Blaze King Princess: Main Air Intake?

[bwooten]

Hello! It's been a while since I have last been on the forum. I found a lot of help here about 2 years ago, when we were looking for a new stove for our remodel. We ended up with the BK Princess, and absolutely love it.

I am writing now with a bit of an oddball question: We recently poured concrete steps in the small sunken living room, and the BK Princess sits on an alcove on those cement steps. Without getting into details of why things worked out this way, my basic concern is the distance from the bottom of the rectangular tube that extends down the back of the stove from the thermostat box (I presume this is the primary air intake for the stove?) and the top of the new cement step. Whereas there used to be plenty of space, now the end of that box hovers 1/2" off the top of the cement step.

This stove is our primary heat source. We haven't had to fire it up yet this year, however I was just cleaning the chimney and it dawned on me that if that is indeed a primary air intake, the reduced clearance might not be ok, and I may need to raise the stove. Can anybody tell from the attached image if that is the case?

 

[Heftiger]

I hate to say this, but I wonder if you can just cut a hole to open it up a little. I would think that’s not going allow enough air through.

 

[moresnow]

Guessing you have a legit concern! Try it and find out. Should be rather evident compared to past performance. If its a issue.

 

[kennyp2339]

Yes the primary air intake is the only air intake in the princess, the stove will need to be moved forward if you have the space or raised to allow at least 4" between the air intake and concrete step. FYI, bk's can get screwy if the stove is to close to masonry, believe it or not the t-stat is very sensitive and if the air / metal on the stove can not be air cooled correctly the reflection of heat can make the t-stat do false things like sense that the fire box is cooler than it actually is or warmer than it actually is, this why bk recommends a minimum of 4" from masonry with this free standing stove

 

[Niko]

instead of raising the princess can you push it forward 6 inches top get the air full clearance? maybe you would have to get a angled black pipe to adjust for moving it forward.

But yeah I would leave the main air intake like that its not going to work in my opinion.

 

[bwooten]

Thanks everybody for your replies. I'll light a fire and see how it behaves, and if corrections need to be made, I'll just raise it up the extra 3.5".

 

[kennyp2339]

instead of raising the princess can you push it forward 6 inches top get the air full clearance? maybe you would have to get a angled black pipe to adjust for moving it forward.

But yeah I would leave the main air intake like that its not going to work in my opinion.

What up Niko... how are the dualing bk’s

 

[begreen]

It looks pretty close, but I'd be tempeted to try it and see how it burns. If it burns fine then no change. If the fire seems starved for air then either raise the stove an inch on a non-combustible material or cleanly notch the back sleeve up about an inch from the bottom.

 

[kennyp2339]

It looks pretty close, but I'd be tempeted to try it and see how it burns. If it burns fine then no change. If the fire seems starved for air then either raise the stove an inch on a non-combustible material or cleanly notch the back sleeve up about an inch from the bottom.

I would not recommend cutting anything, the shroud spacing is key to t-stat operation, I would run it by Chris @BKVP before doing any type of stove alteration.

 

[BKVP]

Don't modify the stove please. Instead as you indicated, try it to see how it performs. You may get a whistling noise!

If it appears to be sluggish, let me know...

 

[Niko]

What up Niko... how are the dualing bk’s

I dont have the princess hooked up yet gonna try to do it this hear but we shall see.