Blaze King Princess Questions........

[tcassavaugh]

thanks guys, i'm hoping a few others with a princess will chime in on their square feet heated.....i'm ready to jump....well almost. like i've mentioned before i hear nothing but good things about BK King and Princess. I'm almost convinced Princess is the way to go, especially since i have everything 6 inch. i just don't want to buy another stove that doesn't quite do the trick or my wife will have me set up one of the extra stoves in the garage.....where I'll be spending a majority of my time. Wait, as long as my wi-fi works, might not be too bad after all.....but don't tell her i said that.

cass

 

[weatherguy]

thanks guys, i'm hoping a few others with a princess will chime in on their square feet heated.....i'm ready to jump....well almost. like i've mentioned before i hear nothing but good things about BK King and Princess. I'm almost convinced Princess is the way to go, especially since i have everything 6 inch. i just don't want to buy another stove that doesn't quite do the trick or my wife will have me set up one of the extra stoves in the garage.....where I'll be spending a majority of my time. Wait, as long as my wi-fi works, might not be too bad after all.....but don't tell her i said that.

cass

I have almost 3000 square feet, the trick for me anyway is to get the heat circulating properly. My house is set up so the family room, where the stove is located in a center fireplace, is open to the kitchen, dining and living rooms above, its an open floor plan so that whole middle area of the house is always comfortable, even when we lost power for a week and I couldnt use my blower the middle of the house stayed comfortable enough that we stayed here the whole week, the bedrooms were cold but who cares. With the blower going and the ceiling fans the whole house is comfortable except for one side bedroom that stays cool, we sleep there so we dont mind.
A lot depends on the layout and how you can circulate the heat, but the princess can heat that amount of square footage no problem.

 

[North of 60]

thanks guys, i'm hoping a few others with a princess will chime in on their square feet heated.....i'm ready to jump....well almost. like i've mentioned before i hear nothing but good things about BK King and Princess. I'm almost convinced Princess is the way to go, especially since i have everything 6 inch. i just don't want to buy another stove that doesn't quite do the trick or my wife will have me set up one of the extra stoves in the garage.....where I'll be spending a majority of my time. Wait, as long as my wi-fi works, might not be too bad after all.....but don't tell her i said that.

cass

2140-2150sqft, 2 level, stove in basement, 8" walls strapped with 2" SM Blue. 24" blown pink in attic. Box fan at the bottom of stairs blowing at the stove. Good to -35,-40C. Feather the furnace in at that time to keep stove setting below #2= mid point. Helps circulate the air in the far reaches. This is the bedrooms which I like to keep cooler anyways.
Cheers

 

[tcassavaugh]

my arrangement can be a challange. the stove is in the finished basement which has an open family room on one end of the basement and bedrooms on the other with a hallway between them to the stairs on the opposite end of the house. so you can see, air movement is somewhat of a problem. Upstairs, i have a small Jotul used during shoulder season or when its really cold and the layout is almost reversed....large rooms at the top of the stairs and bedrooms in the back. I've used corner fans and box fans in the past 15 years that have helped a little while using a Large DW. I bought the summit two years ago but last year, i decided to try and rely solely on the summit fan/blower. it did a better job at keeping the house at an even temperature than all the other fans combined. you could see the air current it established when you were in the hallway....bottom was cold air moving toward the stove and top was warm, moving away and up the stairs. kind of cool actually.

guess i had better start listing my two stoves on craigs list. between the two of them, i might get 1/2-2/3's the cost of the princess.

cass

 

[jeff_t]

FWIW, BK's btu numbers are somewhat similar for the king and princess, the difference being firebox size (burntime). If you're going to run it wide open and chuck wood in it all the time, you might notice the difference. The princess is still nearly 3 ft³. What you'll get with the cat/thermo is a burn that evens those btu's out, instead of a peak like with a secondary burn stove. I would have gotten a princess if I hadn't gotten such a good price on the king. I was starting new with the chimney, so that wasn't an issue for me.

