Lopi Questions

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boisblancboy

Member
Apr 26, 2009
149
Northern Michigan
I have looked into getting one of the three Lopi Stoves. Either between the Republic 1750, Endeavor or the Liberty. Im having a hard time trying to decide and was hoping you guys could give me some pointers. One thing I know for sure I want with any of the wood stoves is the outside air kit, not sure if I want to get the blower fan or not, but I guess I could add that later if I felt I needed to move the air a bit more. Thanks guys I look forward to hearing some opinions!


Brandon
 
Most important is going to be sizing the stove correctly for the room and house. How big a house and how open is the floorplan? Stove location also is important. There is a big difference in heating with a stove at one end of a ranch, and heating with a centrally located stove in a two story house with a large open stairwell. Floorplan diagrams are a big help here.
 
I will try to post up my floor plan if I can. Some of the dimensions have changed a little bit as far as the interior walls go, but only a few inches one way or the other.
 
endeavor is the way to go: more efficient heat exchange w/ the step top design, smokeless starting/reloading with the bypass damper, and the door is much nicer / rugged. they may have the same firebox as the 1750, but they cut around alot of corners to make such a price differnce between the two...
 
Im having a bit of trouble posting my floor plan so I will explain it as best i can for now. The house is a total of 1600 sq ft, 40'x28' The living room, which is where i would want the stove is centrally located on the first floor of the house. The second floor is 28'x20', so its a story and a half. The stairway is over 40" wide, with no turns expect to go right of left at the top to enter the master bed or spare room. I will keep trying to post a floor plan.
 
I'll second the Endeavor. Heats my 1200sqft 2-story 1910 house without trouble. Mine's 10 years old and nary a problem. I love the bypass.
 
I was thinking of the Liberty for the sole fact that it has a 3.1 cu ft firebox which would be nice for long burn times. But I wasnt sure if that stove would be too large for my home, meaning would I have a problem with it keeping it to hot inside the house, since you cant choke it down tight? Maybe that is a stupid question. Hope these floor plans help. On the right of the first story is two bedrooms, north center a bathroom, south center is the living room, left is the kitchen dinning room and upper left is mechanical room. I would like to put the stove, in the south east corner of the living room.
 

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I've gone overnight easily on hardwoods, but our winters are milder than yours. You can load smaller fires in any stove. Maybe the Liberty would be a good fit. Probably depends on your insulation/windows/etc.
 
I have a 5 block high crawl space that is insulated. The rest of the house has R-19 in walls and R-38 in the ceilings which are all trussed not rafters, so no vaulted ceilings. The windows are all Andersons.
 
Looks like the endeavor has the main vote. A good mid-sized stove will go overnight. Our neighbor's PE Spectrum can do this with softwood.
 
Here's my review of our Endeavor: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/37171/

My grandmother has the Liberty. You can't go wrong with either stove. One thing I do prefer about the Endeavor is that its firebox is equal in depth and width, so you can load north/south or east/west just as easily. The Liberty is wider than deeper, so if you want to load north/south, you have to use really short splits. Still, both are great stoves.
 
I bought the Endeavor but haven't fired it yet, this winter will be my first. I bought a blower with the stove so I hope it helps to move some heat around the house. My house is 2 stories and near 2000 sq' the Liberty would have probably been a better fit but it didn't fit into my requirements. I can close off my living room(stove is in my family room) which will knock 300 sq' off though so if I need to in the cold spells I will do that. I also didn't buy this stove with the hope of removing my heating bill, I just want to reduce it and I think this stove will help put a big dent in it, if I decide to hit it 24/7 I still think this stove will do a reasonable job. The Endeavor has a great clearance to combustibles which was important to us and the bypass was something I didn't want to go without. I have some allergies(not typically to smoke) but want to try to keep as much smoke out of the house as possible just in case. When I was looking at stoves all the Travis stoves I looked at seemed to be of a high quality.
 
Brand new this year, just built it. It just seems to make sense to put fresh air right from outside to the stove instead of the stove pulling cold air through the cracks in the house, maybe I am missing something though.
 
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