Avalon/Lopi 1750 or Napoleon 1450 ?

That 1750 looks like the same firebox as my Endeavor. If that's the case, you'll get quality. The only difference I can see is my stove has the bypass damper feature which allows you to open a sliding steel plate in the back of the baffle, thus allowing your flue gases to go straight up the flue collar during restarts, and it is handy when sweeping the flue.

The baffle in mine is a combination of kiln fired ceramic fire brick and heavy angle iron supports. The bricks lift up and out relatively easy, and I usually clean any fly ash off mine once a season. The tubes are stainless steel, and going on season 3 mine seem to be holding up fine.

With a full load of oak, I can get 8 hour burns with plenty of coals for relighting in the morning. I'm heating 1,800 sq. ft. (1K downstairs, 800 up) with a layout that is not conducive to heating with wood, but we make it work the best we can. I have never tried to heat only 1,000 sq. ft., so I can't say if the 1750 would be overkill or not.

You can rest assured that it is a quality stove, however.

We have a Nap 1450 and it was able to heat our 1800 sqft bungalow with a little help from a fan. It'a basically the same as the 1400 but in basic black with no frills. Same firebox and overall quality. We like it and had no issues with it what so ever.

jeffee said:

I'm trying to decide on replacing my stove with one of these two. If anybody has any feedback, positive or negative, or comparison between either or both of these stoves I would really appreciate it. I will not necessarily be running it 24 /7. Often I will be starting it from cold or near cold, and needing to heat my house up. 1000 square feet, house is not well insulated, many large windows. Thanks ...
Jeff

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Jeff we have the Lopi Liberty installed in the basement (walls are insulated and finished) this is our second year heating with wood and the Liberty does a great job. If we had room on the main floor we would have installed it there.

We are heating 1750 sq. ft. up and close to the same down, the house is well insulated.


zap

jeffee said:

zapny said:

We are heating 1750 sq. ft. up and close to the same down,

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I'm not sure what you mean by this, please excuse my ignorance... Thank you for reporting your experience -- I really appreciate it. For various reasons, I think I'm leaning towards the Avalon.

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The Avalon is made by the same company so I was just putting up what I thought about the Liberty, I think Travis Industires makes both.

I hope you are happy with whatever selection you make.


Zap

I have had the Republic 1750 insert installed and fired up for about 3.5 weeks now. I can comfortably say that it will have no problem heating 1000-1200 square feet providing decent insulation/air sealing. I'm using mine to provide significant heat to 2000 square feet, though I'm still figuring out how to get the damn heat into the other rooms efficiently.

It's a very high quality unit with excellent construction as far as I can tell. It's firebox is not wide, but very deep, for North/South loading. Some people like that alot apparently.

It DOES have a damper bypass on top which essentially eliminates smoke puffs into the room during loading, and is supposed to be really nice when cleaning the unit out.

Mine, with blower, standard door, and 10" surround, was around $1800. I found that to be a superb value. Installation was extra of course.

One only complaint with it so far, and to be very clear I am burning unseasoned wood, is that it doesn't seem to air-wash the glass very well even when cranking at high heat. Black creosote builds up at the bottom corners within 1-2 days of cleaning, and then haze starts to spread to the middle. I clean it about once a week (takes about 3 minutes to do it fully with just wet paper towel and ash). I've gotten some roaring fires going and the creosote will thin out, but won't fully clean itself off the glass. Again though, using not great woood...your experience WILL vary.

I've sent one e-mail to travis asking questions about the unit, and they answered within 24 hours very nicely.

[quote author="jeffee" date="1289951661"]Zap,
Thanks -- My confusion is only about that one sentence about square footage that you're heating 'up' and 'down' .. I do know that Travis makes both brands -- thank again for your input!

Jeff we have a ranch house with 1750 sq. ft on the main floor and close to that in the cellar, our woodstove is installed in the basement so we are heating both up and down stairs.



zap