King Vs. Princess Help me decide!

[JSGAuto]

Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for a stove for my new (to me) house. After all the research, I have narrowed it down to the King, or the Princess. I can't decide which would be best for me.

-2200sq Contemporary style house, which is an open floor plan. Balcony on the second floor bedrooms opens up to the main room. 6" walls, well insulated, good windows and doors.

-16' main room cathedral ceiling, fans up there!

-Currently heating with oil, would like this to take that over!

-I did heat the house sucessfully last year with a heatalator (weekends), so heat flow thru the house is not a problem. Due to the fireplace size, using this for the new stove isn't an option. So I plan to keep it for aesthetics.

-New install - freestanding with chimney pipe. Stove is going on the end of the main floor.

-Location - Northern NJ

-Good supply of hardwood, occasional softwood from around the property.

-I like long burn times - I am away at work during the day.

-I really don't want to use fans on the stove (room fans OK), just from past experiance they are loud, and I want to watch my TV in the same area the stove is going.



I've talked to 2 different dealers in the area. One reccomended the king, because the house size, and said that you can "take it easy" with a bigger stove, rather then beating up the small one. the other dealer said go with the smaller stove, because you will cook yourself.

Lets keep price aside for right now, there looks to me a $700 differance in stove price, and a few hundred in materials.

What do you think?

Thanks for reading!
Jim

 

[TX-L]

I say King, for the following reasons:
1) King will hold more wood;
2) King will accept larger pieces of wood;
3) You will only have to reload the King once per 24 hours all winter. Yes, really!

The Princess would probably work fine, but I would get the King, especially with 16' ceilings. I have one; my mom has a Princess, so I can offer up a direct comparison from operating both of them. The King offers more heating potential (when needed) and burn time flexibility. You shouldn't "cook yourself out" with the King, as you can adjust your bi-metal coil stat to a low setting according to your specific house and outside weather conditions. I didn't NEED the King model, but am glad I chose it. For me, it was worth the additional $$$. I haven't bought one gallon of fuel since

Hope this helps!

 

[jeff_t]

Heat output is similar from the two, according to BK. Burn time is the big difference. If you have the room and the cash, the King won't cook you out. The 8" pipe is signifcantly more expensive than 6".

My house is around 1600 sq ft, with marginal insulation, and the stove is perfect for me. Our climate is a bit colder than yours, though. I'd say it's a toss up for you.

 

[Bster13]

I vote princess, less install costs and you are on the low end of what the king is comfortable heating, thus I'd think u'd have problems in the shoulder seasons with too much heat....especially considering u heated your house with a fireplace fine and your house is well insulated and you don't live in Alaska.

GL!

(broken link removed to http://www.blazeking.com/EN/wood-king.html)

 

[Todd]

I've talked to 2 different dealers in the area. One reccomended the king, because the house size, and said that you can "take it easy" with a bigger stove, rather then beating up the small one.

I agree with this, get the King, it won't blast you out because of the t-stat and you will have the luxury of filling a larger fire box as needed.

 

[Tenn Dave]

They are both great stoves. In New Jersey's climate, I'm not sure it will matter much which one you pick. Good luck and happy burning.

 

[Highbeam]

2200 SF plus 16' ceilings mean the heated volume is equivalent to a much larger house. The king is rated for a 2500 SF home.

You need to go king.

The low burn rate outputs of the princess and the king are very similar but you get a 30% increase in burn time with the king due to the larger fuel load.

You won't need fans but the fans on the BK line are axial and relatively quiet. Pretty cheap option that on the princess was part of the required shielding to get to the 6" rear clearance.

The stove is big so you will want to install it as close to the wall as possible to minimize floor space loss.

The only reason to buy the princess is if the king won't fit or work with your flue. I find it pretty silly that BK is trying to produce stoves even smaller than the princess but if people want them then I guess there are stoves to sell.

 

[rdust]

King all the way, these stoves can be turned down low. I had a 6" existing chimney and found a great deal on the Princess, if I had to start from scratch I would've had a King.

 

[begreen]

The King sounds like a good fit here, though the Princess will do the job with more frequent loading. When the difference is 16 vs 24 hrs. I'm not sure if that a such a big deal? Run a ceiling fan or two on low speed in reverse direction (blowing upward) to help circulate the air. Otherwise a good portion of the heat will stratify up in the ceiling peak and you will have to run the stove hotter to feel comfortable.

 

[JSGAuto]

Thank you for the replies.

It looks like I am being convinced to get the King!

 

[mellow]

If you have the $$$ then go big and don't look back.