Calling on Kuma Sequoia owners... (also BK Princess)

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JohnDeer

New Member
Dec 17, 2016
40
Pacific NW
I'm thinking of purchasing my first wood stove, an insert, and have until year-end to capture a rather significant state tax credit of about $1,300. After reading this site for weeks I suppose I am vacillating toward a cat model. Purpose is to heat a 2-story, 2600 square foot home of modern construction with higher than average ceilings. Cubic foot equivalent is 2,800 to 2,900. Oregon is temperate with an average December-to-February low temp of about 33-degrees, with occasional drops to 10 to 20 degrees for a week or two.

I think the Kuma Sequoia will fit in my masonry firebox and am attracted by the natural convection of the Sequoia, but am worried it will overpower my primary living space--the family room/kitchen in which it is installed. Cat owners and Sequoia users, is it wise to buy a stove that is the equivalent of a big block Chevy and run it in first or second gear at lower outputs much of the time? What is lost, anything?

Jason at Kuma has been very helpful. I am mindful that Jason has probably been more encouraging toward the smaller (non-cat) Ashwood insert, although when I spoke with Jason I was probably leaning more toward non-cat models. Oregon's coastal temperatures do not really justify the 3.5 cubic foot Sequoia.

The BK Princess insert is also on my list. I guess I prefer the design/appearance of the Sequoia, but recognize the Princess is perhaps sized for my house better and has a great rep. I'm not sure if the Princess' sizing really matters versus the over-sized Sequoia.

Would really love to hear from Kuma Sequoia or Ashwood owners, or Princess owners. Feel free to disabuse me of considering cat models, if you have conviction I'm thinking wrongly. My experience with wood stoves is limited to several decades of elk hunting out of wall tents.

Worried that the Sequoia might be too much for my house. Mindful that the BK Princess is regarded by many to have a noisy blower (hence the quiet Kuma convection). Your thoughts?
 
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I don't think it's realistic to attempt to heat 3000SF with an insert that doesn't have a fan, so plan on some fan noise with any insert.

Honestly, with lows in the 30s in the winter, I would be strongly inclined to go with the low-and-slow specialist with the long burn times. The Sequoia looks neat too, though- no idea how it does at low and slow, though the advertised 14 hour burn time with a 3.6 CF firebox is not promising!

If BK had put a Sequoia-sized firebox on the Princess, I could do 36+ hour burns in shoulder season *swoon*.
 
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I used to have the princess, I didn't find the blower noisy. If I buy another insert I would probably go with the newer BK Ashford over the princess.
 
I think if the BK insert fan is as loud as the free stander it would deter me. I have the princess and love it so far but I don't run the fan. But it seems loud to me. Maybe it's better on an insert IDK. Seemed like my last insert, the fan would run very low and was almost unnoticeable with normal conversation. I can't comment on any other cat stove as this is my first.
 
jetsam said:
I don't think it's realistic to attempt to heat 3000SF with an insert that doesn't have a fan, so plan on some fan noise with any insert.

Honestly, with lows in the 30s in the winter, I would be strongly inclined to go with the low-and-slow specialist with the long burn times. The Sequoia looks neat too, though- no idea how it does at low and slow, though the advertised 14 hour burn time with a 3.6 CF firebox is not promising!

If BK had put a Sequoia-sized firebox on the Princess, I could do 36+ hour burns in shoulder season *swoon*.
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The Sequoia has a fan also, but the natural convection seems rather impressive to my very unskilled eye. Here is a look:
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This is not insignificant when the power goes out. The good folks at BK explain that the Princess should not be expected to convect with the power out. It will be radiant only. Power outages are only 1-2% of the time each year, but usually coincide with the worst weather.

I am hoping that Sequoia owners will speak up about "low and slow", or not.

Sequoia's 14 hours is not good then? I've read that the Princess is much longer but even 12 hours would seem to carry through the night, or the day until reloading, while the Princess' 18 hour burn time isn't enough to carry through a 24 hour cycle. Wouldn't one have to reload the Princess' firebox in the middle of the night?
 
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rwhite said:
I think if the BK insert fan is as loud as the free stander it would deter me. I have the princess and love it so far but I don't run the fan. But it seems loud to me. Maybe it's better on an insert IDK. Seemed like my last insert, the fan would run very low and was almost unnoticeable with normal conversation. I can't comment on any other cat stove as this is my first.
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You don't run the Princess' fan? What size area are you heating?

My home entertainment system has to compete with the blower noise. The fan noise issue is rather important to me.
 

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JohnDeer said:
You don't run the Princess' fan? What size area are you heating?

