I've got a question for BK owners

I will be looking at used Princess/King options over the next 24 months. If I find a King I will be running it in a 6" liner. Any thoughts on this?

 

Be like plugging off part of the hole/s one your chain saw exhaust.
Performance will suffer.
Not sure what the effects would be. ? ?

 

WS, the whole flue system is new-ish 6". About 4' of stove pipe to the ceiling, then another 5' or so in the attic, then another 6' (I think, maybe more. Dang it, now I need to go check.....again) above the roof.
It goes straight through the apex or peak.

 

If I find a used King for the right price, I'm probably going to try it. It will be placed where the 30 is now and if it performs poorly, I will have the 30 as a back up.

 

When I talked to BK, they said 14' minimum. I was right at 13 at first, and it worked fine, but it was December when I started burning it. I added 3' after a couple of months. I like to think it works better, because of the extra money I spent, but in honesty it surely didn't make a night and day difference. I never tried any shoulder season burning with the short stack.

 

Before I put the trusses up on my flat roof, I only had 10' from the top of the stove to the top of the stack. Worked fine but that was straight up Class A with double wall stove pipe.

My stove is right on the edge of being able to keep up when its cold and blowing. About the fastest I can burn 100 lbs of dry wood is 12 hours with continuous cycles. For me, that is about 3.25 on the tstat with the fans blazing, well outside the normal range. Running any higher than that doesn't seem to put out any more heat. That is the most heat per hour, the most heat out of a load of wood or longest burn cycle are different questions. That same load in the shoulder season goes 36 - 48 hours. The really nice thing about the tstat is you can walk away from the stove and know how much heat is going to be put in the living space for an extended period with zero fear of over fire.

 

Sounds like we are in the same situation. This stove should be way more than I need, but it isn't. Not because it doesn't put out heat, either. Still work to be done here.

Gotta love a stove that can burn the same load in 12 or 48 hours, though

 

We really pay for a 60' wall of operating windows when it blows in the winter and it does that a lot on this exposed ridge Nice in the summer though and the finish carpentry is going to include interior storms.

 

This is good info., S&W.
I know that there are a ton of variables involved, and there's no simple answer. The answers for BK owners are similar, yet different, in that the burn times are so long even in 10 degree weather.
I'll be thinking differently about how to run a stove when the BK gets here.
All of these real world examples of how you guys run your stoves is VERY helpful to we mere mortals w/o the alien tech. I tend to glean what will be appropriate for my situation from every one of them, so if it suits you, keep 'em coming.
It ticks me off a little that dealers here don't have many/any BK stoves in stock, so it's tough to get a good hands on before buying. I want to put a tape to the firebox, and stand next to the stove to get a sense of mass. I guess none of that is really important when so many are extolling BK's virtues.
I'm sure a BK will work well for me, but I'd like to upsize w/o super oversizing. Pretty sure the Princess, Sirocco30/Ashford size will work well, especially after the insulation is better, although most would say that's too big for a house my size.
Ok, I've reread this too many times and made too many adjustments, so.......

 

Those burn times are amazing. My VC with a full load of mostly soft maple, because it's tough to find anything else around here, is down to coals in around 4 to 5 hours. Temps are always cool in the house because I'm either at work or didn't wake up to fill it back up again.

Local BK dealer said around $3k for a King and I'm starting to think about it so I'm not stuck being a slave to the wood stove I have now.

For those of you that have a King or a Princess and have an idea of the size of a VC 0028, how much bigger in size are the BK's? I just built a hearth and I'd hate to start over to keep my clearances correct.

 

I bet with all the extra stuff on the back of the VC, the overall depth is probably similar. However, the flue opening will be much farther forward on the BK. May require a couple of offsets if your chimney is straight up thru the ceiling.

Clearances are actually pretty tight, it's just a big stove. The dimensions are in the manual, which you can download from BK's site. I can measure anything you might have a question about.

 

Jeff, I'll get back to you if I need anything specific. Thanks.

I downloaded the manuals for the King and Princess and have been looking them over since I last posted. Guess I'll need to get out the tape measure when I get home and then figure out how to convince the warden to let me spend the money. Any tips on the convincing part?

 

Do you pay for firewood?
If you do, tell her the stove will save money on that front, and you'll have more time to do other stuff instead of tending the stove every few hours.
If she doesn't care, then do it anyway, but if she does, you're golden. Either way, it's a win.
Oh, YMMV

 

I can help with that one

 

King

 

We do pay for firewood and she hasn't put more than a dozen splits in it since we started using it over a year ago.

Do I want to know what YMMV means?

 

Wow! That's a lot a stove there. Thanks for the pic.

 

There really is no comparison. I almost gave up and went back to propane until some guy from Canada's experience convinced me to give it another try. Hands down the best 24/7 heater IMO. Just won't win you any points for artistry

 

interweb lingo "your mileage may vary"

 

I have a 0028, also. Are you running the stove hard or does it produce enough heat for you?