LOPI CAPE COD wood stove: Owner reviews!

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Thank you. I will post a picture with this reply, but not a spectacular fire at the moment, just a small one. We have used the stove just about daily, and everyday since November. We had a real cold spell (for around here) that lasted about 7 days and never got above mid 20's. Never had to fire up the furnace though! We just kept stuffing wood into the Cape Cod and it never let us down! Temps are much milder now, upper 30's at night, and lower 50's during the day, as an average range. I tend to keep small fires during the day, but mid to upper limit draft to keep the temps up. At night I stoke it up pretty good, and after it gets good and hot, shut it down. I usually have enough coals in the morning to start another without any kindling.
Wow, that looks great. Glad to hear you are having such good results with the Cod.
 
I'm glad it's working good for you. How long have you had it? I'm assuming this is still the first season for you? I see now you said August 2014. We'd love to see a picture of it!
Yes, first season, and getting acquainted pretty well. I have already made a change for the next cords of wood I cut, in that I will make them about 22" instead of 15 or so. I cut and split (with a maul) all of the wood before we even had the stove and never really considered it. But, it will be less work, and fill the firebox much better. Picture posted on previous reply.
 
Wow . . . very nice looking hearth Cherr.
 
Yes, first season, and getting acquainted pretty well. I have already made a change for the next cords of wood I cut, in that I will make them about 22" instead of 15 or so. I cut and split (with a maul) all of the wood before we even had the stove and never really considered it. But, it will be less work, and fill the firebox much better. Picture posted on previous reply.
The design of the door and firebox make it kinda hard to load it full. To see its potential you will need that 22" wood. I actually cut a bunch of my 24" wood down to 12" and loaded straight in the door. I was able to get 4 24" logs in loaded east/west, I got the equivalent of 6 with 12" pieces. It was a pain to handle 12" logs though.
 
The design of the door and firebox make it kinda hard to load it full. To see its potential you will need that 22" wood. I actually cut a bunch of my 24" wood down to 12" and loaded straight in the door. I was able to get 4 24" logs in loaded east/west, I got the equivalent of 6 with 12" pieces. It was a pain to handle 12" logs though.
Hmmm...never considered that, but I can see how that may work. I am trying to reduce the amount of splitting I have to do, so this next batch will be 22". I am pretty sure a 24" piece would fit, but don't want to shoe-horn it in. I have a pretty even mix of Alder (which splits so nice!), Fir, and Hemlock. We also have some trees called "Bitter Cherry" that appears to be a hardwood and burns really well, but requires more effort than I want to expend on splitting with a maul, so I leave it in the round.
 
The design of the door and firebox make it kinda hard to load it full. To see its potential you will need that 22" wood. I actually cut a bunch of my 24" wood down to 12" and loaded straight in the door. I was able to get 4 24" logs in loaded east/west, I got the equivalent of 6 with 12" pieces. It was a pain to handle 12" logs though.
Good Morning. I tried the smaller log size, and it worked out quite well! However, I think in the interest of a little less splitting the 22" pieces will be the norm. I will segregate out "log ends" out in the woodshed that are about 12" to utilize your method. Thanks for the tip!
 
Beautiful looking stove. The fire show is amazing. Thought about the Cod but went with something else. Glad it's working out.
 
Beautiful looking stove. The fire show is amazing. Thought about the Cod but went with something else. Glad it's working out.
Nice looking stove! We had thought about getting the porcelain coated version, similar to the color on your stove, but we went for the plain version. In our previous home we had a Quadra-Fire Voyageur Grand insert that was porcelain, and it sure looked great. Worked extremely well with the built in fan an auto-off feature, but not so convenient to clean out as the free standing unit we have now.
 
Nice looking stove! We had thought about getting the porcelain coated version, similar to the color on your stove, but we went for the plain version. In our previous home we had a Quadra-Fire Voyageur Grand insert that was porcelain, and it sure looked great. Worked extremely well with the built in fan an auto-off feature, but not so convenient to clean out as the free standing unit we have now.

Welcome fellow Washingtonian. I grew up just down the road in Silverdale. Up until a few years ago we would make regular trips to Sequim to eat at the Oak Table Café.

I really like your hearth. The stonework looks great. I've been setting tile all week and would love to rebuild my hearth to match yours someday.
 
Welcome fellow Washingtonian. I grew up just down the road in Silverdale. Up until a few years ago we would make regular trips to Sequim to eat at the Oak Table Café.

I really like your hearth. The stonework looks great. I've been setting tile all week and would love to rebuild my hearth to match yours someday.
Thank you...and yes, the Oak Table has the best breakfast in town!
 
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Thank you. I will post a picture with this reply, but not a spectacular fire at the moment, just a small one. We have used the stove just about daily, and everyday since November. We had a real cold spell (for around here) that lasted about 7 days and never got above mid 20's. Never had to fire up the furnace though! We just kept stuffing wood into the Cape Cod and it never let us down! Temps are much milder now, upper 30's at night, and lower 50's during the day, as an average range. I tend to keep small fires during the day, but mid to upper limit draft to keep the temps up. At night I stoke it up pretty good, and after it gets good and hot, shut it down. I usually have enough coals in the morning to start another without any kindling.


