Older Lopi any good?

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DFLORY

New Member
Oct 20, 2011
35
Central Mi.
Looking at an older Lopi Measures: 29-1/4" wide x 22" high x 19" deep w/ 8" flue.
This unit features a solid brass door frame w/ etched glass single door and brass trim accents
Etching is grapes.. has one burn tube, and no id tag 450 lbs guy wants 600. Looks great but if to out dated ill pass..
thanks for the help love this forum.
 
DFLORY said:
Looking at an older Lopi Measures: 29-1/4" wide x 22" high x 19" deep w/ 8" flue.
This unit features a solid brass door frame w/ etched glass single door and brass trim accents
Etching is grapes.. has one burn tube, and no id tag 450 lbs guy wants 600. Looks great but if to out dated ill pass..
thanks for the help love this forum.

Do you have a picture?
This sounds kinda like the Flex-95 someone had in this thread; dated to the early 90s. Was a CAT stove.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/64928/#742149

600 sounds a little high but only you can judge whether it's worth it to you, that is certainly a lot cheaper than a new one!
 
Without all the information which would normally be found on a label on the back of the appliance, it's gonna be tough to pin down its age. Is it possible that a rear heat shield was removed at some point...and with it the label? Pics of front & back & interior would certainly be helpful. Rick
 
I asked the guy for more details this is all he had for me.

"Yes, there is a secondary burn tube on the top of the insert - near the front.
There is no ss tag on the back. The unit measures out like a Freedom model with the exception that this unit is a bit wider in the tapered portion of the back - as compared to "today's" Freedom model (per the Lopi website)."
 
Ah...it's an insert. He may be wrong about the "solid brass door frame"...more likely the door frame itself is cast iron and the cast brass you see is a facade piece. He's also wrong about parts being available online...at least OEM parts. Travis Industries makes fine appliances, but they have a very strict policy requiring support to be provided only by dealers, and only within their assigned region. In any case, a pic of the back of the insert will reveal whether or not the info plate is still there...sure looks like it should be. A close-up pic of that info plate will tell the story of this thing. Rick
 
ACTUALLY, that's probably not the Flex 95 because both of those stoves (that I just had posted here) had bigger stovetop portions in front than this one has. Let me look again....
It sounds like it's the same size as the Freedom insert, which is a really nice stove. Must be a precursor though... I'll keep looking. Do find out if there's a catalytic converter in the stove though since it has the "one burn tube" like the flex ones.
 
Ill have to try him again, hard to know if its worth looking at if I dont know if I can get parts for it! i.e. blower etc. Anyone know when they stopped using the 8'' flue? looks in pretty good shape to be real old.. thanks for the help!
 
A problem people here have had with that stove is that the damper and control rod on the top makes it hard if not downright impossible to attach a chimney liner to the stove collar.
 
Wow, after looking at the pics again I can see that might be a challenge.. kind of an odd set up. No lip to fit liner over and strange damper set up. Missing factory piece or something?
 
Nope. Insert was made back when ya just shoved them in the fireplace with no liner.
 
when did they start designing for liners? probly to old for a cat then right.. Anyway if a liner could be hooked up I wonder how that would effect performance, being that it wasnt designed for a liner..
 
It is possible that it would have too much draft given that it wasn't designed and tested with a liner. But it is a moot point. You would not be able to install a liner without a bunch of air leaks right at the stove collar on that thing. Liners install INTO stove collars. Not over them. And that whole damper rig is in the flue collar in the way.

And to answer the next question, no you do not want to cut that damper setup out of the stove.
 
Ha! good call guess Im barking up the wrong tree with this one. A) cant even ID model or even approx year B) cant use a liner with it. The search continues.. thanks for the help fellas.
 
not bad! Looking for an insert though.. tough to find a nice one on the cheap..
 
DFLORY said:
not bad! Looking for an insert though.. tough to find a nice one on the cheap..
I gotcha. I tried to do the same for a couple years, brought home a nice Englander 24JC for the right price, and found I couldn't use it because my hearth isn't raised, then I just missed a nice Lopi revere for under $1000... ended up buying a Lopi Republic 1750i at dealer price on the last possible day of the tax credits that year (2009). Good luck hope you find it out there!
 
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