Blaze King Princess Insert Completed

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patrickoneal

Member
Jan 25, 2017
84
Virginia
Finally got my Princess Insert completed, with an insulated stainless liner, roxul at the top and bottom of the flue, and a block-off plate above the stove. Hopefully I did everything right, I hate doing stuff twice.

I got a 5" tall rectangle bent up buy a local metal shop and bolted it to the top panel because my fireplace is taller than most. I'm having a bit of trouble sourcing longer pieces of the aluminum trim that goes around the surround, so it stops 5" short of the hearth, but I don't think it looks too terrible. I'll probably eventually get some more trim and fix that.

The "black" high-temp paint I got to repaint the surround after modifying it turned out to be closer to grey, but it doesn't look bad in person.

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Nice! Congratulations, it looks fantastic.
 
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Two tone paint looks great! looks like you did your homework did hearth.com help you along the way before you did the install? Something I neglected to do but like I said working out the bugs.
 
Congratulations
 
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Two tone paint looks great! looks like you did your homework did hearth.com help you along the way before you did the install? Something I neglected to do but like I said working out the bugs.

I did a lot of research here, and that's what turned me onto Blaze King. Well, that and what I think was a good price I paid for the stove. I had been thinking of getting a stove for years, and initially wanted a PE Summit insert(which I'm sure is a fine stove), but there are very few dealers around here for any brand and no real competition.

I'm currently waiting for a load of wood to be delivered, and I'll fire up the stove later this evening to cure the paint. It's a shame it's going to be 80 degrees here today, but it's going to cool back off.
 
Beware the fresh load of wood. It more than likely won't be cured which often leads to lackluster performance and can cause dangerous creosote buildups.
 
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Beware the fresh load of wood. It more than likely won't be cured which often leads to lackluster performance and can cause dangerous creosote buildups.

Thanks, I had read about that. The ad says "seasoned", but I know to take that with a grain of salt. Hopefully it will be good and dry by next winter if it shows up a bit green. My father cuts a lot of trees at his hunt club, so hopefully this will be the one and only load I have to pay for.
 
Very nice...
 
It doesn't take long to go away but it will actually come back a little the first time you do a big hot burn. After that, you should be done with new paint smell.
 
The smell will pass and in it's place will come nice deep penetrating warmth. The trade off is worth it.
 
It's going to be 19 degrees outside and 75 degrees inside tonight!

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Have you had any problems with the blower rattling? Mine was nice and quiet until the stove warmed up a bit, but only rattled at low speed, then at higher speeds as well. I pulled the fan cover and installed a 3/8" bolt in the leveling hole and it stopped briefly, but introduced a 60hz motor hum. Then when the stove cooled off(small load in the firebox), it started rattling again. I've read some people bend a bracket to quiet the fan, but I'm not sure what to bend or in which direction.
 
My insert still will get hum try leveling the stove ! I have learned in the manual fan speed t-stat should match each other. Some operators here only use the fan on occasion to no fan at all.
 
Have you had any problems with the blower rattling? Mine was nice and quiet until the stove warmed up a bit, but only rattled at low speed, then at higher speeds as well. I pulled the fan cover and installed a 3/8" bolt in the leveling hole and it stopped briefly, but introduced a 60hz motor hum. Then when the stove cooled off(small load in the firebox), it started rattling again. I've read some people bend a bracket to quiet the fan, but I'm not sure what to bend or in which direction.

My fan does rattle at about 75%, but not at low or high speed. I imagine I could fix it by taking it apart and putting some rubber between whatever is rattling, but it has this far been easier to just avoid that speed range.

I don't use the fan at all most of the time anyway. (The stove heats the whole house, and has to go about 12 hours a day with no attention, so it runs on medium heat with no. fan while everyone's at work, then if the house is cold (below 70), I'll crank up the heat and run the fan when I get home.

In other news, my new definition for 'cold' is 70. Before we got this stove we kept the thermostats for the oil burner at 55-60. :)
 
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I took mine apart and tightened the screws that hold the motor to the bracket. It compressed the rubber grommets a fair amount, so I suspect the noise may return, but for now it's just rushing air and the hum of the motor. No rattling. The fan cover is a pain to remove because you have to get it around the speed control shaft at the bottom while simultaneously sliding the top straight forward(there's a little lip it locks into). The paint on this stove also scratches if you look at it funny. I suppose it adds character.