So I called my local Blaze King Dealer...

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pkell1572

New Member
Sep 16, 2012
11
Hello all,
I have been lurking for a while on here and have used the information here to help guide me to a wood burning nirvana! I have 5 acres of overgrown hardwoods and pine in Missouri. I am on a pretty good slope so bringing wood up the hill will require some equipment. I have an older air source heat pump that is working OK for now. My reasons for wanting to get setup to burn wood are 1. I have a lot of wood that needs to be burned anyway. 2. I live in an area where I need to prepare for long periods without electricity due to winter storms. 3. My current heat source is going to have issues on the coldest days. 4. I love, love, love a good fire on a cold day.

I have a 2500 sq/ft house plus a basement. I had decided to pull the trigger on a Blaze King Princess insert. My living room is kind of small and I do want a lot of heat, I don't want the unit to drive me out of the living room either. I thought the price of the unit was kind of high! $3,600 plus pipe and stuff. It was going to be over $4100 not including installation. For about the same price I could get a Blaze King Classic, not install the legs and ALMOST slide the thing right in. I would have to put a bit of a bend on the top vent right at the stove and I may need to knock out a fire bricks in the fireplace but it will be close. It would be the worlds most bad A** fireplace insert! Is this a bad idea? I hate spending so much money and not getting everything I want.
 
The issue here is that it "almost" fits. I don't know your set-up, but I have a hard time believing there would be enough room to make the connection. The other issue is that the blowers would be inaccesible and likely starving for air, and the bypass handle might be out of reach too. The insert would heat that area, but you would be pushing it. Could you run a new class A flue and get a free standing B-King? That price seems very high, where are you located? Our Blaze King-King Ultra goes for right around $3K.
 
Will the insert work without electricity? A lot of inserts have a fan that is a key part of getting the heat into the room. I don't know if the Blaze King insert has a fan or how well it works without the fan running.
 
The issue here is that it "almost" fits. I don't know your set-up, but I have a hard time believing there would be enough room to make the connection. The other issue is that the blowers would be inaccesible and likely starving for air, and the bypass handle might be out of reach too. The insert would heat that area, but you would be pushing it. Could you run a new class A flue and get a free standing B-King? That price seems very high, where are you located? Our Blaze King-King Ultra goes for right around $3K.

I know! I like your point on the blowers. I also like your point on pushing the insert. What is the point of pushing a cat stove? If you cant go low and slow then I might as well buy a Hearthstone Clydesdale or a even one of their rear vent hearth stoves like a homestead. The bypass handle would fit but it would be tight.

My plan was to put a new 8" flue liner in the chimney. Is that what you are talking about a class A Flue? The part that is tough is the back of the fireplace. To get the vent to line up with the chimney I would need to knock out some firebrick in the back of the fire place.

The more I think about it the more I should just install a princess insert. I thought the price was high too and I am pretty far from this dealer but the next closest dealer is in Poplar Bluff and I have to say these guys were really nice to me on the phone and I would like to give them my business. Blaze King wants to protect their vendors and that makes sense to me. I just thought a princess insert would be less than a King freestanding. If I could have everything I wanted I would take out the fireplace and convert that to hearth pad for a BK King. I am getting the feeling that I might be out of my league on a project like that though. If I knew I could get a nice break on the price by waiting until Spring I would do that but it does not sound like they even stock very many so that is unlikely too.
 
Will the insert work without electricity? A lot of inserts have a fan that is a key part of getting the heat into the room. I don't know if the Blaze King insert has a fan or how well it works without the fan running.

Are they not usable without the blowers? I do have some backup power and the blower would not be too much tax on my modest generator plans but it would be nice to know.
 
Some inserts convect better than others without the blowers running. It depends on how they are designed. As a general rule, the more the insert projects out onto the hearth, the more heat will come off the stove with the fan off. But you won't get as much heat from the insert as when the blower is on.
 
Too much stuff would be stuffed back in the fireplace. Thermostat control. Damper control. Blowers. Don't do it. Even a possibility of the thermo not working right in all of that trapped heat back there.
 
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Too much stuff would be stuffed back in the fireplace. Thermostat control. Damper control. Blowers. Don't do it. Even a possibility of the thermo not working right in all of that trapped heat back there.

That settles it. It seems like a bad idea now. I think I will also shop around and compare the cost of the Blaze King princess and perhaps a woodstock soapstone hybrid that can vent to the rear. Thanks for the help
 
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