Will the BK insert or others adequately heat this space?

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Easyellis8

Easyellis8

Member
Aug 9, 2008
86
So IL
We have a 2,936 sq foot ranch home that want to heat with an insert, the areas that I'm concerned about this the living room (where the fireplace is) that opens up into the kitchen and dining room, and four back bedrooms. I think that my layout is open, but the local BK dealer thinks that the princess is not properly sized for the job. The dealer also sells the Hampton 300 that he's pushing me towards. For me, looks isn't the most important criteria, but my wife and I are looking for something that will heat the required space and go with the decor. The currenct setup is an existing, interior masonry fireplace, width is 41' in front and 34.5 in the back, height is 27.5', depth is 22.5, mantel extends out 16 3/4' and is 12' high. I have good insulation and windows and my ceilings are nine feet high. We are looking at the BK, Hampton 300, Jotul and Clysdale; I favor the BK because of its ability to set and forget and overall control of the stove seems easier from my research. Again, this is a decision that two of us are trying to become one on, all of the above are still on the table.

How much difficulty will either of the stoves have trying to put the heat in the required areas? My pics are below:

1 - Current fireplace
2 - Living room open to kitchen/dining room
3 - Expanded view to front door and hallway to the right
4 - Front door to fireplace
5 - Hallway leading to bedrooms (cold air return located in the ceiling of this run)
 

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What's the total sq footage you want to heat? By the looks of those pictures, it appears to be significantly less than 2,900 sq ft. If so, the BKP will have no problem heating an area of <2000 sq ft. You might have an issue getting heat to the back rooms (fans will help), but that's a problem you will have regardless of the stove/insert. Remember, these are space heaters. I'd expect the BRs to be at least 5 to 15° cooler without active air management or suplimental heat, but again I can't see the floor plan to make a better guess.

I know nothing about the H300.
 
Wet,

The total square footage of the home is 2936, not the area in the pictures. The area in the pictures is what I want to heat. The fireplace is in the living room and it opens to the kitchen and dining room (pic #2); these are the areas that we spend the most time in. Picture #2 is right in front of the fireplace looking into the kitchen and dining room. The hallway leading to the bedrooms is <20 feet from the where the insert will be located, these are the rooms that I want to heat. If you look at pic #3, this is taken standing right by the fireplace and shows my front door. The hallway to the right before the front door leads to the bedrooms.
 
The Princes will do the job. No question about it. If you need more convincing call BK - 1 509 522 2730 Ask for the tech department.
 
Learnin,

Thanks, I'll have to make the call to the tech dept. I notice that other manufacturers rate their stoves by the size of the intended heating space, but BK rates theirs by BTUs; if I not mistaken, the princess insert is rated at 40,000. From what I've read, this is a very conservative estimate and doesn't reflect the real world scenario. Also, was told that BK used to make a Classic insert but discontinued this a while ago for some reason. Hopefully, my local dealer isn't trying to steer me in the Regency arena for the "extra" profit. I've done some research on their inserts and they are really nice, but I feel that the BK with the cat fits more in the vein of how I would like to burn.

How steep was/is your learning curve with the BK that you have?
 
The learning curve is really not that bad. I for the most part had the stove figured out in how it is going to run in a few days but I am have a few issues to work out with my set up. As you see in my signature I own a Regency as well and the learning curve on that took me 3/4 of the season to figure out. This could have been in mostly due to me being a first time burner and uneducated buyer. I also burned the living daylights out of it trying to heat my space because I didn't know any better.

It's been said before so I'll say it again - Most dealers will steer you away from a cat stove either because they don't know any better or have a personal preference, or in the case of my local dealers because the customers just want some thing easy to work with (Guilty as a customer). Frankly the BK stoves are real easy to operate.

Bk's advertises 40,000 BTU's for the princes but can produce up to 87,500 btu's which is more than the Other stoves on your list.

Hope this helps.
 
