Lopi Leyden - Still Waiting - or Big Hat, No Stove

I just got my lopi leyden (brown enamel) on Monday December 1st. I can't believe how nice it is to sit by at night. It puts out plenty of heat. I have a ranch that is 68 feet long with cathedral ceilings and it heats it just fine. My wife told me to turn it off last night (it was 78 in the living room). It's about as loud as a bathroom fan or toe kick heater. What happend to me was I ordered a harman XXV back in June (when my oil man quoted me $4.44) but was told a month and a half lataer that I couldn't get it. The Dealer told me I could get my Lopi by the end of January (because I wanted the brown enemal). I love the brown enamal. It is a truly beautiful stove. Well to make a long story short they called in the beginning of November to schedule the install. It heats great but I really underappreciated how much the type of pellets you burn matter. I burned the Hammer hot ones and they burned great. Low ash and plenty of heat. The Athens burn ok but boy oh boy is there ash. It fills the whole area in front of the burnpot and behind the glass. The glass also dirties much faster with the Athens pellets. The magic eraser works great to clean the glass (as I've read on other posts). I won't buy the Athens Pellets ever again unless they improve their product substantially. I'm going to get myself a nice pellet vacuum soon but I do find the stove burns much better on the higher settings when burning the Athens pellets. I mixing the two types for now, but I can't wait til the Athens ones are all gone. Hang in there and touch base with the stove dealer. Who did you buy from?

That's where I got my stove too! I think they got news from Travis industries about getting the stoves in early. Steve, the owner, was a real nice guy and I found his staff very well informed. I have no regrets what so ever about getting a Lopi. I wasn't home for the install but my dad said they were very nice and cleaned up after themselves. I was initially told it would take about an extra month or so for the brown enemal, but it's what my wife wanted. You know what they say, a happy wife is a happy life, so I was willing to wait. Hang in there, I bet you hear from them soon. It's well worth the wait. If I have any problems, I'm told they will stand behind their product. Service after the sale is very big for me as I know they have more moving parts than a wood stove.

tumbles, wheres the pics? No pics, it didn't happen ;-)

I'll get on the pictures soon. I've been working a lot lately. I hope to have a little spare time at the beginning of next week. I promise I'll do it. :red:

Ranger, Hate to piss in your burn pot, but you might have to wait a little for your stove. Ours was ordered first week in June and installed first week in Dec. The installation crew said they were just getting into the June orders. On a positive note, this stove is well worth waiting for. I love it, and it throws some serious heat even on low. Once I fiddled with the air and heat settings, it has been going non stop without any problems. Wasn't too impressed with the dealer. They never could give any idea on when the stove would arrive. When steve came to the house we showed him where we wanted the stove. Said it wouldn't work there and had to go in the other corner. I didn't understand why it wouldn't work, all the measurements seemed to be ok when i checked them against the online manual. When the installers came they said the new location was too close to a window but would make it work. when my wife mentioned the fire inspector coming that afternoon, they changed their tune and re-measured. The exhaust was right where an outlet was and it would have to be a straight install. This put the air intake and exhaust close together and they said the only way it would work would be to have the air intake off to the side of the stove. I thought that would be pretty ugly. When i asked them about the other corner where steve said no, they said that would be the best place for the stove, and that is where they installed it with no problems. Wouldn't install the thermostat because they said they got too many complaints about the way they were installing them. Their tools were all brand new right out of the box, (saws all and drill not even charged yet!) The final result was ok, but next time, I would install myself. Hopefully your stove comes soon.

tumbles said:

I'll get on the pictures soon. I've been working a lot lately. I hope to have a little spare time at the beginning of next week. I promise I'll do it. :red:

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Do you have any pictures of you

:coolcheese: Here I am.

I placed my order on June 15th and the stove was picked up on October 23rd. My dealer kept telling me they "had no idea" when my stove would come in - that was not very professional conduct on the part of my dealer and it made me wonder what kind of support they were getting from the factory if communication was that poor.

October 23rd was a good time of year to get it - however, the stove had some damaged parts and it's taken me 9 weeks to get the parts. . . and I still don't have all of them. The stove looks good in the corner of the room and the pellets are all stacked in the other room. . . just waiting for the parts so I can fire up the stove and make sure it actually works. . .

good luck waiting!

I just got my Leyden installed a few days before Christmas. Had ordered it late June. Almost exactly 6 months from deposit to install... Worth the wait though. Very happy with it, and the dealer as well. Can't blame them for the surge in demand.

