I just bought one, a Woodmaster and have a neighbor 100' away and another 200' away and I do not anticipate problems. First because I have been burning wood anyway and secondly because I have spent two heating seasons watching more than a few of the boilers run and talking to the owners. The reputaion for smokng is earned BUT a couple things make them smoke a lot. People who insist on burning green wood and wet punky wood that sits out with no cover (mainly because the makers tell them to burn anything) and people who fill them up when not needed so they dont have to put wood in twice a day. The ones tha have natural draft seem to smoke more steadily while the forced draft ones will smoke heavily for a very short time upon the call for heat and burn as clean as any other stove as far as I can tell. Woodmaster has a table for chimney heights given how far to neerst house and eve heights. You cant add stack, or you are not supposed to, to a natural draft boiler. I went with the Woodmaster for sevaral reasons but one being the forced draft, a forced draft boiler will burn clean other then a puff at the begining of a cycle given dry wood to burn. Have seen it done with three different brands within a mile of my house. We have them right in town here and until I read on the I net about places banning them I hadnt given the smoke a second thought, it is realy not that bad IMO excpt for a select few that burn junk. Could be the wood in differant locals smokes more or less? Most firewood here is hardwoods