 

[rdust]

I'm heating just shy of 2K with the Princess, the stove is in the family room.

My biggest issue with it right now is finding the best way to load it since it's not that cold yet. We've only had a few nights in the 20's but other than that we've been in the 30's at night. If it stays in the 30's I can load at night and get 24 hours + or- out of it, in the 20's I have to run it a little hotter so the reload time is at a bad time.(probably 18 hours of good heat) When it gets cold enough so I can load every 12 hours I'll be all set. Of course I could load less wood but these stoves burn really nice when you fill every nook and cranny. :lol: Even as it is I'm still able to reload off the coals after 24 hours but the house is dipping into the high 60's at that point. I think heating from the main level is also a big plus, if I had the stove in the basement it wouldn't be nearly as impressive.

 

[nate379]

With it being very warm here the last few days I have just about shut the stove down. 2-3 logs one a day is all it needs. Even still it's 78* in teh house right now from a fire that was made 14hrs ago. It's 40* and raining outside... freaking crazy... that is darn near summer temps!

 

[richg]

I heat 2300 square feet with my Princess. Living areas are 73-76 all winter long. I'm loading my stove twice a day right now, 12 hours apart, with full loads. Could not be easier. I'd have opted for a King, but I needed an insert and already had a 6" insulated liner... I remain in love with this stove. I burn far less wood than I ever have before and the burn times are ridiculous.

alright, I've had enough. When I get enough scratch saved up, I'm dumping my Quad 4300 and getting a Princess.

 

[tcassavaugh]

I heat 2300 square feet with my Princess. Living areas are 73-76 all winter long. I'm loading my stove twice a day right now, 12 hours apart, with full loads. Could not be easier. I'd have opted for a King, but I needed an insert and already had a 6" insulated liner... I remain in love with this stove. I burn far less wood than I ever have before and the burn times are ridiculous.

alright, I've had enough. When I get enough scratch saved up, I'm dumping my Quad 4300 and getting a Princess.

:lol: lol, i can sympothyse completely. they've sold me that the Princess is the way to go. The King might even be overkill in my case....especially having to change the stack from 6" to 8".

thanks again for all the replies.

cass

 

[Jager]

I'm two weeks into my Princess. Yesterday evening (5:30pm) I loaded it up pretty good for the first time. Not all the way - I could still fit a few small splits in there if I had wanted to - but close enough for government work. I let it catch good (I was starting from the bed of coals from the early morning fire - I've come to understand the BK's never really burn out unless unless you want them to), and then dialed it down to where the '0' would be, were there a zero. An hour later I dialed it all the way back (albeit, one of the posts last week suggested that there may not be any difference between '0' and less than zero).

It put out a LOT of heat all night. Got up this morning to a warm house and 300-degree temps coming off the stove. Cat still up a third of the way in the active zone. That it would run that well, for that long, all dialed back would suggest, I guess, that I have both excellent draft and good wood. I'm learning.

There was still lots of wood left. I dialed it up to '1,' then put the coffee on. Then I sat there enjoying the flames for awhile, until they died back down.

Now, 17 hours since I last opened the door of the stove, there's still a shake-your-head amount of wood in it. I was hoping to have it burn off so I could clean the door for the first time (when I was at TSC yesterday picking up my new log splitter, I saw a bottle of Rutland's stove glass cleaner I want to try). I may have to wait awhile.

It seems that with BK's, keeping a fire going isn't the challenge. Having one go out is.

 

[fdegree]

It seems that with BK's, keeping a fire going isn't the challenge. Having one go out is.

Yeah, I had the same "problem" last night with my King... I started my first fire of the season Friday afternoon with some kindling...6:00 pm Friday I loaded it full. At 6:00 pm Saturday I still had too much wood/coals remaining that I didn't feel comfortable loading it again. So, I cranked the T'stat up to 3.0 in an attempt to burn it down enough so I could load it again before I went to bed...it was midnight before I felt comfortable enough to place any more wood in the stove, and the house temp went from 74* to 80* during that "burn down" time.

