New Blaze King Princess Questions

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Locust99

Member
May 11, 2017
113
Upstate, New York
I just recently had a blaze king princess/6”. chimney installed and have a few questions. For my setup/house I have about 7 feet of double wall pipe 6” and 2 45 degree elbows in the house with 12 foot duravent class A pipe above that. I am heating about 2500 square feet fairly open concept 2 story house in upstate NY . The downstairs is 1800 square feet with an open foyer to the upstairs and the stove room has a vaulted ceiling maybe 10 foot tall, but the vaulted section isn’t large 8x10 tops . Upstairs is another 650 square feet .

Apparently I ran the stove for about a month and the thermostat was installed incorrectly. There was a set screw that was supposed to be above the thermostat, limiting the max airflow, but mine was installed with the screw below that which meant the stove was run hotter than intended until the dealer let me know this and fixed the issue. Regarding this issue and the stove being run hotter, do you think my cat life may have been shortened from this?

Next is now that we have had some really cold weather -10 degrees with windchill of -35 I am kind of wishing I went with the king. I just did not want to stare at an even bigger stove pipe(the room has a lot of windows I didn’t want to ruin). How much more heat output real world would the king deliver, or is it mostly just having more fuel? Normal days I am loading the stove either 2x a day or 3x a day with a smaller second fire or the day . Reloads at 6:30am and then around 5 or 6pm followed by a night reload between 9:30-10pm. Most days the princess has been fine as long as it’s above 20 degrees. Keeping the downstairs between 72-74 usually, upstairs the heat doesn’t reach as well and it will be low 60s. Today though it’s a struggle to keep it above 70. Did I mess up getting the Princess instead of the king , or do I just need to load more often and burn better species of wood?

Sorry for the long post and thanks!
 
2500 square feet is asking a lot of a stove. As you use your stove, you will learn to get more out of it. I wouldn’t be getting buyers remorse yet.
 
The King will put out a bit more heat, but neither stove has a high top end due to thermostatic regulation. Instead, they put out a steady output over an extended period of time. The length of time will depend on the heat demand and loss of the house. In mild weather, reloads might be every 20 hrs, but in very cold weather the heat loss can be very high, and reloads may need to be every 6-8 hrs., especially if the home has a lot of window area and outside temps are heading to zero. At that point, it's best to supplement the stove heat with the primary heating system.

What is the primary heating system in the house? Do you know what it's BTU output is?
 
Loading 2-3 times a day is what I always did with a noncat. That’s normal for them.

The king would have been a better fit but it’s not worth the upgrade at this point.

Maybe tighter, fuller loads, would get you down to more 2 load days. 2 load days are pretty common for most princess owners when it’s really cold. That’s still a 12 hour reload cycle and within the “normal” range for a princess.
 
The King will put out a bit more heat, but neither stove has a high top end due to thermostatic regulation. Instead, they put out a steady output over an extended period of time. The length of time will depend on the heat demand and loss of the house. In mild weather, reloads might be every 20 hrs, but in very cold weather the heat loss can be very high, and reloads may need to be every 6-8 hrs., especially if the home has a lot of window area and outside temps are heading to zero. At that point, it's best to supplement the stove heat with the primary heating system.

What is the primary heating system in the house? Do you know what it's BTU output is?
In mild weather I did get a 24 hour burn , but lately I’ve just needed the btus reducing burn time significantly. I do have a lot of glass in this house. The room with the stove is mostly all glass. The house was built in 94, insulated fairly well with r18 in the walls 2x6 construction and R38 in ceilings. Windows are definitely leaky though .

Primary heating system is an oil based boiler with baseboard heat. Actual btu output I’m not sure about, but it can burn max 1 gallon per hour so I would guess with efficiency loss probably around 100k btu/hr.

So far for the first month the stove did cut my oil bill by 1/3rd. I was just hoping for more heat on the cold days, but maybe there are some things for me to learn and change.

I would have bought the king if it ran on a 6” flue. But last couple days I was getting buyers remorse! I will say though this stove is way easier to control than my old non-cat at a previous house.
 
Some people say that if your stove is big enough for the coldest day of the year then it is too big for the rest of the heating season. I don’t know if I buy that.
 
I am, but mostly because the small fire in a big stove doesn't work great IMO for non cats

But let's look at the situation here. He keeps the downstairs 72-74. He was able to keep it, with struggle, at 70. Thats a win in my book.

OP says he's in Upstate NY. Thats a big region. That could be Westchester County, where thats once in a decade weather, or up near Lake Placid, where he's going to see it 6 or 7 times a year. But regardless of how often he's seeing those temperatures, he having remarkable control from a solid fuel space heater. Expectations...
 
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Yes, it was a struggle but with 3 year old black locust it held it at 70, the main part of the downstairs anyway. I think it will be a learning curve on loading the stove tighter, I need more variable size splits with more smaller splits to fill near the top of the stove. We aren’t too far north about an hour above the southern tier of NY. No lake placid weather thankfully.

Regarding the cat life, since my thermostat was not functioning properly for a month, do you think my cat took some damage? My probe was sometimes routinely pegged.
 
It's possible that it was damaged. But if it is still functioning as it should I'd let it be. It's working well enough. They'll normally last 2 or 3 years of 24/7 burning. If you get the rest of this year and next, you're doing just fine. If you start seeing smoke next year, or you aren't seeing the same temps on your cat, I'd first try cleaning it, and then consider replacement if that doesn't work.
 
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Yes, it was a struggle but with 3 year old black locust it held it at 70, the main part of the downstairs anyway. I think it will be a learning curve on loading the stove tighter, I need more variable size splits with more smaller splits to fill near the top of the stove. We aren’t too far north about an hour above the southern tier of NY. No lake placid weather thankfully.

Regarding the cat life, since my thermostat was not functioning properly for a month, do you think my cat took some damage? My probe was sometimes routinely pegged.
It’s okay to “peg” the cat meter. That’s normal. In fact, folks often wrap that needle well past the top of the active range.
 
Our Blaze King Ashford 30.2 is 15 months old and has a 10 year cat warranty. My guess is yours has the same warranty. Just need to fill out and return the warranty card to claim it.

Have you experimented with not using the boiler during a cold day and just using the wood burner? We're in a warmer climate, but found during the cold snap where it was around zero for several days around Christmas that the natgas central heat was actually hurting more than helping. We have 2200 sq ft (not including basement) cabin with an open loft and high ceiling where much of the heat goes. We set the natgas central heat thermostat to 55 degrees so it would only come on in an emergency and we loaded 2.5 times a day like you. Central heat didn't come on.
 
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Yeah, I will have to fill out the card for a replacement cat once performance decreases.

Yes, most days downstairs the boiler will not kick on. It is set at 68 for the main part of the house and 60 in the master . Upstairs I keep it 62 during the day and turn it up at night to around 66-68. The wood stove probably helps some upstairs, but it is not enough to heat the upstairs. I likely would have needed a wood boiler to heat the upstairs too. I think the heat sits in the open foyer ceiling.

I still load 2.5 times a day unless it’s mild. And I found when I have the stove turned down low and temps are around 50, if it’s windy out it can backdraft so I can’t burn low in those conditions .