Make no doubt about it an EPA stove requires fiddling.
Stove/wood furnace manufacturers design features that are intended to make the burn cycles easier, but I've never seen a 100% load it and forget it EPA stove. If you want something you load up, set the air/damper according to the stove temp you want, and want fine ash coals at the end, then you do NOT want an EPA stove.
The efficiency of getting every last btu out of a log comes at a cost of fiddling and heat cycles, if you don't embrace that concept you and your EPA stove won't get along.
Jason
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You've posted a lot of good information in this thread as have others. There are both good and bad aspects to every style of wood burner. Currently, I have an Ashley smoke dragon insert and a Tundra installed tied into the existing ductwork.
With the factory Tundra controller (or lack thereof), you either burn more wood than necessary, have a lousy burn, or baby the furnace for the first 45 minutes (cold start only). It's a frustrating experience.
To make it less demanding, I added 3 digital controllers and a timer. Now it's as simple as throwing in wood, setting the timer, and walking away.
Keeping the firebox hot is key, but last night I let it go ice cold because the house was too warm and I was too tired after taking down a lightning struck large Hedge tree and bucking and hauling it home. Bored and nursing sore muscles throughout my body, I watched the stove this morning.
At 9.35 it was loaded with 9 small splits and 1 larger piece, all very dry Honey Locust. One lint-and-wax-eggcrate fire starter on the bottom, some kindling, and one strike of a lighter, and the timer set for 10 minutes. Damper opens, fire gets started, around 5 minutes in supply temp up to 103, fan comes on high. Supply temp drops to 95, fan switches to low. Supply temp drops to 88, damper control calls for heat (timer still running, so damper already open) supply hits 86, fan shuts off (3 minute anti short cycle delay kicks in). Another 3 minutes, supply is 110, fan on high, supply drops, fan goes to low, etc. This cycles a few times and after 30 minutes or so, the damper is closed, fan is on low, and output temp is a steady 91-93 degrees with an occasional spike to 94, triggering high fan speed. It will run this way for several hours as the fuel stack is still ~85% it's original volume. As the fuel load burns off the damper cycles open and closed and eventually comes open and burns off the coals. Reloading when there is a 1-2 gallon coal bed, the fire will light off immediately. Fill the box, set the timer for 10 minutes and do whatever you had planned for the day. It will be running on secondaries after one or two timer cycles~15 minutes after reloading.
Adding fuel during the burn cycle is as simple as throwing in a few sticks. Temp drops, damper opens briefly, secondary burn goes WILD and away it goes. Supply temp will climb a few degrees, kicking the fan to high for quite a while.
I used industrial grade Johnson Control boxes and the total cost was around $250 including wiring, a larger transformer, and housing boxes for the controllers. The improved control system saved my brand new Tundra from the scrap pile.