I had this kind of performance with 30* night time temps and 50* day time temps in a 2300 sq. ft., single story home.

If you are going to have a problem, there is no better problem to have.

 

[richg]

this is getting to be too much for me. Where the heck can you get a Princess for a good price in the NY-Philly area?

 

[weatherguy]

this is getting to be too much for me. Where the heck can you get a Princess for a good price in the NY-Philly area?

Hit dealer search on the top of the page, theres quite a few in your area.

http://www.blazeking.com/

 

[nate379]

I would say if you don't live in a place that gets cold enough to really have a solid couple weeks/months of 24/7 burn that a King or Princess will be a bit of a pain. It's not really setup to work "great" for shoulder season burning, and I know some people all they have is pretty much that.

I remember one thread about the guy in Florida where low 30s was a "low". At those temps for me it's almost easier to kick on the boiler vs overheat the house with just a few logs in the stove.

A smaller stove that you can put a few small logs in at night and have it all burned up in a few hours would be better in that case. Just the thing to get the chill out, not have a 400* stove going for hours and hours and hours.

The weather turned on us the last few days and it's raining and around 40*... the snow is almost all melted!

Anyhow the last fire that was made was Saturday morning. It's still around 70* in the house right now, almost 3PM Sunday evening.

My house is ~1400 sq ft single story ranch and well sealed/insulated. Honestly the Princess is nearly too much stove. I have to keep the air control (T Stat) shut all the way down other than on the coldest days (-20), and then I kick it up to maybe #1. If I ran the stove at something like #1-#2 all the time it would be darn near melting the paint off the walls. I could probably add another 1000 sq ft to the house and heat it just fine provided I could circulate the warm air.

 

[weatherguy]

I would say if you don't live in a place that gets cold enough to really have a solid couple weeks/months of 24/7 burn that a King or Princess will be a bit of a pain. It's not really setup to work "great" for shoulder season burning, and I know some people all they have is pretty much that.

I remember one thread about the guy in Florida where low 30s was a "low". At those temps for me it's almost easier to kick on the boiler vs overheat the house with just a few logs in the stove.

A smaller stove that you can put a few small logs in at night and have it all burned up in a few hours would be better in that case. Just the thing to get the chill out, not have a 400* stove going for hours and hours and hours.

The weather turned on us the last few days and it's raining and around 40*... the snow is almost all melted!

Anyhow the last fire that was made was Saturday morning. It's still around 70* in the house right now, almost 3PM Sunday evening.

My house is ~1400 sq ft single story ranch and well sealed/insulated. Honestly the Princess is nearly too much stove. I have to keep the air control (T Stat) shut all the way down other than on the coldest days (-20), and then I kick it up to maybe #1. If I ran the stove at something like #1-#2 all the time it would be darn near melting the paint off the walls. I could probably add another 1000 sq ft to the house and heat it just fine provided I could circulate the warm air.

Your right, I hardly every run my stove with the tstat anywhere but on 1, in fact I keep it in the same place on overnight burns as I do in the day when Im here. The only difference is during the day I turn the tstat up as the burn goes along whereas overnight I just turn it up when I get up in the morning.

 

[rdust]

I would say if you don't live in a place that gets cold enough to really have a solid couple weeks/months of 24/7 burn that a King or Princess will be a bit of a pain. It's not really setup to work "great" for shoulder season burning, and I know some people all they have is pretty much that.

I don't agree with this statement for my situation. Our houses aren't built anywhere near as tight as yours in the North. I find burning this stove right now is way easier then my last stove. I would be loading three fires a day with the last stove to keep this place warm, the temps would spike to the mid 70's(or higher) and drop to the high 60's and I'd reload. With the temps like we have them right now I can load the stove full in the evening set it on 1 and keep the house a steady 70-71 for 24 hours with the stove on 1. With mine on 1 I have a stove top around 300* after the stove settles in after a few hours. I'm heating just under 2k, the house was built in the 80's so I'm sure the insulation sucks but has newer windows, it's 2 stories plus a basement(don't heat the basement) and it's not an open floor plan.

