A new Lopi Revere is on the way.

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GeeWizMan

Member
Hearth Supporter
Nov 29, 2006
103
Suburbs west of Detroit
My wife and I have been researching the possibility of getting an insert installed in our heatilator fireplace. We had a dealer come out who told us he would not install an insert into our fireplace because the 4 inch wide damper opening was too narrow to fit a 6 inch stainless steel liner through. I got on the forum here and most of you suggested that we talk to a different dealer. We did just that and the new dealer looks up the heatilator chimney and says yes, no problem. So, in a nutshell, he is coming out tomorrow on Friday to install the new insert. We currently heat 60% to 70% of our house with a wood stove and now we will be heating the entire house, all 3,800 square feet with wood. I'll let you all know how the install job goes. Wish us luck.

gwm
 
Good luck with the Revere. Its what I had installed a little over a month ago and so far, we love ours. We had a few teething problems with it early on, but the dealer kept coming out and setting it straight. Nothing major, but little annoyances. I've probably run ours for 25 of the past 30 days (when its 60 during the day and only 48 at night I didn't bother keeping it running because my house would be at 80+.) Last night I loaded it up at 9:30, dampered it down about 10, and at 8:15 this morning I still had enough hot coals to get a fire started with kindling and small splits. Very impressed with this stove thus far. I hope you enjoy yours as well. PM, me if you'd like to discuss it a bit more.

Later,
Eric
 
Congratulations the Revere is a fine stove. Nice cook top for steamers etc.

Eric,

I like your slide show. What all goes into making one like that? I have a few projects that would be well suited to that kind of presentation.
 
Shane,

I can't take credit for the filmloop. I copied the idea from Roospike. I just liked it. Its really easy. Go to Filmloop.com and download the editor. Insert pictures, add text, find the published url, post it. I did the whole thing in about an hour one night. And most of that was spent picking the pictures.

Eric
 
Eric,
Is there anything in particular that I should be aware of regarding the Lopi Revere? Things like how to break it in properly, or anything that would be helpful for me to know. Thanks.

George
gwm
 
George,

It took me about 6+ hours before the paint curing smell started to dissipate. It was never a totally objectionable smell, but not enjoyable either. Breakin was really rather simple in that respect.

I would say to be careful of how the adapter collar inserts into the back of the stove and that it doesn't interfere with the operation of the bypass damper. We had to notch the adapter collar where the damper rod runs so that it wouldn't rub on it. Note, that if its rubbing slightly when cold, it will be worse when its hot. Metal expands when hot...

I love the variable speed blower. I would never buy an insert without one now that I've had one. On its lowest settings its almost silent. I love being able to adjust it to more than just 2 speeds.

I've been able to get 9+ hours out of it and still have coals left to start a fire so its been good to me in that way.

I'm a newbie to woodburing for heat, so if you've got experience with that then this stove should be a breeze for you. Its been really easy for me and my wife to get used to it. We installed ours so that it sits out on the hearth, not the flush mount. Not sure which you're going to do.

Good luck and definitely post pics when you get the chance.

Eric
 
Eric,
Thanks for sharing the info and your experience with your insert. Even though we have been burning wood to stay warm for more than 10 years, I still learn more all the time. It actuality seems like I am learning more that I don't know the longer I play around with wood. I will try to figure out how to post pictures. I'm starting to get real excited. Can you imagine a 53 year old, greying guy getting excited about a wood stove?

George
 
GeeWizMan said:
Eric,
Thanks for sharing the info and your experience with your insert. Even though we have been burning wood to stay warm for more than 10 years, I still learn more all the time. It actuality seems like I am learning more that I don't know the longer I play around with wood. I will try to figure out how to post pictures. I'm starting to get real excited. Can you imagine a 53 year old, greying guy getting excited about a wood stove?

George

Heck ya should have seen this 60 year old 30 year wood burner when he got his new one. Like Christmas came early. I was really nostalgic for the old stove. For two days that is. Now I am glad the damn thing is outta here.
 
We've had our Revere a few months now and love it.

