Pics of Lopi Pioneer up and running.

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rwthomas1

Member
Dec 20, 2011
163
Wakefield, RI
Well, you all asked for pics after the installation so here they are. Floor protection is leftover subflooring, tile and cedar trim from a project, was about an hour to throw together. Installed the stove today, just under two hours to complete. About 20" of pipe straight out the back. OAK installed as well. Someone will surely comment on the curtains to the right of the stove. All I can say is that side is the "computer control" side and runs perfectly cool to the touch. The curtains are coming down anyway. The Wife already loves this thing, and that makes it worth every penny.

Thanks for the helpful hints along the way.

RT
 

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you'll prolly check flak for not havin a surge protector, the surge protector cops are tough round here.

An hour for the pad and a couple for the install. you've obviously swung a hammer before? :lol:

Looking good, and welcome to the forum.
 
Yep. As Smoke said, get a good surge protector for that stove. (Not a Cop.. Actually got pulled over today. Brought home another ton of Somersets and my trailer lights were not working)....

Anyways..... Tripplite makes some good models. Check Amazon.com for some good deals.

Looks great. The curtains dont seem that close. Definitely within CTC's.
 
Surge protector, good idea. Actually I will just run the plug over to the TV/Cable box, there is already one there. As far as the install time, etc. yeah, I wear a toolbelt for a living. I have my own general contracting biz and I can say I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install one of these stoves. So simple I'm wondering why more people don't have them. RT
 
rwthomas1 said:
Surge protector, good idea. Actually I will just run the plug over to the TV/Cable box, there is already one there. As far as the install time, etc. yeah, I wear a toolbelt for a living. I have my own general contracting biz and I can say I was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to install one of these stoves. So simple I'm wondering why more people don't have them. RT
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Maintenance. Period. Not just a fill the hopper and set the T-stat.

These stoves require a lot of Love and a lot of Time. If it were easy. Everyone would do it.
 
I'm jealous...what takes other people 2hrs to put together, will take me 2 days...if I'm lucky! It used to take me 2 months to put together my model airplane kits. My buddy would put his together in a week.
 
flynfrfun said:
I'm jealous...what takes other people 2hrs to put together, will take me 2 days...if I'm lucky! It used to take me 2 months to put together my model airplane kits. My buddy would put his together in a week.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm "that guy" Used to frame up balsa scale kits in a weekend, cover and paint in a week. Now I fly foamies and ARF's..... I got a 12ft dinghy I did in 12hrs, including paint, and yes, it floats. Always been good with my hands, but not much else.
RT
 
Nice job and congrats! Hope you enjoy your new stove and keep reading posts on here. Initially I only read threads related to my stove or my current problem but found that reading about everyone's issues I got a better general understanding of how these things work and what to look for when issues come up. Glad your wife is happy...that makes it all worth while.
 
Hello

Very Nice, good Job!

Also Nice to see another Travis Ind Stove. The reliability on these babes are very high on the charts!!!
 

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Nice job! Looks very nice. I have an old Lopi FoxFire that I'm looking to replace. I've had very good luck with it but want to upgrade. I've been leaning toward a Harman but am curious as to the cleaning procedures for the newer Lopi's. First, is there a large ash can on the Pioneer? Secondly, does it have some sort of mechanism to push the ash out of the firebox and down into the ash pan? In other words so you don't have to manually empty it about every day or so (like my FoxFire)? Lastly, what's the noise level on the Pioneer? Have you found it to be annoyingly loud, or is it fairly reasonable? Thanks in for any answers you can provide. Again, nice job on your stove install.
 
Chain said:
Nice job! Looks very nice. I have an old Lopi FoxFire that I'm looking to replace. I've had very good luck with it but want to upgrade. I've been leaning toward a Harman but am curious as to the cleaning procedures for the newer Lopi's. First, is there a large ash can on the Pioneer? Secondly, does it have some sort of mechanism to push the ash out of the firebox and down into the ash pan? In other words so you don't have to manually empty it about every day or so (like my FoxFire)? Lastly, what's the noise level on the Pioneer? Have you found it to be annoyingly loud, or is it fairly reasonable? Thanks in for any answers you can provide. Again, nice job on your stove install.
Click to expand...

First, is there a large ash can on the Pioneer? - There is a large ash pan on the Pioneer. I have never filled it up, but it should hold 10-15 bags worth of ash.

Secondly, does it have some sort of mechanism to push the ash out of the firebox and down into the ash pan? - You have to manually clean the burn pot each day as recommended. It takes about 10 seconds and does not have to be removed to do it.

Lastly, what's the noise level on the Pioneer? - I would call my Pioneer moderately noisy. It is my first pellet stove so I have no baseline other than my gas furnace, which is noisier. It is not annoying though and it is in the front room.

hope that helps.
 
Thanks for the info. The only thing I don't like about my Lopi is that it needs to be cleaned very frequently. It's partly why I'm now looking at a Harman because they need to be cleaned much less and actually push the ash out of the the burn pot and down into the ash pan. It's not that big a deal of course to empty the burn pot daily, but if I'm going to upgrade, I think it'd be nice to have to do less cleaning.

I will say this though about Lopi, they are very dependable. Mine is 16 years old and the only problem I have ever had is that my automatic igniter died about three years ago. Now I just light the stove manually.
 
I can go three to four days without cleaning the Pioneer. The ash is actually piled up all around the burn pot at this point but its still going strong. I will be cleaning today however. I know a guy with a Harman that cleans it MONTHLY. Still, the Harman was a lot more money. I can deal with every 3-4 days. The Pioneer is pretty quiet by my standards. Its just "white noise" from the fans running. Cleaning is simple, open door, pull out ash slide, brush ash into ash pan, remove little metal doors on each side and brush them out, remove burn pot and brush out underneath, etc. Put it all back together. The ash pan is large and easy to empty. The only time I need a vacuum is for the door and the little bit of ash that falls off on the hearth. I can clean it all up in less than 5 minutes without rushing. If you let the stove run out of fuel, its pretty easy to give the hopper a quick vac out as well while you are there. RT
 
The biggest pain with my Lopi is the four very small metal doors that need to be pulled. What a pain in the ass as they're tucked down behind the ash pan and are difficult to put back in place after the ash behind them is cleaned. And with my model, the ash pan is very small and can fill up pretty quickly. And I know what you mean about the price of the Harman. I'm looking at either a P61 or P68. Including installation, I'm looking at around $4,000. But they'll heat my entire house (unlike my current Lopi FoxFire) and as you pointed out, only need a prolonged cleaning about once a month. I've found them to be quieter than my Foxfire as well. If Lopi had an easier cleaning process, I'd seriously look at buying the Lopi Yankee. From watching the videos and looking through the literature on their website, they still look to be a bit more cumbersome to clean that any model that Harman makes.
 
I just cleaned the Pioneer today. About 5 minutes total including dumping the ash pan. The ash pan on the Pioneer is quite large, should hold at least two weeks worth. There are two little doors that lift up and out but they are extremely easy to work with. Literally 5 minutes of work at best. I cannot speak to the Harman, I do know they are a good product. I'm happy with the Lopi for the price and I can only assume that the larger Lopi's are as easy to clean as mine. The main thing I was looking for was reliabilty and simplicity, I think I got that. Harman is more sophisticated but again, more money. RT
 
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