Blaze King Princess/Ashford Pedestal vs. Legs & Ashpan

bcphillips said:

Hello all. Some of you know I'm potentially in the market for a Blaze King but there isn't much information around. I've reviewed the brochures on their website but my dealer has never seen, much less sold one.

I'm trying to decide between a princess and the Ashford 20. I have a 6 inch flue and I'm considering the size of my house, heat output, and the features for the money. I love the VC Encore ash tray pan. What are the respective ash tray pans like on the BKs? How would having a pedestal or legs change the size and functionality of the princess' ash tray pan?

Oh! Before I forget... Know of anyone who needs an Encore in the Mid-Atlantic? Hehe

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The Ashford 30 would be more comparable to the Princess in terms of size. The Ashford 20 is a bit smaller at 1.8 cu ft.

The Ashford 20 will be going into production next week.

We would have a better idea by next week....

bcphillips said:

I have a 6 inch flue and I'm considering the size of my house, heat output, and the features for the money.

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Might be helpful if you post the size the your house, quality of sealing and insulation, placement of the stove relative to the floorplan, and what you're really after from the stove (e.g. 24/7 exclusive wood heat vs supplementing electric/oil/gas heat vs occasional/backup heat).

As for the ashpan on the princess, i dont use mine and many other people dont as well. The stove has such a deep shelf that even with full time burning you can go weeks without having to remove ash. Once i do need to take ash out i just use the shovel................

The ash pan on my King is pretty spiffy, with the folding covers. It holds a lot more than I thought it would.

That said, I've only used it once. I don't like fishing the plug out, and it takes some ash to seal it back up so it doesn't leak air.

No idea of the difference in ash pans between the ultra and parlor models.

It kills me to see anyone intentionally choose a tiny 1.8 cubic foot stove, a cat stove, when the larger option has nearly the same low end output, nearly double the fuel tank, and only slightly larger physical dimensions. Skip the 20. The 30 series stoves are the smallest I would recommend for full time burning.

Sure, the twenty will burn 12 hours on low but when it is real cold outside most of us can only get 12 hours out of the 30 box.

Highbeam said:

It kills me to see anyone intentionally choose a tiny 1.8 cubic foot stove, a cat stove, when the larger option has nearly the same low end output, nearly double the fuel tank, and only slightly larger physical dimensions. Skip the 20. The 30 series stoves are the smallest I would recommend for full time burning.

Sure, the twenty will burn 12 hours on low but when it is real cold outside most of us can only get 12 hours out of the 30 box.

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Ditto.

bcphillips said:

1. What I most want: 12+ hour burns.
2. 1220 square foot rancher and stove is in living room in front of house, centrally located.
3. House was reinsulated floor and ceiling in 2008. New windows, siding and roof.
4. Our sole heat source. The heat pump is a cold heat! Would like to fill it up at 9 pm and not have to touch it until 7am the next morning. Would be able to refill around 4 in the afternoon getting home from work.
5. I'm concerned about clearances with a stove as big as the princess with the dual fan option (an option of buying immediately I have). That's over a foot deeper into the corner where my current stove is and I'd already need to be pulling my hearth out to meet 16 inch clearance reg. in front of stove.

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Clearances issue: the BK with the optional side & rear heat shielding (*upgraded with blowers) & the OAK, Dbl wall pipe, etc; seriously reduces the clearance requirements. When my install (*permit) inspector first looked at my contracted setup; he almost soiled himself. After he chked out the manual he was seriously impressed. That was the 1st BK he had ever seen (*& inspected). He noted that he was NOW going to buy one for his-home! (*Ha)

bcphillips said:

1. What I most want: 12+ hour burns.
2. 1220 square foot rancher and stove is in living room in front of house, centrally located.
3. House was reinsulated floor and ceiling in 2008. New windows, siding and roof.
4. Our sole heat source. The heat pump is a cold heat! Would like to fill it up at 9 pm and not have to touch it until 7am the next morning. Would be able to refill around 4 in the afternoon getting home from work.
5. I'm concerned about clearances with a stove as big as the princess with the dual fan option (an option of buying immediately I have). That's over a foot deeper into the corner where my current stove is and I'd already need to be pulling my hearth out to meet 16 inch clearance reg. in front of stove.

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Get the 30, it holds more wood and you can turn it down lo if you find your house holds heat well, you may just get the burn times you're looking for.

I don't know if this will help, but I loaded my King about 2/3 full this morning, on coals left from Saturday afternoon. My IR says the top is 400, right over the cat, and 300 near the sides. The front is around 250, and I can hold my hand on the side shields, which read around 130. The outside temp is near 50, and my 1600 sq ft ranch is 73 inside.

I can understand your difficulty. I really think you would be fine with either stove, but I don't think you would notice much difference in low output heat. In a situation like yours, the only reason I would choose the smaller stove is for a smaller footprint.

But then, 1.8 cu ft stove isn't 'tiny', and would be considered 'mid-size' if we weren't talking about Blaze King. If we were talking about non-cats, noooobody would recommend a 3 cu ft stove for a well-insulated house like yours in a mild climate. If you were looking at a Woodstock, it would be a Fireview or Keystone, both of which are sub-2 cu ft.

jeff_t said:

If you were looking at a Woodstock, it would be a Fireview or Keystone, both of which are sub-2 cu ft.

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This is true but part of that is because it's all they make in a real cat stove. I would have one in my house if it weren't for the very high clearance requirements of the fireview. It's a decent performer. I thought it was rated over 2 CF though.

The BKs are a different animal. You can actually run them really low. I looked it up for this thread, the ashford 30 is 11-12000 btu on low, and the 20 is 12-13000 btu. WAIT, the 20 actually runs hotter on low! and also for only 20 hours vs. 30 hours for the 30.

The princess on low makes 12.5-13.5k btu so it runs hotter than either ashford. Oh heck, to be complete, the king on low makes 14.5-15.5k btu.

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are like 3.4 btu in a watt so that 11000 btu is less than a 3250 watt heater. Or two of those plug in portable heaters.

You are correct, if you go by WS firebox measurements, the Fireview comes out to 2.2.

I was looking at those output figures, too. Pretty amazing that stoves that far apart in capacity can have such similar numbers.

I haven't been around an Ashford, but I believe they are a convection style stove, with the outer shell being cast iron instead of sheet steel. This will tone down the radiant heat that the Princess will give, making the stove room more comfortable compared to the princess and your old encore. Those with experience, please speak up.

I know that I went from an old earth stove which was total radiant heat to an older model BK royal heir which was convective, and it made a real difference in comfort in the stove room. Of course there was a pretty big difference in size of the stove also. Now running a BK King, but have only run it through spring shoulder season, and miss the convection stove some already. I do not miss the small firebox size. I'm looking forward to see how it works this winter.

The princess I have is the ultra model and is about as much a convenction stove as any stove on the market. All stoves are a combination of convection and radiation to distribute heat but any type of double wall shell will increase the convection proportion. My princess has the entire back, both sides, flue pipe, and half of the top double walled for convection. With those fans pumping it's almost like a forced air furnace.

Ditto here Highbeam cept I have the King Ultra. Exceptional units The blowers are almost too much and since we loose pwr so frequently, we got one of those heat powered ecofans (sp?) for a more subtle "breeze) The blowers that come with the rear heat shield "option" kick out some SERIOUS heat in a hurry!