Wife approves of a Blaze King!!!

[Newburnerwisconsin]

To the OP - -9 this morning, 64 inside (warmer here the heat comes up in the kitchen & stairs), princess is in the basement - block wall non insulated, I did stuff some insulation in the sill plate a few years ago, upstairs is approx. 1,100 sq ft 2x4 cons, attic has approx. 18" fiber glass insulation. Stove had the blower on high, loaded it up around 9pm - still have 1/4 of the load (charred wood, not coals) In my book you cant beat it, if the stove was installed in an insulated portion of the house there's no doubt the blower would be running lower and the inside temp would be in the 70's.

Thanks for your info. Appreciate it!

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

I only know the Firelight, but I believe the Oslo and Castine have the same construction, scaled smaller. I owned the old Firelight 12, but all of the primary castings and assembly were identical to the F600, just modified for required interior differences. Everything was cemented, with the exception of the lid and inside rear burn plate, which were gasketed for easy removal. Base and sides were all cemented. You’re right, it is likely several years before it needs attention, unless overtired.

Agreed on convective designs, if heating from a basement. My Jotuls could crank out massive heat, by the stone fireplaces into which I had stuffed them just soaked it all up, and spit it outside. That is what had me checking the PE Alderlea, before the Ashford was released.

Thanks for your information on the Jotul stoves. Very much appreciated.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

The Jotuls are pretty, but there's no comparing to a BK, if you're buying it as a full-time heater. The Jotul 600 can crank out some serious heat, but the cemented cast is a higher maintenance ordeal when it gets older.

The Jotul probably has the advantage on absolute maximum top end, but the BK has a huge advantage in that it can be left burning wide-open, with no danger of overfire. The BK has the advantage on burn time at low burn rates, for when it ain't -33 out.

Great point!

 

[Ashful]

BTW, I think Jotul also makes some welded steel box stoves, namely the F50/55. I remember looking at them a half-dozen years ago, but since I was set on buying a cat stove, I didn't pay as much attention as I should have.

 

[jetsam]

I'd say there's no difference at all, that I can tell anyway..
Both stoves have totally different t-stat settings for the same burn though.. Weird, huh ??
The t-stats seem totally different, if that makes sence ??

They're calibrated individually you don't have the same flue system on both stoves, and they may even be different units. Makes sense to me.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

We had -33 here last night and -31 again tonight. This weather has been brutal. My wife shocked me today when she gave her approval of a Blaze King Princess. Anyone out there have one of these? Any problems with the stove? I need a big stove for this Wisconsin weather. Thanks

BTW, I think Jotul also makes some welded steel box stoves, namely the F50/55. I remember looking at them a half-dozen years ago, but since I was set on buying a cat stove, I didn't pay as much attention as I should have.

I have to be honest. The F55 is one of my favorites. It's really that stove or the Princess. Both have a large firebox and the F55 has a stainless steel baffle with a cast iron jacket to keep it from warping. I have to learn more about the Princess and which stove will be best for my situation.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Princess may not cut it if you are heating 2000 sq.ft. from the basement, in WI (is that 2000 both up and down, or 2000 each level?) At least go with a King. I would look at other stoves with more power than the BKs, but that's just me, YMMV. A lot depends on the layout, air-sealing, insulation etc, but I don't have time to read your other threads right now..

Tha TA what I have to figure out. Would the Jotul or Pricess be better for my situation. I don't care about EPA regs, emissions etc. I want heat dependable, simple heat for my family.

 

[Tar12]

Tha TA what I have to figure out. Would the Jotul or Pricess be better for my situation. I don't care about EPA regs, emissions etc. I want heat dependable, simple heat for my family.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/anyone-run-a-jøtul-f-55-carrabassett.101184/

 

[pjohnson]

Love my King installed it in my cabin northern Wisconsin around thanksgiving hasn’t been shut down since. Easy to run wife is up there alone and keeps it going. Eats some wood when it’s been cold but when it’s in the 40’s turn it down and runs 18 to 30 hours. What part of Wisconsin are you these were hard to find earlier in the season. Hard to believe how even the temp stays once ya find the right setting almost like having a furnace.

 

[Woody Stover]

The house is 1000 sq. ft on each level. There is a open staircase joining the two levels. Basement in finished and insulated. Does this help?

OK, I'd say the Princess would handle that fairly well.

BTW, I think Jotul also makes some welded steel box stoves, namely the F50/55.

