For you BK Princess owners. What are your realistic burn times? I'll be using hardwoods only,. 950 sq.ft. wide open, fully insulated basement (except floor).
Thanks.
Thanks.
BK Princess question
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When I was running my stove 24/7 I would load it up 2x a day. Even 1x a day it was still making some heat, but 2x a day was simply open door, spread coals and pack wood in. No fuss.
Loading it up and turning it down for an overnight burn, we'll get 12 hours out of a load, sometimes more. With a load of pine I tend to get 10.
Have any of you BK Princess users ever tracked the stove top temp over a full burn?(on low, medium, high) That's the info I would find most useful since length of burn is pretty subjective. What one considers usable heat another may not.
No concern with stove temp, just concerned with house temp. No trouble holding house at 75+ even in sub sero temps.
NATE379 said:
Yep, that's all that really matters for a particular user.
The issue I have is not every house can sustain xx temp with say a 400* stove top temp when another house can. Some houses are tight and a 300* stove top may hold their temps when it's single digits and blowing. No way that's going to happen for me so I'd be curious to see how long the stove can hold a 500* stove top temp for example.
In mine I'm usually on a 8-10 hour burn cycle in the winter. During spring/fall shoulder season it easily stretches to 12. I heat over 2,000 square feet with mine- my furnace would only kick on once in a while on windy days near then end of the burn when it was below 0 outside.
That's a tall order. Better to figure out what you need btu wise, BK tells you how many lbs of wood a full load is, you can figure out how many btus that is, then you can use the burn times quoted here to figure out how mnay btus per hour come from a BK on low. Then you can compare that to your house's needs. Or BK even tells you what the low burn btu rate is in the manual.
Burn times are way more important than temp of burn. You just make sure you have a big enough stove and keep it burning which is much easier with double digit burn times.
Burn times are way more important than temp of burn. You just make sure you have a big enough stove and keep it burning which is much easier with double digit burn times.
Highbeam said:
The issues I have with burn times is there is no standard for when burn times end. I can reload my Endeavor after 15 hours without needing a match when I load with good wood. Of course there is no usable heat coming off the stove at that point but someone could say that's the burn time. I guess for BTU rate you could figure it using how many BTU's per pound of wood, I'd imagine m/c will effect this. We would also need people who give us their burn times to weigh the wood before loading the stove.
Temp is far from the perfect answer but a lot easier to figure out than wasting all the other time and still have an answer that has little meaning in a different environment.
Then your Lopi has a 15 hour burn time, which is great. The standard measurement of burntime, for any stove manufacturer, is start to finish. Anybody that uses something else to define burntime needs to qualify their statement.
It's a good question. How long can a princess maintain a 300, 400, or 500 degree stove top?
It's a good question. How long can a princess maintain a 300, 400, or 500 degree stove top?
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i don't know if you guys with know but the BK stoves are using thermostats as air control.
so stoves always put out the same amount of heat at various settings, IE 1, 2, 3.
and larger stoves with a larger stovetop at 500 degrees will put out more heat than a smaller stove with a top at 600 degrees.
make sense sorta?
surface area and all that jazz?
too maybe variables, but with BK there's less so.
only variable that will change is the burn time at a certain setting with the wood that's being burned.
IE, burn time set on 2, will have a long burn time with a type of oak versus if you loaded pine in it.
although the heat output will be the same
in theory of course.
so stoves always put out the same amount of heat at various settings, IE 1, 2, 3.
and larger stoves with a larger stovetop at 500 degrees will put out more heat than a smaller stove with a top at 600 degrees.
make sense sorta?
surface area and all that jazz?
too maybe variables, but with BK there's less so.
only variable that will change is the burn time at a certain setting with the wood that's being burned.
IE, burn time set on 2, will have a long burn time with a type of oak versus if you loaded pine in it.
although the heat output will be the same
in theory of course.
You wont see high stove top temps..no need to.
Mine when reloading on a hot bed will work it's way up to 450 or so running off the cat.
But after 4 or 5 hours it will settle in at 350-400 for a long time.
I would buy another cat stove in a heartbeat.
After 12 hours I'm still close to 350.
2500 two story colonial ...decent insulation.
But last night I reloaded and had the cat on and the air wide open and forgot about it for about a 1/2 hour.
Stove top temp was 700...cover over cat was red hot!
