Installing a Blaze King Princess Insert and price

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gastone21

Member
Feb 12, 2014
40
Fredericksburg, VA
My wife and I are looking to add wood burning heat to our 1924 two story Victorian home. The home is about 1600 sqft above ground with a finished basement. The stove will be installed into the existing masonry fireplace/chimney, which is located dead center. For an almost 100 year old home, it's fairly open on the main level, with french doors (always open) leading into the adjacent den and another large (5') arched doorway leading into the foyer and upstairs.

There aren't any Blaze King dealers within 90 minutes or so of where I live. I went to see a BK Princess in person this past weekend. Nice store, nice stove... high prices. I was quoted 3700 before taxes for the insert and the large shroud. I've since contacted a few stores and have heard back from two. One quoted me 3250 + tax and the other quoted me less than 2900, including tax and the large shroud. By the time tax is accounted for, that beats the original quote by close to 1k. The dealer seems to be well enough regarded, though I'll certainly do my due diligence. Is that price accurate? I was hoping to be out the door for not much more than 3k, but he's beating everyone by a comfortable margin.

Thanks for any insight.

Garrett.
 
My guess is that the higher prices are north of you or Charlottesville, and the lower price is somewhere farther south. When I priced in the spring, I had a spread of over 2,000 dollars between dealers, and none of those was local to me. We drove over 200 miles to pick up the insert. (It's for sale now in Fairfax, by the way. We had to relocate, so we never installed it. It only has a standard shroud, though.)The one thing I didn't see mentioned was the door. It would be absurd for a dealer to quote a price without one, but it is listed separately since there are options. You just might want to double check if you're not sure. The lower price dealer just may have some stock he wants to move.
 
DuaeGuttae said:
The one thing I didn't see mentioned was the door. It would be absurd for a dealer to quote a price without one, but it is listed separately since there are options.
Click to expand...

I agree, that would be the definition of absurd. It would be like closing the deal on a brand new car, signing all the paperwork and going to drive it off only to find it sitting on the axles, with no wheels or tires. And having the salesman say "Oh, you didn't mention you wanted wheels...."
 
Absurd or not, there are several stoves that are priced like this on several sites. DuaeGuttae's suggestion to verify is a good one. Caveat emptor.
 
DuaeGuttae said:
My guess is that the higher prices are north of you or Charlottesville, and the lower price is somewhere farther south. When I priced in the spring, I had a spread of over 2,000 dollars between dealers, and none of those was local to me. We drove over 200 miles to pick up the insert. (It's for sale now in Fairfax, by the way. We had to relocate, so we never installed it. It only has a standard shroud, though.)The one thing I didn't see mentioned was the door. It would be absurd for a dealer to quote a price without one, but it is listed separately since there are options. You just might want to double check if you're not sure. The lower price dealer just may have some stock he wants to move.
Click to expand...

Charlottesville was the highball (though a nice store and very helpful), and the lowest price was NW of me in WV... though not that far away. All of the other quotes are coming back in the 3.1-3.3k range. I've since asked the lowest quote another question and have yet to hear back from him...
 
My high price was somewhere in Maryland, and it was well over 4000 dollars. I think they wanted to sell me what they had on hand and would have had to order the Princess. Since the only thing I was intestested in was the Princess, I just looked elsewhere. I got a tip on this site from another member who had recently gotten a good deal so that really helped.
 
gastone21 said:
My wife and I are looking to add wood burning heat to our 1924 two story Victorian home. The home is about 1600 sqft above ground with a finished basement. The stove will be installed into the existing masonry fireplace/chimney, which is located dead center. For an almost 100 year old home, it's fairly open on the main level, with french doors (always open) leading into the adjacent den and another large (5') arched doorway leading into the foyer and upstairs.

There aren't any Blaze King dealers within 90 minutes or so of where I live. I went to see a BK Princess in person this past weekend. Nice store, nice stove... high prices. I was quoted 3700 before taxes for the insert and the large shroud. I've since contacted a few stores and have heard back from two. One quoted me 3250 + tax and the other quoted me less than 2900, including tax and the large shroud. By the time tax is accounted for, that beats the original quote by close to 1k. The dealer seems to be well enough regarded, though I'll certainly do my due diligence. Is that price accurate? I was hoping to be out the door for not much more than 3k, but he's beating everyone by a comfortable margin.

Thanks for any insight.

Garrett.
Click to expand...

We have a 1930 story and half. Our fireplace is located in the middle of the house on the main level. I feel bad telling you I payed $2,300 for the princess. Its worth every penny.
 
I got a lower price quote from a dealer in the Baltimore area last year, look them up and call, if you pick up from them and pay cash you can get it cheaper. Tried to get shipping from BK to my house but they wouldn't do it.

I ended up buying mine from a dealer in DE, no sales tax.
 
Virginia collects Consumer's Use tax on items purchased out of state if no tax is paid. No break going to Delaware in that case, unless it's just a lower price.
 
Lanningjw said:
We have a 1930 story and half. Our fireplace is located in the middle of the house on the main level. I feel bad telling you I payed $2,300 for the princess. Its worth every penny.
Click to expand...

No worries. This is also the wrong time of year to be saving money. I went up on the roof yesterday to assess the project. I'm handy, but heights aren't my thing and I have to be honest... getting up two stories was a bit tricky for me (thankfully my wife didn't take pictures of my escapades). I've called a few sweeps to get quotes to do the installation. Figure it will cost me an extra 1k (which is not insubstantial on my teaching salary), but the peace of mind it'll buy would be worth it for us.

mellow said:
I got a lower price quote from a dealer in the Baltimore area last year, look them up and call, if you pick up from them and pay cash you can get it cheaper. Tried to get shipping from BK to my house but they wouldn't do it.

I ended up buying mine from a dealer in DE, no sales tax.
Click to expand...

I heard back from the shop that quoted my less than $2900 including the larger shroud. I think currently I'll lean that way, but I'm not opposed to making a few more calls.
 
gastone21 said:
Yes. Blaze King terminology. Shroud=surround.
Click to expand...
;lol


noun
  1. a length of cloth or an enveloping garment in which a dead person is wrapped for burial.

  2. a thing that envelops or obscures something.
 
WoodyIsGoody said:
I agree, that would be the definition of absurd. It would be like closing the deal on a brand new car, signing all the paperwork and going to drive it off only to find it sitting on the axles, with no wheels or tires. And having the salesman say "Oh, you didn't mention you wanted wheels...."
Click to expand...
Except, you have solid, satin, gold or black door to choose from. Just like the shroud, people have different needs and design plans. The dealer needs to make certain the customer knows which door or shroud is desired.
 
BKVP said:
Except, you have solid, satin, gold or black door to choose from. Just like the shroud, people have different needs and design plans. The dealer needs to make certain the customer knows which door or shroud is desired.
Click to expand...
DSC_0054.JPG
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Following this thread. You need to keep in mind, if you travel far away to make a purchase, to ask the dealer that sells you the stove, “Will you drive “x” miles to provide warranty labor if needed?”

Dealers that are not involved in the sale are not required to provide service.
 
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gastone21 said:
There aren't any Blaze King dealers within 90 minutes or so of where I live.
Click to expand...

And sometimes if you've really decided you want a Blaze King, you have to travel.

The Maryland shop I mentioned above that quoted me over $4,000 for the insert was my closest dealer but wasn't close enough for them to be willing to offer support. If I get no support either way, I'll travel farther for huge savings.

My search on the BK website recently turned up no dealers in the entire state of Texas. Oh well. We don't even know if we'll want a stove with the climate down here, but one can dream.
 
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