Country Striker c160 vs Lopi Republic 1250i

I have the Lopi. For 800sf it'll do the job just fine. I'm in the same climate as you and heat less than 1200sf. Mine is in a horrible location to heat my house, but it works. If yours will be in a decent spot, it might do the job without a blower. Mine is in a far back corner of the house so the blower really helps.
I know nothing about the other insert you mentioned.
Edited to add: the Lopi is made in Washington. Looks like the striker is from Tennessee, or at least the parent company is based there.

It would be splitting hairs to say one would heat better than the other.

I had a Country stove, not the Striker but the performer. Very well built stove. My only real complaint was the baffle system but the Endeavor seems to be a well built stove that has had its share of problems in this area also.

My parent have a country insert maybe 2.5 cu unit, the thing is about 10 years old and they love it!!. its a very nice heater, solid as a rock, great cons, the baffle in my opinion is very well built, they used (2) sets of fire bricks with a ceramic blanket on top, the reburn tubes just slide into place, no screws or anything to bind them up. Over all its a nice unit.

kennyp2339 said:

My parent have a country insert maybe 2.5 cu unit, the thing is about 10 years old and they love it!!. its a very nice heater, solid as a rock, great cons, the baffle in my opinion is very well built, they used (2) sets of fire bricks with a ceramic blanket on top, the reburn tubes just slide into place, no screws or anything to bind them up. Over all its a nice unit.

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Mine was a size down from your parents, 2.1 cubic ft. It had two fiber boards covered by the ceramic fiber blanket as a baffle. The boards were cut short and left a 1" gap no matter how they were placed. The blankets covered the gap but over the course of a few reloads would end up out of place requiring me to use welding gloves to get them re-situated.

The fiber blankets did deteriorate a little every time I had them out for cleaning but this was a very clean burning stove so they weren't out very often.

As well as I remember the tubes on mine were held in on one end with a gear clamp. I gave it to a friend and he has it ready to go for this winter.

FWIW, I remember a post years ago from a guy who claimed his ceramic fiber blankets deteriorated to the point he trashed them. According to him, he never replaced them and could tell no difference without them in place.