Hearthstone Heritage to Lopi Liberty - worth it?

[GreenLiving57]

Hi, I have been dealing the past 4 winters with a Hearthstone Heritage that simply won't produce enough heat for my home. I have a large cold home that is going to be tough for ANY stove, as it has un-insulated stone flooring that SUCKS the heat out, and many other issues that make my home a cold, very hard to heat place. I need a large stove that cranks the heat out more than my Heritage does. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for a stove to over-heat my current home, as can happen in some homes.

I'm debating switching to a Lopi Liberty. Much bigger Firebox, ....BUT........

It will be a HUGE EXPENSIVE PAIN to do this switch........so I'm looking for opinions. IF I do this, which of these three outcomes do you predict?
1) Will be a huge improvement, and ton more heat
2) Will be a marginal improvement
3) Will do nothing overall

I have used Lopi's in past years, and loved them, but open to all suggestions.

 

[moresnow]

Are you considering a new, or used Liberty? Sounds like a large unclad steel stove is appropriate. The old Liberty I work on can make great heat. Not so sure that I wouldn't broaden my stove make/model list if it were me in your shoes. Sounds like an interesting home. Perhaps a few pics of your current stove/pipe/chimney setup will give people a better idea on what to recommend.

 

[begreen]

It will be a major gain for heat output along with a longer burntime. They have made some nice improvements on the new Liberty. Reports so far are good. If you want raw radiant heat, a Drolet Austral III is also worth considering. It will have higher clearance requirements due to the lack of side shielding, but that may be fine.
That said, addressing some of the issues with the house will make a big improvement and may be worth tackling instead.

 

[GreenLiving57]

Are you considering a new, or used Liberty? Sounds like a large unclad steel stove is appropriate. The old Liberty I work on can make great heat. Not so sure that I wouldn't broaden my stove make/model list if it were me in your shoes. Sounds like an interesting home. Perhaps a few pics of your current stove/pipe/chimney setup will give people a better idea on what to recommend.

Hi, if I do the switch, it will be for a new Liberty. I had an Endeavor a decade ago, that used to cook me out of my old home, but my new place, is in a cold snowy high mountain climate and a house with lots of "issues" that make it need A TON of heat. As I said, it would be impossible to have too much heat in this place. My stove sits against a 6 foot thick underground bermed wall, along with a thick un-insulated stone floor, and both suck, suck, suck much of the heat out of the stove. My Heritage was a bad, expensive, miserable choice for this place. It sure is pretty though..........

 

[electrathon]

As an owner of a Hearthstone Heritage, I suspect you will see a tremendous gain in heat output to make the change.