Ranger,

We didn't even do much shopping for brand. My wife went and looked for the asthetics, and word of mouth had it that Lopi had one of the best warrantees out there --> Lopi Leyden!

For pellets, I got 4 tons of Pennington Natures Heat from HD back in July. Maybe a newbie mistake having that much w/o ever burning any, but they've worked out great. I have nothing to compare to for heat output or ash levels, but it's been acceptable to me. Sweep the ash into the dustpan and clean the burnpot once a day, empty the ash pan every few days. And after about 10-15 bags, haven't experienced any fines/sawdust like others have mentioned. So pretty happy with them.

On the thermostat, it was not installed. Frost n Flame said they did not do that install. I've been operating it manually and think that's just fine. However, I am considering installing a setback thermostat simply for the timing feature. I'll probably still shut it down at night and let oil kick in at around 60 or so like I do now, but will be great to have it come on before I wake up instead of having to go downstairs into the cold to get it going. I'm sure if I install that, we'll eventually progress to full use of the thermostat, maybe even at night, but primarly I'm looking for the timer benefit now.

Good luck with your install!

I too I love my lopi leyden. It's a great stove and puts out some great heat. I'm glad I didn't get the harman now. I was worried at first, but now I'm glad I went with the lopi. I had a lopi gas stove at a camp I had and it worked great. I'm using hammer hot one's mixed with the athens pellets. The hammer's are great and the athens are ok (at best). The stove runs hotter witht the hammers and I have a lot less ash. The damper is probably the biggest thing I didn't think would matter. It plays a huge role in how the stove burns. The size of the flame is what I constantly have to adjust too. I clean the stove daily but it runs much better on the high settings. I also use the majic eraser to clean the glass and it works great. Be careful with the ash pan as it does fill up quickly when burning the athens pellets.

I hope you didn't pay for it. If that store went belly up... by-by stove and payment.

canibuyavowel said:

tumbles said:

I'll get on the pictures soon. I've been working a lot lately. I hope to have a little spare time at the beginning of next week. I promise I'll do it. :red:

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Do you have any pictures of you

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Tumbles,

Nice response to canibuyavowel. LOL

He was a friend from work playing a little joke on me. I had him figured out quickly. I really liked the picture he found on the net. He's quite a joker to say the least.

GLad people are happy with their Lopi - I have had just the opposite reaction, though it's not to the stove because we haven't seen ours! We put 1500 down and have been put off ever since September by a company that is going under (though still "selling" stoves). Called Travis and they said to file in small claims court - how's that for supporting the end user (or potential end user) of a stove. Let's see - a small write off for them, and big chunk of change we can't easily get back...you can see why we aren't going with a Lopi if we ever get our money back!!
JOhn in Moultonborough NH

hikerjohnm said:

GLad people are happy with their Lopi - I have had just the opposite reaction, though it's not to the stove because we haven't seen ours! We put 1500 down and have been put off ever since September by a company that is going under (though still "selling" stoves). Called Travis and they said to file in small claims court - how's that for supporting the end user (or potential end user) of a stove. Let's see - a small write off for them, and big chunk of change we can't easily get back...you can see why we aren't going with a Lopi if we ever get our money back!!
JOhn in Moultonborough NH

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I don't see any correlation between supporting the end user and getting your money back through Travis. You purchased through a dealer. The dealer is responsible to refund your money, not Travis. Sure Travis could contact the dealer to try and convince them to cough up the money but it's between you and the dealer. I do empathize with you in this situation and you may have to take them to court. Best of luck.

I wasn't willing to plop down the $1500 to order my Leyden, especially when the dealers would not even guess at a delivery date. I think there was over 100 orders in front of mine, and this was in early July. I did the math and figured I would not be able to get one in this season. Even if the stoves became available, that's a lot of installations for the dealers. I went to the Lopi website dealer locator and started entering zip codes, then emailing them. Tried everywhere in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Mass . . . finally found it in North Carolina. A bit cheaper than local with shipping included. Maine dealers got hammered and simply couldn't meet demand for the Lopi's, apparently still can't. Some dealers wouldn't even sell the 4" stove pipe as they were concerned they would run out and not have it for promised installations.
Mike -

It's a little tricky to separate our anger at being out the $1500 with our diappointment with Travis. I'm not looking for them to cough up the money - I understand they can't do it. I am a little surprised they didn't at least offer us a stove at cost through one of their other distributors.
We have contacted the state and will see where it goes.
John

I ordered my Lopi Leyden stove in May and it came in about a week before it was scheduled to be installed in late August. Very, very happy with it.