Blaze King Princess PI1010A first fire of the year!

I haven't been happier since we installed our Blaze King Princess fireplace insert PI1010A with the catalytic converter in 12/2008. We've gotten great use out of the fireplace as supplemental heat during extreme cold, or 'just cold enough' conditions in early fall / late spring times in northern Minnesota.

Our first fire of the 2012/2013 season was this past weekend (Friday evening - Saturday evening). Here are the totals: 3 boxes of wood burned over a 30+ hour period. One box equals 16x14x12 or about 15 normal split pieces of Bur Oak, Green Ash, American Elm, Basswood and a bit of Box-elder Maple (as a mix). We burned the fire on high heat during the awake periods (6pm - 11pm Friday, and 9am - 5pm Saturday) for about  13 burning hours; other times were set on medium to medium-low heat and burned through the night. From Friday evening 11pm to Saturday morning around 8:30 - 9am, we were left with hot coals with no flame, and the thermostat at the boundary for having the catalytic on vs.off. I put 5-6 new pieces in the firebox, added three sheets of newspaper for primer, and the coals started everything off again. Burned through Saturday evening - loaded the firebox last at 11pm & set to low heat, and checked it Sunday morning at 9am. Coals were still hot and 'opened' the catalytic converter to cool off the firebox. As of 1pm on Sunday, after stirring the coals for the 2nd time the thermostat rose in temp again from the left over coals of the previous 12 hours. The heat retention (and subsequent radiation/dissipation of the heat off the metal) is impressive.

 Overall I am very pleased with the investment we made.