Yes and yes. The newest princess/king has some excellent ratings. Their manuals and brochures are available at the bk site.
Ok...was just on their site, but no information that I could see on whether the Ultra models had an ash pan. I didn't even know they offered an ash pan...I thought it was merely a pedestal and was thinking, "what a waste...they should put an ash pan under there"...and they have apparently. Good!! I like that. I just looked on the general webpage and didn't take a look at any manuals or I'd have found the answer.
My ultra has the ash pan inside the pedestal. It's decently large but the ash belly is huge on these stoves so the ash pan can easily fill up multiple times per stove load. The ash chute is covered by a plug on the firebox floor system instead of a grate since the ash pan area is not sealed. I think I prefer that to having another seal to maintain since these stoves do not appreciate air leaks. I use the ash pan. I resisted at first because of bad experiences with tiny ashpans on other stoves but if I just want to take a couple of inches out of the firebox then the ultra pan works well. Minimal mess.
Good info!! I love the look of the legs, but prefer to have the ability to use that big ash pan, whether I use it or not. It's just another convenience. So no issues with the plug leaking air into the fire box then? The more I think about those deep fire boxes the more I think I would like them.
No problems with my ash plug leaking. Either air up or ash down. Works fine. Even if it did leak a little the thermostat would just close the throttle blade to maintain the desired burn rate. The deep ash belly of the stove is super nice. I didn’t empty ash even one time this year. 4.5 cords of Doug fir (low ash maker) and 100% of our heat.
Works just like my Hitzer. I'm a big fan of those thermostats as well. Hey, that's convenient. That's less trips out the door to empty ash and less heat wasted out the door when you empty ash as well.
It would be different with most other woods but fir is pretty great for low ash. The drawback is that it made some aggressive melted glass clinkers that really stuck to the pumice firebricks aggressively. When I removed those clinkers I lost a good bit of firebrick thickness. My 2012 ultra has two layers of bottom firebrick so I'm not terribly worried about the top layer wearing. The belly is 6" for the princess and 8" for the king as I recall. That's a row or two of splits in the firebox before you are even up to the door opening!
I have a princess ultra. Two seasons in and i empty it once or twice a year with emptying the box another 1 or 2 times. I burn 24/7 in MD on medium setting to heat my entire house from November to March.
I don’t use the ashpan on either, King or Princess.. It’s much quicker for me to just shovel carefully into an ash bucket..
