Hi all,
We have an old Lopi insert that was here when we bought the house about 16 years ago. We hadn't used it for about 10 years because our grandson was here a lot and we feared he'd get burned on the insert. Anyway I fired it up last week. It burned fairly well but it did form a bit of haze on the window. Not bad, though. But the second time I used it, it burned very dirty with half the window covered in black after just a few hours. I cleaned all the interior as well as I could and then disconnected the vent pipe and pulled out the insert from the fireplace.
I reamed out the vent with a very long chimney brush and it actually was that dirty. I did have to break up some hardened creosote where the horizontal exhaust changes to vertical. I was going to remove the exhaust motor but it is apparent that to reseal the connection to the exhaust "tunnel" would be impossible to do completely as the space underneath is about 1/4" and my finger wouldn't even fit under it. So I used a new gasket to reattach the vent and put everything back together. Unfortunately the stove still burns dirty.
I checked for air leaks around the door and ash tray but all is snug. Actually I had replaced the gaskets some time in the past but like I said we didn't use it for 10 years. I'd love to hear from someone who knows this unit well. The local dealer wants $300 to come out and clean it which is more than I can spend. What should I check for to try to get this unit to burn well? Thanks.
We have an old Lopi insert that was here when we bought the house about 16 years ago. We hadn't used it for about 10 years because our grandson was here a lot and we feared he'd get burned on the insert. Anyway I fired it up last week. It burned fairly well but it did form a bit of haze on the window. Not bad, though. But the second time I used it, it burned very dirty with half the window covered in black after just a few hours. I cleaned all the interior as well as I could and then disconnected the vent pipe and pulled out the insert from the fireplace.
I reamed out the vent with a very long chimney brush and it actually was that dirty. I did have to break up some hardened creosote where the horizontal exhaust changes to vertical. I was going to remove the exhaust motor but it is apparent that to reseal the connection to the exhaust "tunnel" would be impossible to do completely as the space underneath is about 1/4" and my finger wouldn't even fit under it. So I used a new gasket to reattach the vent and put everything back together. Unfortunately the stove still burns dirty.
I checked for air leaks around the door and ash tray but all is snug. Actually I had replaced the gaskets some time in the past but like I said we didn't use it for 10 years. I'd love to hear from someone who knows this unit well. The local dealer wants $300 to come out and clean it which is more than I can spend. What should I check for to try to get this unit to burn well? Thanks.
