I want this stove to be a full time burner at my home . Mainly looking at this stove in particular due to the long burn times along with versatility in controlling stove output of heat with the automatic damper. I am selling a soapstone stove and going to this stove . things i would like to ask are
how robust is this stove? will this stove last a long time with routine maintenance. or does it have fundamental problems such as hinges and latches wearing out metal easily warping? I want to know what your guys gripes are about this stove.
how easy is it to over fire this stove ? what would it take to do so ?
or is this stove the bees knees and i am making a good decision? let me know what u think
1600 sqft ranch home 16 ft flu 2 year seasoned black cherry
Whoa. I was you and made this move on the advice from this forum. So I also upgraded to the princess after running 30 cords through a soapstone noncat hearthstone heritage in my 1700SF home in a relatively moderate climate like VA. The princess32 uses the same cat as my 2012 model and as near as anyone can tell is unchanged for 2020. The test results for 2020 on this stove are excellent, like beat everyone else excellent so I really like the princess.
I am an engineer so I like facts. The failures I will list are exceedingly rare but with a stove this good, of course failures are rare. I'm a princess fan.
The stove's Achilles heel is the melt away bypass gasket retainers. They are welded in and "should" only melt away if something else fails like a door gasket allowing too much combustion air to enter. Mine failed for no apparent reason but not catastrophically and I was able to bottle jack them back into place with BK guidance. They've been good for years since. BK will tell you that this is rare but I've seen others have this problem. For this and several other reasons, simply keep your door gasket tight and in good repair. You can buy the weld in replacement retainers but it would be a difficult job.
Door gasket is mounted on top of the door glass retaining bolts. This is a bad design choice because you can't independently maintain the glass gasket and the very important door gasket is expected to absorb the underlying irregularites of many studs and nuts. Just plan on using lots of RTV to mount the new gasket and when you do a door gasket job be sure the glass gasket is good.
Hinges are stout and not known to fail. Door latch system is entirely bolt on and replaceable.
It is impossible to overfire this stove if you use firewood and the door gasket and ash plug are functional. The thermostat is a safety device that actually closes to prevent overfire. This is a big deal as I've had some tense evenings watching a noncat runaway on me. This stove is very controllable.
In conclusion, this stove is relatively unattractive but performs better than everything else. No common faults. It is the bees knees if the looks are acceptable and your heat demand aligns with the output. Mine is running now, it's 54 degrees outside and raining and we're at 73 inside burning bigleaf maple and doug fir.
Burn time is the big reason I bought this stove. It has delivered. I load once per day except for during our annual week long cold snap where I throw in a little more fuel on my way out the door in the morning and use a higher burn rate. Wood consumption has dropped 20% with the move from stone noncat to princess which is plenty of money to pay for new cats.
The cat on the princess is not known to plug and you can use the cheaper ceramic cats too.
That was kind of a puke of thoughts. I'm not one of those unicorn fart guys. I will not gloss over the weaknesses and dwell on the strengths only. Please ask if you have any more questions. The stove has really been a big upgrade for me in this home.
