info on this blaze king

[tabner]

I almost feel like a 27' vertical could offset that ugliness at the beginning.

On the other hand, BKVP is the one who gets all the "your stove doesn't work" phone calls from people who didn't read the manual, so he has more experience than anyone with this particular situation!

I personally wouldn't expect any issues heating the house in the dead of winter, but one of BK's biggest draws is the black box mode for shoulder season, and that's the part more likely to suffer in warm weather as draft decreases and you start running the stove lower and lower.

I'd try it anyway if the price was right! Maybe you get a stove that's less capable than a properly installed BK, but just as good as a tube stove. And you can always choose to upgrade the venting down the line.

And at the worst, you end up unhappy with the stove. It sounds like you could resell for more than you paid anyway, as you mentioned the price is "too good to be true". 👍

I’m actually not super concerned about the shoulder season low and slow, my heat pump is pretty efficient. I’m more just needing something I can “set it and forget it” for at least 12 hours in the winter months. My current stove I have to load every 6 hours and every reload involves 45 mins of fiddling. If the temp drops in my stove room(finished basement) then the whole house temp drops and it’s a pain to catch back up. So my motivation is really more the big firebox and thermostat. Not to mention I’m currently shoveling ash every four days.

 

[tabner]

Hrmm... I would question WHY is that stove still listed and discounted on price?? I smell scam on that one.

I should also add, he said he thinks it’s a 2012 model (I’ll check when I look at it) but a ten year old stove should have a pretty good discount below market price I would think?

 

[stoveliker]

If it's a 2012 model, then you may need a new cat (and cat gasket). You don't know yet, but be prepared.

(The "gambling" makes this a little harder, but you may need a new cat to be able to properly test if everything works with your chimney set up. Note that burning with the bypass open when the firebox gets hot can damage the bypass (gasket retaining clips).)

 

[mellow]

I should also add, he said he thinks it’s a 2012 model (I’ll check when I look at it) but a ten year old stove should have a pretty good discount below market price I would think?

I keep an eye on stove prices and that is a very good deal, most of the time they will list for $2000 but with cash in hand you can get it for cheaper, doing the discount right off the top like that concerns me, used stoves are still selling at a good clip with dealers not able to get new ones in stock. Hopefully you can pick it up and it will need minimal work to it, I just have been doing this for long enough I know something like that is usually gone within a day or hours of being posted.

 

[tabner]

I keep an eye on stove prices and that is a very good deal, most of the time they will list for $2000 but with cash in hand you can get it for cheaper, doing the discount right off the top like that concerns me, used stoves are still selling at a good clip with dealers not able to get new ones in stock. Hopefully you can pick it up and it will need minimal work to it, I just have been doing this for long enough I know something like that is usually gone within a day or hours of being posted.

i read your post right before i walked out the door to go look at the stove, maybe you influenced me, lol. I decided to skip it (for now, suppose i could always go back). Overall it just looked in rough shape to me. Wish i knew more about BK internals and good vs bad condition. The Cat probe wouldn't slide in all the way, and it wouldn't sit flat on top. The probe was only 1.5" long maybe, not sure if it was snapped, or just corrosion in there. The ash tray wouldn't pull out. The door handle was super loose. And overall everything just seemed to be covered in a lot of creosote and some minor corrosion inside. There is a piece of flat steel bar that goes across under the bypass, is that supposed to have a bend to it? I wasn't sure if that was warpage, or normal. Also both the bypass damper and thermostat seemed very rough and noisy to operate. I think it might fundamentally be a sound stove, but it just felt like it was not well cared for.
I very much want to try a Princess some day, but it seems a shame to buy one that would not be a good representative of their full potential. Plus i have enough projects on my hands. If I end up with multiple woodstoves cluttering my garage and costing me more money my wife might walk out.

 

[mellow]

If it was me I would have offered $500 cash and ran with it knowing I would possibly have another $500+ to get it running right. I am not sure how much the tstat costs for the princess but if that was messed up it wouldn't be cheap to replace, that is the brains for the BK's.

Sounds like it was overfired and put to bed wet. I think you made the right call if you have to many other projects going on.

 

[jetsam]

Thermostat feeling a little rough just requires a dab of anti-sieze. It's not easy to spot thermostat problems on a cold stove though!

Warped stuff inside the stove is never a great sign, and I can tell you that just about every "I hate my BK" thread that shows up here boils down to some combination of wet wood, improper venting, basement install, and excessive draft.

I remember one Princess being run with no cat and the door cracked because the basement needed more heat... that thing probably looked like Dr. Seuss's stove.

 

[PaulOinMA]

I was going to ask if you needed help moving it.