The F55 is one of my favorites. It's really that stove or the Princess. Both have a large firebox and the F55 has a stainless steel baffle with a cast iron jacket to keep it from warping. I have to learn more about the Princess and which stove will be best for my situation.

Both are welded seams so no concern about air leaks developing over the years. the BK might have a bit more maintenance, cat cleaning and replacement etc, but in day to day operation may be simpler than a secondary-burn stove. Nice if you aren't the only one running the stove. You don't have to worry as much about making a mistake with a cat stove, and it getting too hot.
You said you had some 6" Dura-tech chimney...do you have a stove installed now, or how did you end up with the chimney?

 

[Dataman]

Get the King. Load and burn all night even with Pine.

 

[Mnpellet]

Square footage alone don’t tell much. If it’s decently insulated and not terrible drafty I would say a princess no problem. Only you know your house and the heat demands. As far as that goes the 30 series may work. How about ceiling height?

 

[Ashful]

Tha TA what I have to figure out. Would the Jotul or Pricess be better for my situation. I don't care about EPA regs, emissions etc. I want heat dependable, simple heat for my family.

I don't think you can go wrong, either way.

The BK's was the only way to go for me, with their thermostatic control for even output throughout the burn, and uber-long burn time capability. I wanted to be able to reliably reload the stoves on my work schedule, and control exactly when it would require more wood, not the other way around.

I'd bet the Jotuls probably beat the BK's, cubic foot for cubic foot, on maximum output. When you need to scream through a load of wood in minimum time, like if you have no central heating and are trying to bring a cold house up to temp fast, the Jotul might win here. BK's have one nice advantage here, in that they can be run wide open without any danger of overfire, but this does limit their top end a bit. If you're willing to watch the stove carefully, and aren't apprehensive about getting into a run-away situation, the Jotuls can probably push more maximum BTU's on a high setting.

 

[Rich L]

Well the other two I am looking at is the Jotul F55 and possibly the 500 or 600.

I hear good things about the Woodstock IS stove.It has a 3.2 firebox.

 

[kennyp2339]

I have to learn more about the Princess and which stove will be best for my situation.

Ask away, I'm open honest and critical of my BK, I have had a love / hate relationship with it (again self inflicted) but I can tell you one thing that the BK has that the jotuls don't... the BK has excellent customer service / support, a vice president that is very active on these forums, someone that repeatedly gives out there cell phone number to call when a problem is encountered or reaches out to you via private message.

 

[Sawset]

Square footage alone don’t tell much. If it’s decently insulated and not terrible drafty I would say a princess no problem. Only you know your house and the heat demands. As far as that goes the 30 series may work. How about ceiling height?

Most heating contractors would do some sort of heat load calculation in order to size heating and cooling equipment. And use spreadsheets or software to do that. If a guy wanted to get fancy about it there are sites out there that could help with that:
http://www.loadcalc.net/
Then a benchmark could be created for comparisons.

 

[Diabel]

For people to say that their Princess can easily heat 2000 sqf homes....good for you. You must have a perfect house set up for it.

I have a 2200sqf very well insulated home (brand new construction). The stove sits in a 1100sqf area. It heats the area extremely well. Yesterday I wanted to see if the Princess can actually maintain the heat level on the upper floor. It was toasty 74 on both levels. I turned the fireplace off at around noon.
Both levels have lots of glass.
It has been around -1*F lately. The upper level maintained the temp up until the sun went down, at which point the upper level temp started to drop off.

Few observations that might be messing my set up performance:

4x4 stairwell opening (spiral staircase)
11ft ceilings on the lower level
12ft ceilings on the upper.
Tons of glass doors and windows especially on upper level.

I suppose, 2000sqf house with 8’ ceilings is not the same as 2000sqf house with 12’ ceilings when it comes to wood stove heating.

I am not complaining, I bought the Princess mainly to have something to play with in the winter. In my case the stove heats the 1100sqf awesome. The heat pump has not been on since Wed morning!!

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Love my King installed it in my cabin northern Wisconsin around thanksgiving hasn’t been shut down since. Easy to run wife is up there alone and keeps it going. Eats some wood when it’s been cold but when it’s in the 40’s turn it down and runs 18 to 30 hours. What part of Wisconsin are you these were hard to find earlier in the season. Hard to believe how even the temp stays once ya find the right setting almost like having a furnace.

