Lopi Leyden top loading stove

The dealer I bought my Oslo from sold the Leyden also, and was afraid of future costs if the molded bricks in the back of the leyden firebox ever broke. She said in her opinion the Jotul is a better stove with less potential upkeep.

Leyden is a downdraft combustion stove, similar to Harman Oakwood and the VC and Dutchwest Non-cats. We have had a lot of folks here with problems relating to the VC and Dutch models of this type. However, we don't know if this pertains to the Harman and Leyden etc...in fact, we have happy users of both here on the forums. But you should become familiar with the combustion method just for your own knowledge. It seems that it function best when used heavily..... do a forum search for Everburn (that is vermont castings name for that downdraft stove) and also check our stove reviews and ratings sections. Also, read this little primer on the operation of downdraft stoves.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Downdraft_Stove_Operation/

No doubt these are harder stoves to operate than an updraft stove like the Oslo, but you do get certain benefits with some like the top loading and larger fireboxes. Read up and weigh all the factors.

We looked at the Lopi Leyden stove when shopping for our new one and I was impressed. It was actually my second or possibly third choice. One problem we thought of was the very high possibility of burning yourself when loading that top loader. As for heat, we were at one place where they had little fire in it but it really was cranking out a lot of heat. We were afraid the heat was too much though and went with the soapstone....and have not been sorry for it.

Hi, I looked at the Leyden when I was looking at new stoves . After much reading here about downdraft stoves, I decided on the Oslo. Single front door, large side loading door and single lever damper contol. I also think the castings are better on the Jotuls.The stove is a great heater, the secondary burn is spectacular and it puts out more with less wood than the old stove.

Jim

Once you have the top loading feature it is hard to imagine not having it. Because you get very use to it. BUT take CRAIG's words very seriously; the downdraft stoves require a significant amount of "futzing" all the time to keep burning clean. This compares to almost load and go for the other secondary burn types. The top loading CAT stoves are great and very easy to use. So much so that this overcomes any maintenance that you have to do to keep them performing. (after all we all should do the maintenance any way, we just put it off a little and that gets us on trouble.)
If you want a non CAT and you don't want to deal with the problems of downdraft AND just have to keep the top loader, take a look at the Quadrafire Isle Royal, it has the best of both worlds.
At this point, I am personally rethinking the top loading issue and looking seriously at other brands with front/side loading to see what the advantages are. YOU have to live with it 24/7 so it might as well be FUN!!
Good Luck!

boulder said:

Unfortunately there aren't any reviews on Leydens and I'd like to get some input before I put out the cash. Is anyone using one? Thanks in advance.

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I'll probably write a complete review when the season is over. We bought our Lopi Leyden last fall and have used it as primary heat in a new house this winter. House is 2500 sq. ft., of new well-insulated construction but with many windows. The 6" stove pipe is double wall insulated SS. This pipe exits the house 4 feet above the stove and goes horizontally through the wall to an exterior clean-out T before going through the attic and on above the roof. The pipe stands a few feet above the highest part of the roof, but does not exit at the roof peak. Draft is good in most conditions but not absolutely foolproof - when the stove is idling and the wind is gusting it can back draft. I'll probably add another 3 foot section of pipe to the top next season.

In years past we burned fir, pine, and aspen from our land...but for the last few years we have bought dry oak splits and prefer them. That is what we burned this season.

DESIGN/CONSTRUCTION/ASSEMBLY: I limited my search to stoves that would top load. After that, my most important criteria was quality of construction. I have foundery experience and wanted a stove constructed of thick fine-grained cast iron with castings that showed attention to heat expansion. A big selling point for me was that the cast parts should be finished with obvious craftsmanship. Such a stove would be heavy, but that was a plus.

Critical joints must be thru-bolted and the mating surfaces must be designed for a compressed gasketed joint. I consider stove cement to be useful as a secondary seal, but insufficient as primary one. Glued together joints are simply not acceptable to me. All of the adjustments, loading doors, and ash doors should work smoothly.

The back of the stove should incorporate a heat shield designed to encourage air flow into the room. There should be a convenient air intake adjustment. The air intake itself should be easily adaptable to outside air.

The stove manufacturer should specify reasonable clearance, pipe diameter, and R-value requirements. (some did not)

All of my previous stoves have been plain cast iron, but this time I wanted to try a true baked porcelain finish. All of the manufacturers offered that.
Finally, accessories such as warmer wings or matching decorative trim was considered an advantage - though not an absolute "must have". The Lopi Leyden was the only stove that did not offer such accessories.

