Lopi Rockport?

[ben94122]

Hello,

I'm shopping for a wood stove for a new 2300 sq foot manufactured home. The house is very well-insulated. We'll have a heat pump (with heat tape) as backup heat and to circulate forced air from the great room into the bedrooms. Lots of south exposure and winter sun: we're in the Northern Sierra Nevada and get sunny days in between snowfalls. We'll burn dry oak and yellow (Ponderosa) pine. I've heated with wood all my life, so know a bit about what we're in for, but have never used a stove with secondary burn chamber or catalytic converter.

My main concern is overheating the house, and I like what I've read that you can damp down the catalytic stoves and run them fairly cold and still clean--had a friend with a flu fire when we were kids, so I'm scared of the creosote you get with a damped, cold fire in a classical stove.

The local stove shop sells and recommends the Lopi Rockport. Any concerns with it or experience, besides the favorable reviews posted by Tegbert and mattdc123, and the bad experience webby3650 had with an early model Cape Cod?

Thanks,
Ben

 

[webby3650]

The Rockport shouldn't really be placed in the same category as the Cod. They have many differences, mainly the steel firebox. The Rockport is a much improved design.

 

[Tegbert]

The only issue I have had with my rockport was the door. I'm not sure if it came like this or slowly happened after it was installed but the upper right hand side was warped and was not sealing against the gasket. It was replaced under warranty no questions asked and the new door seals perfectly now.

So pretty much make sure the dealer that you buy from is the one who installs and services the stoves after the sale. The one I bought from doesn't so I had to wait almost a month to get it fixed because the installer is so busy it took two weeks for him to come out and then another week or two for them to show up with the door. Where as a dealer who installs their own product probably would have been out in a day or two and then would only have to wait for the door to come in so probably half that time or less.

Our house is 1900 square feet and our stove is centrally located and that room would always be about 80-85 degrees even on low. I have to use a fan to get the heat to circulate down the hall to the bedrooms but it worked good and kept them at about 72. Our rec room would be chilly but I haven't found a good way to get the heat around the corner yet.

I also don't have experience with using wood though with it. We didn't have dry wood at all so we used compressed logs from north Idaho energy logs and home fire prest logs. So this year we should have a more favorable review of it but so far we love it.


Lopi Rockport

 

[Woodsplitter67]

I lookd at the rocport when looking for stoves. My thoughts were this. I thought the firebox was on the small side and i was concerned about burn time. The other was that the firebox has burn tubes and no andirons in the front to protect the glass and making it hard to fill to get a nice overnight burns. I likes the stove because it looks great and lopi, i feel is a good name brand. The stove is rated for 1800sqft so you may be pushing it a bit, even though your house is tight.. my construction is the same as yours with 2x6 exterior walls ect.. and i felt like i may be running the stove to hard at times.

 

[WoodyIsGoody]

Hello,

I'm shopping for a wood stove for a new 2300 sq foot manufactured home. The house is very well-insulated. We'll have a heat pump (with heat tape) as backup heat and to circulate forced air from the great room into the bedrooms. Lots of south exposure and winter sun: we're in the Northern Sierra Nevada and get sunny days in between snowfalls. We'll burn dry oak and yellow (Ponderosa) pine. I've heated with wood all my life, so know a bit about what we're in for, but have never used a stove with secondary burn chamber or catalytic converter.

My main concern is overheating the house, and I like what I've read that you can damp down the catalytic stoves and run them fairly cold and still clean--had a friend with a flu fire when we were kids, so I'm scared of the creosote you get with a damped, cold fire in a classical stove.

The local stove shop sells and recommends the Lopi Rockport. Any concerns with it or experience, besides the favorable reviews posted by Tegbert and mattdc123, and the bad experience webby3650 had with an early model Cape Cod?

Thanks,
Ben

Go small-med. small. Modern manufactured homes are very tight. You don't want to be baked out. Or go catalytic so you can turn it down lower. Properly run a catalytic stove should have less flue deposits. If you can, run the chimney straight up and out near the peak or the roof.

You might consider the addition of an outside air intake due to the presumed "tightness" of construction. I would also recommend a heat recovery ventilator if you like healthy indoor air quality. They can be a bit pricey but have very low running costs. If you don't go with a outside air intake you can always crack a window in the stove room slightly and then you wont need a HRV either.

 

[ben94122]

Thanks for the info and suggestions! We'll put the hearth a few feet from the roof peak, so our draft should be about 17'. We will definitely have an outside air intake. I'd never heard of a heat recovery ventilator, but will look into it now--but my guess is that we'll be hot enough to crack a few windows instead; we have mild winters and lots of sun exposure. Our local dealer does the installation, and they have a great reputation, so we're lucky in that regard. I thought the Cape Cod was basically the big brother to the Rockport, meaning that the Cape Cod also had a steel firebox inside cast iron, but I'm glad to know that they're fundamentally different. It's especially good to hear that they're a "much improved design" from someone who does a lot of installations (Thanks Webby3605). Tegbert, I'll be sure to try your dollar bill test when we get the stove and after a few months' use.

 

[webby3650]

Thanks for the info and suggestions! We'll put the hearth a few feet from the roof peak, so our draft should be about 17'. We will definitely have an outside air intake. I'd never heard of a heat recovery ventilator, but will look into it now--but my guess is that we'll be hot enough to crack a few windows instead; we have mild winters and lots of sun exposure. Our local dealer does the installation, and they have a great reputation, so we're lucky in that regard. I thought the Cape Cod was basically the big brother to the Rockport, meaning that the Cape Cod also had a steel firebox inside cast iron, but I'm glad to know that they're fundamentally different. It's especially good to hear that they're a "much improved design" from someone who does a lot of installations (Thanks Webby3605). Tegbert, I'll be sure to try your dollar bill test when we get the stove and after a few months' use.

Your dealer will most likely also assume that the Rockport is the cape cods little brother. Rather, the cod is the rockports retarded cousin... The Rockport has a beefed up baffle, steel box, and no andirons. All of these were a weak point in the cod! To this day, Lopi won't accept the fact that there was ever any issues. So why the changes? My baffle warped, andirons warped, and the iron cracked. All were issues that were resolved with the design of the Rockport.