Princess insert and power loss questions

[backld]

I've had my princess insert install a little less than a week. Got it finished a few days before the big ice storm. Ran it before we lost power and it burned great, heated the house awesome. We didn't run the furnace for two days and had the house at 70deg. Then we lost power and I could not keep the house warm. I could not get the stove regulated without the blower. Without the blower the cat temp on the thermometer was pegged, so I'd turn the stove down and then we'd get no heat out of it.

What was I doing wrong? I was hoping this insert would preform a little better with no power.

 

[shawneyboy]

Inserts in general need to have the blower going to push out the heat. I do not have an insert myself, but my Father had one and no blower = no heat.

 

[BrotherBart]

Next time pull the surround off to get more heat out. Heat is getting trapped in the fireplace behind the surround causing the overheating in the stove and the underheating in your house.

 

[mxjamie540]

Get yourself a small inverter..... that way you can run your blower for a time with an automotive or marine battery. I bought a B&D at Walmart just for this purpose. I have a freestanding stove, so the blower is not near as crucial as for you.

 

[pgmr]

If you know (or suspect) it's going to be a long duration outage, you might try removing the fan to allow better natural convection through the stove. You won't get the same air circulation w/o the fan, of course, so you won't get the heat throughout the house like normal.

If it's a real emergency, I'd not worry about shortening the life of the catalyst.

 

[SolarAndWood]

The blowers make a big difference even with the freestanding versions of these stoves especially across the top where the cat is. You are not going to get anywhere near as much heat out of them without it.

 

[backld]

Power is back on. I finally got the stove burning hotter without the fan blowing. What I did was remove the surround and the (not sure what its called) louvered top piece. It seems that top piece is used to help transfer the heat from the cat to the air blowing from the fan. When I removed it this allowed the trapped heat to escape into the air thus keeping my cat cooler. I never achieved the warmth that a free standing stove provides though, but it did keep us warm and kept the house around 62 or so. Another bonus, once I removed this top piece I had enough room on the top of the stove for a pan for cooking and heating water.

 

[Patapsco Mike]

This isn't a Blaze King thing, it's an insert thing. When you lose power, and your fan, no insert will work as well as it would with the fan running. It will still help a LOT, it will keep your house livable, but don't expect your house to be as warm as it would be with the fan running.

Agreed with the other suggestions. Get a generator, even a tiny one will work. Remove the surround. And run it hard to maximize the heat you get. It's not as good as a freestanding stove, but it's still 1,000% better than not having a stove at all.