What was new at the HPBA Expo in New Orleans?

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John Ackerly

Burning Hunk
Hearth Supporter
So, I was at the HPBA Expo but hardly had any time to see most of the product and wondering if anyone saw innovative stoves that I missed. For one, I hardly saw any pellet stoves. The top Vesta Winner, Napoleon's Eco Smart stove was really cool because the automation only adds $300 to the price. And there was a new, self-cleaning ESP that may only be $1,200. We wrote up a blog about these stoves and some other thoughts about this years Expo and the NSPS announcment. What did we miss?
 
Thanks for posting John. It's hard to imagine the show without Travis and Jotul. What is the other stove that MF Fire is working on?
 
Thanks for posting John. It's hard to imagine the show without Travis and Jotul. What is the other stove that MF Fire is working on?
Not exactly sure, but they got a $1 million grant from DOE to design it. They may use laser PM reader instead of thermocouples to drive the automation, like Napoleon did.
 
There were 2 presumptive cases of Covid-19 at the Expo apparently. No big surprise in a gathering that big. But it must now be a dilemma for HPBA. I wrote them, urging them to send out a survey, just to make sure that there are more possible cases than they realize. Some conferences in the last month turned out to be major points of contagion.

 
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My industry's yearly convention and vendor show case has had dwindling attendance ever year. The internet has made it less important.
How big is this show? Is it open to the public?
 
My industry's yearly convention and vendor show case has had dwindling attendance ever year. The internet has made it less important.
How big is this show? Is it open to the public?
HPBA says 5,000 people come but this year was smaller. It only open to the industry. Not sure how they define that.https://hpbexpo.com
 
There were 2 presumptive cases of Covid-19 at the Expo apparently. No big surprise in a gathering that big. But it must now be a dilemma for HPBA. I wrote them, urging them to send out a survey, just to make sure that there are more possible cases than they realize. Some conferences in the last month turned out to be major points of contagion.

I heard that a guy has tested positive for it from a vendor that my coworkers visited. I’m not loving the sound of that...
 
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We’ve burned a new Oslo and now a Lopi Liberty, both have had very underwhelming results. I’m really sad to say, but I’m concerned. The Liberty is on a flue that has serviced a few dozen stoves over the years. With the new Liberty we had smoke rolling out pretty bad if the door was opened, very sluggish fire and the glass got surprisingly dirty. I’m hoping it was due to the moisture within the stove and firebrick. It sure wasn’t what I expected. Beautiful stove though with some really nice improvements!
 
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I would expect these new 2020 stoves to be even more out of control than older noncats. Full blast all the time! To stay clean.
 
With the new Liberty we had smoke rolling out pretty bad if the door was opened, very sluggish fire and the glass got surprisingly dirty. I’m hoping it was due to the moisture within the stove and firebrick. It sure wasn’t what I expected. Beautiful stove though with some really nice improvements!
I would expect these new 2020 stoves to be even more out of control than older noncats. Full blast all the time!
I'm not seeing the Liberty on their website, to check it out. Why the sluggish burn? Does it have a cat, and no bypass? Otherwise I would have expected the same as Highbeam; Not able to cut the air as far for a cleaner burn, and a roaring fire.
 
I would expect these new 2020 stoves to be even more out of control than older noncats. Full blast all the time! To stay clean.
Never owned a non-cat that was out of control. Just the owner.
 
I'm not seeing the Liberty on their website, to check it out. Why the sluggish burn? Does it have a cat, and no bypass? Otherwise I would have expected the same as Highbeam; Not able to cut the air as far for a cleaner burn, and a roaring fire.
Non cat, and still has a bypass. The glass is huge now, and has the same small bypass. We only burned it once, hopefully I’ll get a chance to burn it again before summer.
 
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