the biggest fib is burntime. yes you can get the burntimes claimed.... If wood burned is PERFECT.... meaning using only seasoned Oak rounds 12in or bigger in diameter.
if you go by JUCA's calculator... I should be using 2.5 cords per season. I'm actually using 4.5 cords per season in Tulsa, OK with a well insulated 2500sf single level home. heating 99% with wood.
4.5 cords consumption is in line with EPA rated stoves for heating a 2500sq home.
what is different about JUCA is it's SUPER efficient heat exchanger.
first off... JUCA are MASSIVE... it's one HUGE hollow heat exchanger made out of 1/4in steel plate with a large blower. IMHO JUCA has one the highest deficiency heat exchanger of any wood stove.
the other main difference is how JUCA burns... it uses an open burn system. the wood fire burns fast as it wants... sucks in as much air as the fire needs. so the fire is going to get HOT! How JUCA burns is why it's exempt from EPA regulations.
this is the reason JUCA can burn green wood cleanly. it burns HOT... hot enough to vaporize wet wood into wood gas. I've done detail measurements of output air temps between seasoned and green wood. The green burns hotter... I'm convinced it's the wood gas generated.
another reason for JUCA burning HOT is it's carefully designed updraft. when door is closed, updraft noticeably increases. this increases amount of air directed to fire. effect is exactly like how some main wood furnaces uses forced air. yes fire burns hotter but consumes wood faster.
my plans was to add secondary burn tubes to my JUCA. but have not done so because I'm not convince it would improve JUCA's performance. I'll have to figure out a way to add secondary burn in a way that can be undone.
there are other differences like how JUCA does business... very weird!
but they do make a quality product for a reasonable price.
would I buy it again.... 4.5 years ago when I purchased.... without a doubt yes. but since then EPA rated stoves have made BIG improvements.
choices today are very different than five years ago. burntimes are longer than my JUCA. sure I can get 14+ hours burntimes. but I've got to pack it with perfect round Oak 12in dia. packed to it 25 cubic feet capacity.
so today... would I buy another JUCA? don't know it's a tougher choice today.
Am I happy with my JUCA... YES very much so... it's paid for it's self many times over.
looks like a smoke dragon and an awful eye sore ,plus I dont see anything about secondary burning or epa certifed approval.seems to me its just a rebadged 1970's pile of crap with a hood and blower attahced