Western Wisconsin. I can't buy a king as I have a chimney with a six inch flew. It's has to be the princess.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Square footage alone don’t tell much. If it’s decently insulated and not terrible drafty I would say a princess no problem. Only you know your house and the heat demands. As far as that goes the 30 series may work. How about ceiling height?

8 ft. Ceiling.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

OK, I'd say the Princess would handle that fairly well.

Both are welded seams so no concern about air leaks developing over the years. the BK might have a bit more maintenance, cat cleaning and replacement etc, but in day to day operation may be simpler than a secondary-burn stove. Nice if you aren't the only one running the stove. You don't have to worry as much about making a mistake with a cat stove, and it getting too hot.
You said you had some 6" Dura-tech chimney...do you have a stove installed now, or how did you end up with the chimney?

I have been burning wood for years. My current stove is a Hearthstone Heritage. It's fine. It burns like the company claims it will. No complaints here about the stove. It's just not the best stove for my set-up.

 

[snojetter]

Report from a Princess owner: We are on season 6 with our Princess Ultra. The house is is the same age as the stove, lots of big windows, but standard ceiling height. Split-entry design, roughly 1500 Sq. Ft. per level. Stove is in the basement at the base of the stairscase, pretty much center of the house.

Now, I knew going in that I wasn't truly going to be able to heat my entire house with a space heater in the basement of a split-entry. I'm all electric with a low-temp heat pump and I've never done an experiment to see how my costs would differ if I shut the stove down for a month or two. Nor have I tried heating exclusively with wood (never had a long-term power outage). But our utility bill is low, and we love spending time in the family room soaking up the wood heat. That's what counts. We had -34 degree actual temps in this latest arctic blast, so it'll be interesting to see what the utility bill looks like this month. Whatever...the stove was rolling and aint no cozier feeling than flames dancing while the wind howls outside!

My opinion is the BK is one of the best decisions we made when designing the house. 90% of the time when people praise a BK, they talk up how great it is to have a stove that can run low on mild days. Yes that's great. But in my opinion, the real advantage to this stove is the ability to control a fire. It would't matter to me if I had to load the stove every 6 hours; the fact that I can set the burn rate (hi or low) and walk away with no fear of an overfire is worth the premium price tag associated with this stove. I burn 24/7, load up and go to work, reload and go to bed. I load up and leave for the weekend, and then restart the fire when I get home. I hear lots of comments from people who only burn when they are home because of worries about their stove going nuclear. If you want a stove to actually heat your home, you need one that you can trust to burn properly without babysitting it. The peace of mind a BK delivers is priceless. No regrets in making this purchase.

 

[Woody Stover]

My current stove is a Hearthstone Heritage...It's just not the best stove for my set-up.

Having the Heritage, you kind of know what to expect when running a secondary stove, if you are contemplating the F55. You know it's not as forgiving as a cat stove would be. Do others run the stove, or do you handle that?
Where does the Heritage come up short? What kinds of improvements are you looking for?
As far as heat output, if the Heritage is heating your place, I would think a Princess would, as well, until temps get crazy low, like they just did. If your central heat has to help out on occasion, that wouldn't be a problem, right?
Might be more an Ashford issue, but I don't think the Princess likes a short chimney either. But I'm assuming that you have a tall chimney in that type of house, with the stove downstairs.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Having the Heritage, you kind of know what to expect when running a secondary stove, if you are contemplating the F55. You know it's not as forgiving as a cat stove would be. Do others run the stove, or do you handle that?
Where does the Heritage come up short? What kinds of improvements are you looking for?
As far as heat output, if the Heritage is heating your place, I would think a Princess would, as well, until temps get crazy low, like they just did. If your central heat has to help out on occasion, that wouldn't be a problem, right?
Might be more an Ashford issue, but I don't think the Princess likes a short chimney either. But I'm assuming that you have a tall chimney in that type of house, with the stove downstairs.

I mostly run the stove. My wife also helps out when she is home. I want to heat with wood as much as possible. I want as much heat in the house as possible. Yes, I also have LP heat. I am losing a fair amount of heat up the flu. I am
Thinking I will have more heat by switching to a steel/cast iron stove from soapstone. Both the F55 and Princess should throw out a lot more heat than the soapstone.

 

[Diabel]

If raw heat is what you are looking for.......The Princess might not be the right fit. She is more of a gentle heat releaser and a energizer bunny at the same time....keeps on going....

 

[kennyp2339]

@Newburnerwisconsin heart attack hill to get on the deck?