It took us a little bit to learn the best way to burn fires in this. A few tips based on our experience -

- When starting a fresh fire, you need to use at least 3-4 smaller pieces (i.e. 1"-3" splits) if not all smaller pieces, even with the SuperCedar fire starters (which are great)
- Once you have a good bed of coals, load the stove with splits going straight in, not side to side, and shut the damper
- Once you have a good fire going, push the air control in until level with the end of the ledge in front of the door or until just past where the blower end is (if you have one). This later is about the same is pushing all the way in then pulling out 1" - 1 1/2". This will give you a long burn with good secondary burn.
- The air control doesn't control how much air enters your stove, it controls where it enters. All the way directs the air right at the fire, all the way in directs it all through the secondary burn tubes
- Loading splits straight in, if we pack our stove, and use have the air control about 1" out, maybe a tad more, we can get a 10 hour burn. By this I mean at the end of 10 hours the stove is still warm and you have enough coals to start a new fire by raking them forward and loading small to medium size splits.
- If you push the air in too far, or load splits that stick out to close to your glass, you will get build-up. To clean mix a few tbsp of fine ash, some dish soap, and a bit of water until you have a wet paste. Use a toothbrush to clean the build up off. Piece of cake.
- You will get smoke when you load your stove, even if your damper is open, if you are trying to add wood in the middle of a burn cycle, unless it is very cold out, and you have a great draft. My rule of thumb is if I can still see wood, even if it's black and charred, if I try to load more wood I will likely get smoke coming out. The extra cold days are helping with the draft lately so this hasn't been as big a deal, but since you will not always have uber draft (when it's a bit warmer out - i.e. 40-50) it's good to learn. Once all the wood is glowing or covered in white ash, it's safe to load more. The trick is, knowing how far away you are from being able to reload. You don't want to throw in a few new splits, then come back in an hour to pack the stove before you leave for the day. If you know you are going to be leaving (or going to bed) and want a long burn, time it out. Either wait a bit longer to add your wood, then load your stove all at once, or just load your stove sooner, and turn down the air after letting her burn on high for 10-15 minutes.
- Finally, don't fiddle with your wood too much. Easier said then done, but normally if you have hot coals, if you add wood it will burn. You don't need to shift it around, except for later when maybe you want to add more wood. Once in a while when the coals get low, if the wood is only burning on the bottom (and top is blacK) I will shift things around, but not often. This just takes getting used to how wood burns, and trusting your stove.

That's all I can think of right now.

Good luck!
 
That reminds me, Dunadan, one of the things I like about this stove is that its "square" in that I can fit 18" splits into it in both front to back and side to side. Definitely load the bottom layer of splits in front to back so that the air can flow to the back... I load the lower level of splits front to back (usually the smaller variety) and the top layer side to side and they are the large ones I want to last all night. I just got 10.5 hours out of mine last night with coals to restart with a little kindling and small splits.

As for reloading, I guess I've got a good draft because the only time I get smoke in the room is when I do something dumb. Our damper bypass was stuck for a week or so (see earlier comment on the collar contacting it) and if I was careful I could reload anytime without getting smoke in the room. But my chimney is in the center of my house, but only the first floor is finished. The second is an unheated attic space so I'm sure it starts to cool off quickly.
 
DunaDan & Eric,
I agree with you both, being able to load wood front to back or side to side, is one of the major reasons we settled on the Lopi Revere. BTW, the guys are here write now to install the insert. They arrived at my front door at the stroke of 10 am right when they said they would. Ya gotta love people that keep their word.

George
 
Eric said:
Good luck with the Revere. Its what I had installed a little over a month ago and so far, we love ours. We had a few teething problems with it early on, but the dealer kept coming out and setting it straight. Nothing major, but little annoyances. I've probably run ours for 25 of the past 30 days (when its 60 during the day and only 48 at night I didn't bother keeping it running because my house would be at 80+.) Last night I loaded it up at 9:30, dampered it down about 10, and at 8:15 this morning I still had enough hot coals to get a fire started with kindling and small splits. Very impressed with this stove thus far. I hope you enjoy yours as well. PM, me if you'd like to discuss it a bit more.

Later,
Eric

Eric, thanks for the slide show. Stove looks great.

Aren't your workers a little young? [grin]
 
That reminds me, Dunadan, one of the things I like about this stove is that its “square” in that I can fit 18” splits into it in both front to back and side to side.

Actually it's not square, it's rectangle. You can fit a much longer split straight in than you can side to side. But I know what you mean.
 
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