Not sure BK Princess is enough...

[qain]

We moved into our home two years ago with a 1980 Fisher Grandma. It heats the house just fine, but I would like to get something more efficient. The Fisher is a hungry beast and cools quickly when not fed. A little about the house. The chimney is just over 25 feet of 6 inch duravent stainless, draft is not an issue, tried to pull my hat off from time to time . The stove is in a finished basement which is 30x30. The main level is 30x30 as well. Then there is a 3rd level of two bedrooms which are total 15x30. The house is only 6 years old, well insulated, and fairly tight. We do get below zero from time to time in the mountains here. The Fisher can keep up fine if I feed it. The Fisher does not seem to have an issue pulling in air without a OAK, but would consider one if needed. We would like to heat the home primarily with wood (and have for two years now) I have three ideas in mind...

1. Get a NC30. They seem to be a good value, fairly efficient, and can put out the heat when needed. Easily available in MD

2. Get a BK Princess, all the good things about BK, but I worry it does not have the umph to get the heat we need upstairs.

3. A BK King...again all the goodies about a BK, but I would have to replace the entire chimney system...lots of extra money, much much cheaper to go the NC30 route, not sure the TOTAL cost would be justified.

Ok, fire away.

 

[Todd]

If you have good insulation i think you should be ok with the Princess. It will be much more efficient and give you those longer burns so less trips up and down the stairs to feed the stove. The Englander would probably work as well and it's hard to pass up the price but you won't get those long BK burns. The BK would be my first choice unless I was really hurting for funds.

 

[pen]

My home is smaller but poorly insulated. I also heated it with a grandma fisher. With the fisher, a thermometer 20 feet from the stove on the basement (old mercury one w/ a memory) read 101 degrees at one time! :gulp: With the englander 30, the hottest I've ever gotten the basement was just shy of 90 in the dead of winter. In fact, just looked at the thermometer now and haven't reset it in at least a year and the highest reading since then is 82 right now.

With the old stove, I could get the upstairs hotter because it could provide more heat faster by chewing through the wood faster as you referenced. However, that meant that I came home to a house a 60 hearing the baseboard heat clinking quite often. Since the 30, I have not come home to a house where the furnace has run once yet but I can't get the upstairs as warm. However, I have no problems getting it to 70 so I'm OK with where I'm at. This fisher could make it 80 upstairs in any weather if I so wanted.

The upside is I'm saving about a cord and a 1/2 of wood a year and overall, the house is much more comfortable, the chimney is cleaner, and the stove is more manageable. The only big difference is that the 30 demands well seasoned wood. I could get away with stuff that wasn't as well seasoned w/ the fisher. The princess would provide you with similar benefits.

I'm not going to recommend either way, but here is something to think about. If you can pick up a 30 on sale at the end of the season (any day now) and give it a try, if you don't like it you can sell it on craigslist for damn near the same money you have invested in it during the summer when the big boxes aren't selling stoves and people want to get ready, or in the fall / early winter when they are still at full price. If you buy the more expensive princess to start, and aren't happy with it, I can't see you selling it used and breaking as close to even.

Just a thought, and I'll add, I do wish I could try a princess in this house, even though I am very happy with the 30. It's a wonderful stove and I can't help but think that the evenness of stove top operating temps of that princess wouldn't help do what I'm looking for even better. But, that curiosity comes at a price.

pen

 

[rdust]

2250 and trying to heat the basement, main floor and second story is going to be tough imo. How well does the heat get up to the second story now? I would think this story will give you trouble regardless of the stove.

 

[Highbeam]

Why put a 30 year old stove into a nice new house? A barn is one thing and the fishers are good old smoke dragons but installing one is illegal in my state. Also illegal to sell it as I recall. Maybe not in MD? Do you think there was a permit for the stove's installation?

The trouble will be using a stove to heat a three story, 2250 SF, house. Tall and skinny. We can suggest a stove with the output to match that fisher but it will be large.

 

[greythorn3]

i have both stoves and i would pick the nc30 over the princess for heat output, princess has longer burn times but less max heat output.

the princess can barley keep our 1900 sq ft house heated. where as the nc 30 i can heat our 2200 sq foot house.

 

[qain]

Running the Fisher I can get the temp in the first floor to 76 very easily running it cut back pretty good. The second floor does indeed stay cooler, but the 2nd floor bedrooms never get below 68 if the stove is lit at all. If it's burning it always stays over 70 even cut back. I am happy with the heat output of the fisher, just not the greedy nature of the beast. The flue temp is 350-400 normal, and 500 when really cooking...I do not let it get above 500. As near as I can figure, I am putting out as many BTU's helping keep the deer, bears, and squirrels warm as I am in the house. When we get down in the negatives the stove can keep up if I keep it fed, and we are plenty warm. Really I am just looking at more efficiency. If I can get the same heat inside the house with less wood, well, it's a no brainer.

I honestly could not tell you about a permit to install, we had the house inspected and specifically the stove/flue was gone over for almost an hour, with the only note being it was an older stove, and could benefit from a more modern design.

What I am hearing is, the princess with most likely be enough most of time...but it might not have the backbone to keep up in the -10 blizzard when the polar bears are walking through the backyard. The NC30 should be somewhat comparable to what I have, just more efficient...and the King's cost including the new chimney is not really worth the cost analysis.

Keep the info and ideas coming!

 

[qain]

I was just rereading the manual for the Fisher, it claims it's good to heat 1250-1750 sqft. Thats really surprising! If I let it, this 2250 sqft could be 80+. One more thing, I have to feed the Fisher 4 times per 24 hr minimum. For instance, I filled it this morning at 7. When I came home at 4, it was out to the point there were not enough coals to relight, but the stove was warm to the touch yet. That was with the dials on the front cut back to a half turn a piece. Soooo, running up and down to feed any new stove will be much less than what I do now. For me, the BK super long burn times are nice, but I would be thrilled with a 10-12 hour honest burn time.