I do not put much faith in manufacturer's claims for stove performance - preferring to rely on a combination of my own experience with similar stoves and reports such as this one.

OPERATION: The Lopi Leyden was my choice. It didn't have all the features I wanted, but the construction and craftsmanship were so much higher than the rest of the stoves that it won...narrowly beating out the larger Isle Royale which was a darn close second place with it's clever pivoting secondary burn tubes. I did have concerns about the smaller Lopi Leyden being able to heat the house on the coldest nights but felt that would be balanced by running the smaller stove at a more efficient (hotter) rate most of the time. I didn't like the intake air adjustment on either stove. Both are awkwardly positioned and lack a fine adjustment.

AFTER A SEASON: The report is positive for the Lopi Leyden with a couple of reservations. I needn't have worried about the heat output - it could easily make the house into a sauna with a blizzard outside. We rarely run at more than half throttle. It does smoke some when the top is opened - but of course that is a fault of the stovepipe rather than the stove. In my concern to prevent the possibility of a runaway fire in an unknown stove I didn't all for a lot of draft in the initial design for the stove pipe with the result that the stove works noticibly better when hot that when only warm. I don't know of any way to get the pipe design perfect without either using bimetallically controlled draft or simply living with the stove for a season. So the stove pipe will need fine tuning this summer. Luckily I designed it with that in mind.

The big surprise was how long it holds a fire and coals. It's not unusual for about a third of a firebox full of dry oak blocks to pump out consistent heat for eight hours...and for the stove to still be hot to the touch with plenty of usable coals to start the next load after twelve hours. That is a long burn for such a light load and no special attention. Lopi's claims of a 14 hour controlled burn might almost be possible with everything set just right and the wind and weather co-operating. Still, it is impressive. That easily achieved long burn sure surprised me - though the dry oak blocks are part of that story.
After a careful break in period we were able to operate the stove very hot when desired and it handled the heat with no problems. That was one of the tests I insisted on doing and it passed easily. No glowing; just a lot of heat. The ash box and ashtray are very clever designs. It was my expectation that neither would get much use and that is what has happened. We empty the ash pan about once every two months and it is never very full. The hard ceramic bricks lining the the stove are well made and very durable. I now like it better than the softer firebrick common to other makes.

DOWNSIDES: Like most top loaders the top loading door handle gets hot and requires either a tong to lift it, or gloves. Both the top loading plate hinges and the bypass door stop have required adjustment the first season. I don't know if that is expected, but both are adjustable so maybe so. The air intake adjustment is gross rather than fine - although the stove itself is surprisingly self regulating.
Hope this helps! scotty

BeGreen said:

Great review scotty, thanks for the posting. What temps are you normally running the stove at? How well did it burn with softwoods?

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Well, thanks for the comment . I always ran my vintage Vermont Casting Resolute fairly cool to conserve wood. One of the first thing we noticed is that the Lopi runs much hotter in normal operation..... but in spite of that the fire lasts longer. The firebox is larger, but mostly the stove itself is more efficient than the older VCs. In the morning when I get up the top of the Lopi Leyden stove tends to be in the 200 to 300 degree range depending on whether the coals are covered with ash or still red on the surface. Opening the bypass and stirring the coals will get it back up to the normal stove top temperature of 450F which a common reading. That is the temperature I see most of the time when the wood has turned to coals and we are just simmering along. is where it is most of the time when the wood has turned to coals. Adding fresh wood and opening the bypass (updraft mode) causes it to flame up and the temperature of the stove top rises in about 5 minutes to 600F at which point I close the bypass. Closing the bypass puts it into the long burning crossdraft mode and also enables the secondary combustion. Secondary combustion of the volatile gases is odd to see - there is this ghostly flickering flame that will flash into existence - then go out only to reappear a few seconds later. It may look odd, but it sure must be hot in there and the temperature of the top now climbs up to 650 to 700F until the volatiles are gone. Now we enter hour after hour of the hot coal stage where the temperature is at 450F and will gradually decline during the night. All of this is using the 8"x10"x4" chunks of squared off well-dried oak.

Probably it would be different on softwood, but we haven't tried hat yet. If anyone burns pine in theirs I'd like to hear about it.
Thanks, scotty