Do Blaze King inserts live up to the reputation of their free standing stoves?

Not as long as three freestanders by any means, I always keep my blowers on the insert otherwise you dont get as much heat and it really cuts down on the burn times. A good packed stove will give me 10 hours of good heat which isnt bad. When its not real cold I do 2, 12 hour burns a day, but when its colder I do 3, 8 hour burns. On the days that are warm in the day but cold at night I pack it before bed and in the late morning when it warms up outside I turn the blowers off, that way when 5-6 pm rolls around, and its getting cold I have plenty of coals to start of fire.
When I lost power for a week and couldnt use my blowers I could get the long times everyone else gets but the heat output wasnt the same as theirs was.

Other than the overall heat output being lower, which is unavoidable in inserts, I think they are very similar in performance. I get 12 hour burns with great, even heat output. The insert is a fantastic stove, there is nothing else like it.

I assume you've read that these stoves really, really need dry wood.

It was worth it for me, and I would recommend it to anyone who can afford a new stove. Don't expect too much feedback on a topic that's been beaten to death for a couple years. Do a search for 'princess insert' and you'll have several days worth of reading material.

First winter burning in my Princess insert and I have no regrets. Not the most ideal year temperature wise to really see how it handles the below zero or single digit temps for days in a row. We have only had a small handful this year. Even on those nasty cold nights it had no problem doing a 14-16 hour cycle on one load of ash/red oak and our one level 1600 sq ft house never got below 75°. I don't know how the freestanding BK operate but I think BK designed the insert right as far as burning a full load down to just a few small glowing nuggets of charcoal and that cat probe is right above the edge of going inactive so I can rake those glowing remains up towards the front, reload, open the air up a few dots and close the Bypass and with in a half hour the cat is all hot again and I can back all the way down on the air control dial for the rest of the burn-I love that! So little time spent at the stove fiddling with the air control to progressively bring down the burn rate because the stove does most of it for you. The blower is super quiet at all but the fastest speeds, our blower runs on the lowest setting all the time or not at all when the outside temps are above 30° and my wife is opening windows during the afternoon from the solar gain combined with the remaining heat of the BK generally.

I've had my Princess Insert for 2 seasons now, and couldn't be happier. I own 1 other cat stove and a few other non cat stoves, and the difference for me is night and day. It's helpful that my setup is ideal. I have a 2200 sq foot open home with 20 foot ceilings through the center of the home. The fireplace is in the center of the house, with a 24 foot stainless liner inside of the tile flue, with only a low degree elbow at the stove, so almost straight up. I get a very strong draw from this, and my stove mostly burns with the T stat straight up and down, which equates to about 10% on the dial when I'm burning a full or larger load.

With the help of a ceiling fan, I'm able to easily keep the whole house at 70 with little trouble, no matter the weather.

My overall thoughts: The well designed T stat and cat converter design make all the difference compared to my previous stoves. With a full load, on all but the coldest days I get 12-16 hour burn times, and the stove does the work with me not having to do any adjustments etc.. Our inside home temp rarely varies by more than 3 degrees, very consistent. I've done really packed loads when leaving for the day and come home after 20 hours to a still cozy warm home and lit stove. Amazing for the relatively small firebox, and not something I could ever do with our other stoves.

My only complaint being that the low and slow burns do cause my glass to black up at the bottom corners and up towards the middle of the glass after only a few days, but it's a common complaint from most owners who use the stove the way I do. The creosote on the window has not equated to an overly dirty stove pipe though, and my stovepipe cleanouts have been very good.

I'm very happy with my stove, and appreciate being able to leave in the morning and come home late at night and do nothing but toss in a few splits and dial up the t stat and be back to full temp in 10 minutes. And, it's a mizer on wood compared to any other stove I've ever used.

I can honestly say that if you didn't leave your stove for more than 24 hours, you really could get through an entire season with only lighting one match in the fall.