Fireview VS Blazeking Princess...UPDATE***NEW PICCS***

[Dustin]

Howdy all!

well, I was going to buy a bigger house, but, it's not in the cards.


I'm living in a 1700 square foot, tri-level poorly insulated 1960's house


I don't want an insert anymore, i'm renting this house, and I am going to buy it from the landlord here in a couple months, and it had an insert when I moved in and I hate hate HATE it. I want a free standing stove. No blower noise, and I think they heat better IMHO.


I'm between a princess, and a woodstock fireview

Any guiding thoughts?




******NEW PICTURES*******and UPDATE

The fireplace opening is 25 inches tall by 35 inches wide, hearth lip extends 18 inches from the fireplace opening

I'm really liking the blazeking, but I also really like the woodstock. I'm a long-burn lover, being how I work 12 hour shifts, night shift and the girlfriend likes to be warm while i'm gone.


I just found the paperwork for the house, the main floor, where we spend most of our time is 644 square feet. The upstairs, which is the master bedroom, two other bedrooms and the bathroom is 572 square feet.

The downstairs, which has another insert...**no liner, slammer instal** which I don't use is 572 square feet. 1788 sq. ft. total. It's really, really cold down there, because it's a daylight finished basement.



And my chimney, that I use upstairs is fully lined 6 inch SS liner, thanks to this website.


Will the blazeking be overkill? If I set a huge stove in here will I roast myself out?


Here are some pictures of the hearth, thinking I might have to modify it.

 

[rickw]

If that's an interior chimney maybe you can get away with an insert not running a fan (provided you have a good block-off plate of course). I don't think there's much efficiency benefit to a free-stander compared to an insert in an interior chimney.

Don't know what the Princess insert maintenance (or flue sweeping) is like with it stuck in the fireplace, and pulling it out to work on it with the raised hearth might be a problem.

A fireview work nicely for you I think, but would take up some room. Would it fit on existing raised hearth? You actually want a little room behind it for access to controls. Could you extend the raised hearth section to put it on, maybe? Hmm, lifting 500 lbs up onto a raised hearth, maybe not. You need a minimum of 8 " of hearth pad in front of FV, and its 20" deep or so. Figure 30-32 inches deep of hearth pad in front of your raised hearth, and at least 18" to the right of the stove (where the loading door is). The easiest thing would be to buy one of their pads. Then you could take it with you. What about the liner? If the flue isn't lined do you want to invest in one in a rental house?

Take some measurements and pictures, send them to Woodstock and ask them what they think. They are very helpful and will take time to figure it out with you.


If you're going to be there for a couple of years only I'd try to optimize the use of what's already there.

 

[rydaddy]

My buddy, he is on this forum as well... but doesn't ever get on here I don't think. He has the princess. Loves it. As we all do, he wishes it was bigger. He is heating an approx. 1400 sf ranch home from the basement. So ultimately 2800 sf. He had not had a catylitic stove before, and he has nothing but good things to say about it.

I think you will hear nothing but good things about the fireview. Totally different look than the princess. I am trying to talk myself into the Fireview, but to make the switch from the Heritage I wish it was a little bigger and held larger pieces. I have a lot of wood at 18" plus already.

Don't think you can go wrong with either one, might have to let your wife decide on looks alone.

 

[drdoct]

What brand insert is that? Is the chimney already lined? The reason I'm asking is that it seems like an awful lot of work and effort in a house you are renting. You probably won't be able to modify the hearth, at least if it were my house I wouldn't let tenets do anything permanent like that. Now if it's already lined then I would think it could be easier, but wonder what kind of stove you can put in there. Not only that whether you'd be happy with it because stove in fireplaces really do need a blower to get the heat out. I've tried both and without the blower it's fan city which makes more noise than the blower.

 

[edthedawg]

This is a slightly bigger philosophical and thermodynamic issue than this thread alone may bear, but think about this basic principle we all tend to agree on here: Heat distribution from a stove tends to work best when you blow air FROM a cold region TOWARD the stove. What is a blower trying to do? Move air FROM the hot source. The warm air has no driving force, hence the perceived lack of heating from the insert.

I keep a box fan, running on low, in the corner of the next room - hardly notice it's there - and it moves the air around nicely. So consider also that you're also trying to move this unmotivated air w/ a much smaller fan - so it has to run at high speed, and therefore has a lot of air & duct noise.

And in regards to the OP - you're gonna have a heckuva time building in around that dog there... Might be easier to move the chimney than the dog

 

[Dustin]

I guess I should have elaborated more

It's fully lined with a 6 inch SS liner. It's an interior manonry chimney with three flues.

I'm renting the house right now, but i'm going to BUY it in about a month or so. And when I buy it, I want a new stove


The stove that is sitting there is an older, beat up, badly over-fired Osburn.