 

[weatherguy]

I would say if you don't live in a place that gets cold enough to really have a solid couple weeks/months of 24/7 burn that a King or Princess will be a bit of a pain. It's not really setup to work "great" for shoulder season burning, and I know some people all they have is pretty much that.

I don't agree with this statement for my situation. Our houses aren't built anywhere near as tight as yours in the North. I find burning this stove right now is way easier then my last stove. I would be loading three fires a day with the last stove to keep this place warm, the temps would spike to the mid 70's(or higher) and drop to the high 60's and I'd reload. With the temps like we have them right now I can load the stove full in the evening set it on 1 and keep the house a steady 70-71 for 24 hours with the stove on 1. With mine on 1 I have a stove top around 300* after the stove settles in after a few hours. I'm heating just under 2k, the house was built in the 80's so I'm sure the insulation sucks but has newer windows, it's 2 stories plus a basement(don't heat the basement) and it's not an open floor plan.

I disagree with his statement too, the BK is the perfect stove around here for shoulder seasons, you can turn it down as low as it goes and get a super long slow burn. I usually turn my blower off when its not too cold, that way I get less heat and a longer burn.

 

[North of 60]

But what about the extra fiddling and attention with the by-pass thingy to make it operate properly and CAT thing that requires more maintenance. I just don't think any of this is worth it. :blank: Please tell me at least that you guys are not burning pine in it TOO!

 

[rdust]

But what about the extra fiddling and attention with the by-pass thingy to make it operate properly and CAT thing that requires more maintenance. I just don't think any of this is worth it. :blank: Please tell me at least that you guys are not burning pine in it TOO!

 

[mellow]

Old school BK Princess for sale out in WA, never used. $1100

http://tricitieswa.ebayclassifieds....ty/blaze-king-princess-wood-stove/?ad=7911718


Never seen one of this age in unused condition before, must be old stock from a dealer.

 

[tcassavaugh]

it looks alot like my brothers old earth stove......that he still uses.

cass

 

[nate379]

My house isn't anything special. It's just a spec house built to min code. I did add some insulation in the attic, but it's still just R21 walls and R60 ceiling.
Windows are double pane but nothing expensive.
I'm sure if I had built the house myself or at least had more involvement it would be insulated better.

Also it doesn't get all that cold here. I know of many places in the lower 48 or Canada that are colder than this area. We have fairly mild temps honestly.


The thing on the stove is I can only turn the stove down so much. 30* out and I fill the stove with it all the way down, it's going to get 85-90* in the house without trying too hard.

It's just a bit over 20* outside, I am still only putting 1/2 a load in the stove.... and still right now it's 75* in the house.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I think it is more the penetration than the insulation. I've gotten the windward side of my house felted/foamed/tyveked/wood lap sided and reinstalled all the windows and doors over the past few months. The difference in the way the house heats and retains heat is amazing especially when the wind is cranking.

 

[weatherguy]

My house isn't anything special. It's just a spec house built to min code. I did add some insulation in the attic, but it's still just R21 walls and R60 ceiling.
Windows are double pane but nothing expensive.
I'm sure if I had built the house myself or at least had more involvement it would be insulated better.

Also it doesn't get all that cold here. I know of many places in the lower 48 or Canada that are colder than this area. We have fairly mild temps honestly.


The thing on the stove is I can only turn the stove down so much. 30* out and I fill the stove with it all the way down, it's going to get 85-90* in the house without trying too hard.

It's just a bit over 20* outside, I am still only putting 1/2 a load in the stove.... and still right now it's 75* in the house.

Ive seen R-11 in walls and R-30 in attics here for newer homes. Some of the new energy efficient homes are being built with foam insulation that expands. those homes are a little higher and need an air exhanger to circulate fresh air.