Man there were flames going on..shut the air down to 1 and I had flames coming off the cat big time for at least 10 mins...huge flames!
I have no idea where the fire gets the air for that..I head that fire can make it's own oxygen ...don't know it that's true.
Mine when reloading on a hot bed will work it's way up to 450 or so running off the cat.
But after 4 or 5 hours it will settle in at 350-400 for a long time.
I would buy another cat stove in a heartbeat.
After 12 hours I'm still close to 350.
2500 two story colonial ...decent insulation.
But last night I reloaded and had the cat on and the air wide open and forgot about it for about a 1/2 hour.
Stove top temp was 700...cover over cat was red hot!
Man there were flames going on..shut the air down to 1 and I had flames coming off the cat big time for at least 10 mins...huge flames!
I have no idea where the fire gets the air for that..I head that fire can make it's own oxygen ...don't know it that's true.
Hass said:
I'm sure most of us asking these questions know that BK uses a T-Stat. I understand the difference in heat output between the king and princess. Can anyone with one of these stoves answer what is the stove top temp on 1, 2 and 3? If so how for how long does it hold that temp on each setting. Include the type of wood even though a lot of variables will still apply. Even with the t-stat you're not going to get a steady stove top temp for the entire burn cycle.
HotCoals said:
That happened to me once this year also, I turned the fan on high and the tstat as low as it would go and in about 10 mins was under control.
I would load 3 times a day in the dead of winter, the middle burn was not a full load becaue I tried to stay on a schedule.
rdust said:
I don't use a stove top thermometer, but I often open the tstat all the way up about 2/3 of the way into the burn when I am going for max output. I think the graph in the brochure showing the output over the course of a 40 hour burn is pretty representative of what happens if you just set the tstat and let it do its thing. FWIW, 100lbs of a wood (locust or equivalent) in a single load is a lot in a wood stove given that you are going to get a predictable controlled burn out of it without fear of it going nuclear. I always load it all the way up no matter what time of year.
SolarAndWood said:
It'll get to run my own tests at some point, a BK stove is in my future. I'd love to do the king but it's a little large for my current space and I don't have an 8" chimney. After I build on to my family room(if) I'll upgrade to a king.
Thank you to the Princess owners who replied, your times are as I had expected. Now, BK Princess or DW Large...tough decision for me as I really like the side load thing and my little DW has served me very well over the years. Thanks again.
Hardrockmaple said:
Good lord, that is not a tough decision at all. The VC prodcut will always be at a huge disadvantage due to extremely poor warranty history and coprorate structure. Their designs suck. The front air inlet holes are not compatible with outside air hookup. They have two or three manual intake air settings. Cast iron looks nice is from China with many gaskets and seals to fail. Sideloading is only important on a stove that is shallow. The BK stoves are very square to allow easy north south (stright in) loading. BK has a THERMOSTAT!
Old VC stoves were one thing, they built a wonderful reputation decades ago. They sold out to a nasty coproration and now the brand is much much different.
You've got only two factors helping the VC. They look much better on the hearth, and they are cheaper. Just about everything else is very inferior.
Highbeam said:
Seemingly your needs are different from mine. With your love of the BK I'm surprised you don't have a couple.
If I knew then what I know now, I would have one. There is not a stove on the market that performs as well. The looks, well, not so good.
What "needs" do you have that would ever make you consider a VC?
What "needs" do you have that would ever make you consider a VC?
Hardrockmaple said:
I have burned wood in the same Dutchwest XL for over twenty years. I have never understood the bad rap that this stove has gotten as it is a very capable decent looking stove with essentially no design changes other than removal of the shaker grate and the addition of the air wash system so I understand your dilemma. The price of the XL is extremely reasonable also when you consider you can get one brand new for $1650. The Princess does have the added benefit of the thermostat which is extremely nice. Really it just boils down to how much you wan to spend and if you need a t-stat. On a side note how is your draft? If you have plenty of draft you could always opt for the XL and run it on a 6"chimney you just can't use the fireplace screen with a 6" chimney. It's A tough choice good luck!
certified106 said:
I think what the other poster is referring to is the problems people had with VC after the change and the stoves purchased in that time period. I really liked the Montpelier but didnt want to chance it just yet and ended up getting a deal on the BK anyway that would have swayed my decision. You have an older DW, my sister has an old cat DW and she loves it, heats her 1800 sf no problem and its a good size stove with good burn times.
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