My home entertainment system has to compete with the blower noise. The fan noise issue is rather important to me.
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No fan for me. I know that some folks set up and what works may differ but in every instance I experienced the fan does nothing but cool the stovetop. It's a balancing act with an insert as you have to get the heat out of the jacket but you don't want to run it so high it cools the stove. I ran my insert just enough to move air then let the ceiling fan do the work. My current home has the princess free stander. It's 1800 sqft. Just remember it's a stove, not a forced air furnace. If you blowing all the heat off to warm the air then your not letting it heat the thermal mass. Just my thoughts, YMMV.
 
JohnDeer said:
This is not insignificant when the power goes out. The good folks at BK explain that the Princess should not be expected to convect with the power out. It will be radiant only. Power outages are only 1-2% of the time each year, but usually coincide with the worst weather.

Sequoia's 14 hours is not good then? I've read that the Princess is much longer but even 12 hours would seem to carry through the night, or the day until reloading, while the Princess' 18 hour burn time isn't enough to carry through a 24 hour cycle. Wouldn't one have to reload the Princess' firebox in the middle of the night?
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The convection sleeve is not a feature that the Princess has. Not sure that I care too much about it (I have a generator, and the fan isn't loud enough to bother me).

I do routinely get 24 hour burns out of the Princess in very warm weather, but in very cold weather that advantage goes away and I'd like to have the extra cubic foot of firebox that the Sequoia has.

I don't reload my stove on its schedule; I reload it on mine. It gets wood just before bed, just before work, and so forth. There's not an issue with adding some wood to a half-full firebox. (It's not ideal in that you're bypassing the cat and releasing smoke for a couple minutes when you reload, but I prefer that to getting up at 3 AM because the stove timer went off. ;). )

I can't speak to the Sequoia's burn times, but if it zips through 3.5 CF of wood in 14 hours on the lowest setting, that may not be ideally suited for shoulder season in warmer climates.
 
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The fan was variable speed on my princess, I always ran it on low because it did the job, if I turned it on high it was noisy but I didn't get any more benefit from high so I kept in on low.
I thought BK came out with a new insert last Year? Is it delayed or quashed?
 
I wouldn't worry about too large an insert in this situation. You control the ultimate output of the stove.
 
webby3650 said:
They are in full production of The Ashford insert. I've already installed one. Nice looking unit!
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I thought someone had one, wasn't sure if I was mixing up units. I didn't see it on the BK site.
 
But isn't it a Sirocco insert, not an Ashford? I think it's even smaller than the princess insert, so probably not what the OP is needing.
 
Sirocco has square edge glass on top that one posted above has soft rounded edges. Looks a little differant to me, sure some one will know for sure.
 
Both seem like great pics, and they will both heat your home decently. The main question is how are you going to attempt to get the room air from the stove to the furthest room away? Does your layout support natural convection? Ie wide door ways, open floor plan in the main living area's?
 
kennyp2339 said:
Both seem like great pics, and they will both heat your home decently. The main question is how are you going to attempt to get the room air from the stove to the furthest room away? Does your layout support natural convection? Ie wide door ways, open floor plan in the main living area's?
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Get natural convection going? Easy. I'm going to leave my main floor back door and a top floor window open. The natural convection will undoubtedly draw the warm air upward.

Er, fortunately, my layout supports natural convection really well. As you say, wide doors and the absence of doorway headers leading to the vaulted staircase. A bit too well since two rooms on the main floor furthest from the hearth stay too cool as the heat travels upstairs. The heat on it's way upstairs also travels immediately adjacent to my cold air return so that I imagine running the HVACs fan in auto mode will circulate stove heat to all rooms.

The Scirocco 25 might be a bit small for my needs.

Apparently there are a great many Blaze King owners but not too many Kuma sequoia owners out there.
 
I own a BK princess and I have nothing but nice things to say about it, the few Kuma owners that are on here also talk highly of there stoves, no doubt that the Kumas are work horses
 
kennyp2339 said:
I own a BK princess and I have nothing but nice things to say about it, the few Kuma owners that are on here also talk highly of there stoves, no doubt that the Kumas are work horses
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BK has a lot of fans. The little bit that I've read about Kuma is also very encouraging. Have to say that I'm probably more fond of the Kuma styling as opposed to the Princess. I am really struggling between the Kuma Ashwood and Sequoia. If anything, Kuma's sales rep may be nudging me toward the Ashwood. Do I gather wrongly that those on this thread inherently prefer cat models. The Kuma Ashwood is a non-cat model. Anyone care to take a stab at citing the principal trade off? I've read a good deal about cat vs non-cat, but have never lived it.
 
I wouldn't plan on using hvac to circulate warm air. All you'll manage to do is cool everything evenly. It just moves air way to fast. Gotta figure a furnace takes 1000+ degree air and moves it through the vents and it comes out at 80. When you start with 70 degree air you'll be blowing 50 degree air through out the vents.

Cat vs noncat arguments are an easy search. So far I'm impressed with my cat stove but it does have a unimpressive burn. Nothing to see but heat.
 
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