Hello Cherr,
I also have the Lopi Cape Cod, I had it installed this past January and love it. It's been working great, but now when I push the right side air lever all the way in, I see a little smoke and a ghost flame. Have you had this problem too? This is my first stove, so I'm probably doing something wrong.
 
Hello Cherr,
I also have the Lopi Cape Cod, I had it installed this past January and love it. It's been working great, but now when I push the right side air lever all the way in, I see a little smoke and a ghost flame. Have you had this problem too? This is my first stove, so I'm probably doing something wrong.
Hi, check the ceramic air baffle. Sometimes it will clog up if the stove is turned down real low before it is really hot. A flashlight may be needed to get a good look at it. If it is, use a vacuum with a small brush attachment to clean it, obviously when the stove has cooled down.
 
Hello Cherr,
I also have the Lopi Cape Cod, I had it installed this past January and love it. It's been working great, but now when I push the right side air lever all the way in, I see a little smoke and a ghost flame. Have you had this problem too? This is my first stove, so I'm probably doing something wrong.
The lever you are referring to is the bypass. Opening this bypasses the catalyst and the secondary combustion system. It needs to remain all the way open until the stove is up to 300 or so on the stove top. The bypass is either open or closed, no in between.
It could be that your cat is clogged with ash, mine did it pretty easily. Use a shop vac to gently suck the ash out of it.

Also inspect the baffle that the cat sits on. It's made from thin Stainless Steel, Mine warped very badly.
 
The lever you are referring to is the bypass. Opening this bypasses the catalyst and the secondary combustion system. It needs to remain all the way open until the stove is up to 300 or so on the stove top. The bypass is either open or closed, no in between.
It could be that your cat is clogged with ash, mine did it pretty easily. Use a shop vac to gently suck the ash out of it.

Also inspect the baffle that the cat sits on. It's made from thin Stainless Steel, Mine warped very badly.


Thank you very much, it looks like the baffle was clogged like my arteries, I just cleaned it out and fired it up. It's working much better now..
 
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The lever you are referring to is the bypass. Opening this bypasses the catalyst and the secondary combustion system. It needs to remain all the way open until the stove is up to 300 or so on the stove top. The bypass is either open or closed, no in between.
It could be that your cat is clogged with ash, mine did it pretty easily. Use a shop vac to gently suck the ash out of it.

Also inspect the baffle that the cat sits on. It's made from thin Stainless Steel, Mine warped very badly.

Thank you Cherr, that's exacty what the problem was.. I appreciate your help
 
Thank you very much, it looks like the baffle was clogged like my arteries, I just cleaned it out and fired it up. It's working much better now..
I assume it was the catalyst that was clogged? The baffle is what the cat sits on. Was it straight? Or curled up a little on the right hand side?
 
I assume it was the catalyst that was clogged? The baffle is what the cat sits on. Was it straight? Or curled up a little on the right hand side?
It was straight, I think the unit I have had the corrections made to the baffle and ash drawer. I had it installed last month and it came right from Travis industries. I appreciate your help, thanks
 

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Got a nice burn going now!!! If I could only do something with the wife's noisy birds it would be the perfect morning.. Lol
 
It was straight, I think the unit I have had the corrections made to the baffle and ash drawer. I had it installed last month and it came right from Travis industries. I appreciate your help, thanks
They haven't made any changes that I am aware of as of yet. They still don't acknowledge any issues with it unfortunately.
It's a beauty! Nice hearth too!
 
They haven't made any changes that I am aware of as of yet. They still don't acknowledge any issues with it unfortunately.
It's a beauty! Nice hearth too!

Thanks!! I was told by the salesman that they corrected these problems last year, but it's possible he was just being a salesman. Lol, I'll definitely keep an eye on the baffle for warping just to be sure. Do you think Envi-bricks are safe for this unit? My wood pile fell victim to the NY blizzard a few weeks back so tried the envi bricks mixed with room dried wood, they seem to work great and last a long time, just wondering if their ok for this unit.
 
Thanks!! I was told by the salesman that they corrected these problems last year, but it's possible he was just being a salesman. Lol, I'll definitely keep an eye on the baffle for warping just to be sure. Do you think Envi-bricks are safe for this unit? My wood pile fell victim to the NY blizzard a few weeks back so tried the envi bricks mixed with room dried wood, they seem to work great and last a long time, just wondering if their ok for this unit.
He was just being a salesman. Do you have the box by chance? Travis industries marks the label with a revision number if they did anything to it. For instance, the Liberty and other steel stoves have Rev1 marked on them for 1 revision. The Leyden on the other hand had like 6 or 7, then they abandoned it.

Bio-bricks will be just fine, stack them tight and only used 4/5 at a time.
 
I'm not saying that will experience the same problems that I did. I don't they all will have these issues. I loved the stove, it was what I wanted.
Before a year is up, I would definitely do a thorough inspection. Including removing the firebrick to inspect the body of the stove.
 
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