EasyEd said:
We have a 2,936 sq foot ranch home that want to heat with an insert, the areas that I'm concerned about this the living room (where the fireplace is) that opens up into the kitchen and dining room, and four back bedrooms. I think that my layout is open, but the local BK dealer thinks that the princess is not properly sized for the job. The dealer also sells the Hampton 300 that he's pushing me towards. For me, looks isn't the most important criteria, but my wife and I are looking for something that will heat the required space and go with the decor. The currenct setup is an existing, interior masonry fireplace, width is 41' in front and 34.5 in the back, height is 27.5', depth is 22.5, mantel extends out 16 3/4' and is 12' high. I have good insulation and windows and my ceilings are nine feet high. We are looking at the BK, Hampton 300, Jotul and Clysdale; I favor the BK because of its ability to set and forget and overall control of the stove seems easier from my research. Again, this is a decision that two of us are trying to become one on, all of the above are still on the table.

How much difficulty will either of the stoves have trying to put the heat in the required areas? My pics are below:

1 - Current fireplace
2 - Living room open to kitchen/dining room
3 - Expanded view to front door and hallway to the right
4 - Front door to fireplace
5 - Hallway leading to bedrooms (cold air return located in the ceiling of this run)
Click to expand...

While the Princess is BKs "small" stove it's still on the largish side. There's bigger inserts but not many, and those that are aren't a lot bigger.
 
If the King will fit, I'd go with it for two reasons: it will likely heat the whole house and the bigger firebox gives you longer burn times for the same heat output. The catalytic lets you burn it low efficiently so you can use it when there is not a lot of demand for heat without overheating the house. It does require 8" pipe, so you would need to make sure that it will both fit in your fireplace and you can get the pipe down the chimney.
 
north of 60 said:
Solar.. He is talking about inserts fitting in his fire place.
Click to expand...

There isn't a king insert?

EDIT...gotcha, just looked at the website.
 
Kuma makes a big ass insert, I think its a sequoia, not sure if theres many dealers around where you live. Its Amercan made by a small shop thats been making them for years.

http://www.kumastoves.com/wood-stoves/sequoia.php

edit: dont think it will fit in your FP, thats the problem I had, my FP was 1" too small, a local dealer was going to give me one with gold trim for $2,000 last spring cash and carry to get it out of the shop before summer.
 
I think just about any 2.5+ cubic foot insert would heat that space (and more). It's nice and open.

Love that raised hearth- wish mine was like that.
 
learnin to burn said:
The learning curve is really not that bad. I for the most part had the stove figured out in how it is going to run in a few days but I am have a few issues to work out with my set up. As you see in my signature I own a Regency as well and the learning curve on that took me 3/4 of the season to figure out. This could have been in mostly due to me being a first time burner and uneducated buyer. I also burned the living daylights out of it trying to heat my space because I didn't know any better.

It's been said before so I'll say it again - Most dealers will steer you away from a cat stove either because they don't know any better or have a personal preference, or in the case of my local dealers because the customers just want some thing easy to work with (Guilty as a customer). Frankly the BK stoves are real easy to operate.

Bk's advertises 40,000 BTU's for the princes but can produce up to 87,500 btu's which is more than the Other stoves on your list.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Learnin,

This does help, thanks very much for the additional info. I've read the different posts about cats vs non cats and the "extra" steps required for the proper use of the cat; it doesn't seem too difficult to me. The extra attention will pay off in the burn time and consistent heat.

I've read too many testimonies of individuals on this site with BK and other cat stoves of how good they are, my next goal is to talk to the wife about the stove and hightlight all of the good points about it. Hopefully, she'll look past the shell and see the inner beauty of the princess. I think that the BK along with other stoves will heat the area with no problem.
 
Love that raised hearth- wish mine was like that.[/quote]

Mike,

Initially, I wasn't a fan of the raised hearth, but I'm liking it now. I like the idea of having an insert sitting on it and radiating heat into the living area.
 
[quote author="weatherguy" date="1256312652"]Kuma makes a big ass insert, I think its a sequoia, not sure if theres many dealers around where you live. Its Amercan made by a small shop thats been making them for years.

Weatherguy,

Thanks for the URL, I looked at the insert....and it's huge; probably too big for my application. Going with something that large I would have to think of removing the brick and put a "large" freestanding in the room. Never heard of Kuma though, no dealer in the state of IL; Indiana isn't too far from me though.
 
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