I kind of want to knock down the raised heart. Has anyone done this?

 

[Todd]

Well if your buying the house I'd call a mason and see if it's possible to just brick up that fireplace opening around your liner and turn that fireplace into a stove hearth. You might be able to save the bricks on the elevated hearth or match them up at a local masonry yard. A Fireview would look awful nice sitting there.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Sale on the Fireview ends January 24. Not sure if there will be another sale this year or not.

 

[bfunk13]

I dont know anything about the fireview, but i cant say enough about our BK princess insert.
Our furnace has come on a total or 5 times this year. All when we were sleeping in on the weekends and didnt
want to get the stove going. Many times i come home from work and have to open the front door cause the wife
has it 85 in the house. With the setup you have i dont see why not to go with an insert.
Just my 2 cents

Brad

 

[pinewoodburner]

Sale on the Fireview ends January 24. Not sure if there will be another sale this year or not.

I almost bought mine last year at their winter sale but someone told me on that they usually have a sale late spring that is the best sale, but they don't always have it. I waited and was on their mailing list and the first of May, big sale on the Fireview only. Shipping was free and the stove was $500 to $600 off. You could take a chance and hopefully they will have a sale again this year. I set my stove in the front of the fireplace also, but the hearth was not raised.

 

[Chief Ryan]

Here's a pic of my fireplace with my Fireview on the hearth.

 

[Todd]

That looks awesome Chief.

 

[pinewoodburner]

That looks awesome Chief.

I wil second that, looks awesome.

 

[Dustin]

That looks really, really good chief.

I'm thinking i'm going to have to modify the hearth is some way. How tall is the flue exit on the fireview? I'm not sure that my fireplace opening is high enough.

 

[Chief Ryan]

That looks really, really good chief.

I'm thinking i'm going to have to modify the hearth is some way. How tall is the flue exit on the fireview? I'm not sure that my fireplace opening is high enough.

Believe it or not i only have 10 FT of flue with an outside air kit and have great draft. Maybe i'm lucky but the stove appears to draft really well. So good in fact on 2 occasions after loading i've heard a loud roar and my flue pipe was a little red. I shut down the air and it stopped. I don't know if it would be called a chimney fire because i was able to stop it by shutting down the air. Plus it happened when it was fairly new, a month or so into burning. Maybe just a newbie mistake.

As far as the stove goes i love it. The customer service is the best i've ever dealt with for anything i've ever bought. I spent 4 hours in there factory getting the grand tour. They run a lot of sales. I got mine in the spring. $500 off the stove and free shipping. 10% off accessories.

You'll be happy with the Fireview.

 

[fossil]

Once it's your house, there's no end to what you can do to it...all it takes is $$$.

Before & after:

 

[pinewoodburner]

That looks really, really good chief.

I'm thinking i'm going to have to modify the hearth is some way. How tall is the flue exit on the fireview? I'm not sure that my fireplace opening is high enough.

Rear flue exit center is 22.75 inches, 6 inch pipe so the top of a single wall pipe would be 25.75". If you have 27" you will be fine

 

[Chief Ryan]

Once it's your house, there's no end to what you can do to it...all it takes is $$$.

Before & after:

There always seems to be a cat laying in front of the stove. Mine does the same thing.

Looks great.

 

[Dustin]

That looks really, really good chief.

I'm thinking i'm going to have to modify the hearth is some way. How tall is the flue exit on the fireview? I'm not sure that my fireplace opening is high enough.

Rear flue exit center is 22.75 inches, 6 inch pipe so the top of a single wall pipe would be 25.75". If you have 27" you will be fine

I just out the ole' tape measure to the fireplace opening. My measurment is 25 inches...about, it was a quick rough measurment.

I'm thinking I might have to take out a layer of brick on the raise hearth..

 

[Dustin]

bump to the top with update first post...

 

[rydaddy]

Woodstock Fireview.

 

[Todd]

Since your out west and will most likely be burning soft woods, go for the BK Princess, it has a larger firebox and should give you longer burns than the Fireview. It's hard to get a 12 hr burn in the Fireview with a full load of Pine, I only get 6-8 but can easily get 12 hrs with Hardwood.

 

[Dustin]

Since your out west and will most likely be burning soft woods, go for the BK Princess, it has a larger firebox and should give you longer burns than the Fireview. It's hard to get a 12 hr burn in the Fireview with a full load of Pine, I only get 6-8 but can easily get 12 hrs with Hardwood.

That's kind of what I was thinking, Todd. I really like the look of the fireview, but I'm a little worried about the small firebox. This insert i'm running has a pretty small firebox, I can only fit 16 inch splits inside, and if they are fairly large, I can only fit three, MAYBE four. And I have a hell of a time keeping the house warm with this small firebox.

Eats wood liek crazy.