Napoleon vs Lopi vs Osburn

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Sounds like there is no real quality difference between them.
Comes down to essential specs, some of which could be fudged numbers for marketing claims.
Thanks all.
 
schieftain said:
Sounds like there is no real quality difference between them.
Comes down to essential specs, some of which could be fudged numbers for marketing claims.
Thanks all.

Sorry schieftain, There are some basics differences between the stoves. But you cant go wrong with any of them. I'm with Osburn so I dont want to use the forum to extol the virtues of our brand. I'd rather real life users do it as it gives more credibility. Typically when a comment such as yours is posted many users will jump in to explain the greatness of their stove. It could be that everyone is busy with the snow storm today.

I did not imply the mfg deliberately fudge the BTU & burn time. It's just with wood burning there are too many variables and it is on how you interpret those variable that will make the difference in the specs.
 
I have an Osburn 2300.

My house is a bungalow, 1300 sqft and the stove is in the basement. That stove is a monster. A 2400 would only be slightly bigger. When it's -23 celcius, my stove can heat the entire house once the basement temp has reached 25 degrees C. Upstairs will remain at 21 degrees. That being said, I have NO registers cut into my beautiful American cherry hardwood floors (don't wanna go that route just yet...). I simply open the basement door and the heat rises due to natural convection.

I should also mention that my basement is insulated with 1-1.5 inches of spray foam and then R14 roxul on top of that.

I initially had a problem with my stove. The company finally took it back, deemed it a defect and sent me a new one. It emitted a foul smell no matter how hot ot long it burned. The wife was quite unhappy with it. Now she is pleased (except when I cook us out of our bedroom).

Andrew
 
schieftain said:
Newbie here, looking for opinions on the following stoves:

Napoleon 1900
Lopi Liberty
Osburn2400

We have a 2-story 2500 sq ft. house, and this will be going in the basement. I was originally sold on the Lopi because I read a lot of good things about their quality. I also like the idea of buying something made in the U.S. But the Lopi is $2400 locally, and the others are about $700 less online (I don't know what they are in stores). So how do they stack up quality-wise? Maintenance-wise? Feature-wise?

Thanks

schieftain,

I have a Lopi Libery and I am very pleased with the stove. My home is a 2 Story and just over 2400 sq ft in size, and my Liberty is installed in the unfinished basement. The stove does very well, but the basement is a very large heat sync. It keeps my house at a steady 68 deg F temperature with this stove and it is quite good at that temp, but it all depends on the outside temp too. The stove because it is in the basement can easily keep up with heating the home until it gets into the 15 deg F range outside, then it struggles, again because it's in the basement and trying to heat three floors of living area. My basement temps will hover anywhere from 68 when I get up to about 75 once the stove is going good. I built the house in 1996 and installed the stove in February 1997 after my first 180 dollar gas bill. My typical gas bill today is about 90 bucks or so and that's not bad considering my normal bill in the summer hovers around 50 to 55 dollars. That's telling me I am heating my home for about 40 bucks/month. Not bad for a home of this size and burning only wood with the stove in a concrete block basement. I typically go thru about 2 to 2 1/2 cords of wood per burning season which like you is from November 1st thru mid-April, as I live in Western PA. Our weather is mostly the same.

Now more to the specifics of the stove: The stove to me is of good size, I wish it was somewhat larger, but it is one of the largest units available that's why I bought it. It is a non-cat stove, which is another reason why I bought it. It has held up very well as I do run it hard and once it's lit for the year it doesn't go out. You figure with 15 years of running like that and what I have done to it I would buy the very same stove again. I have rebuilt the internal firebrick supports once so far in its life, even redesigning them to ensure they last longer. If you buy the Lopi Liberty let me know and I'll share those drawings with you. The firebrick has been replaced once, so it lasted a very long time. As for burn times it will last about 8 hours to where you will have some coals remaining to get another stoker going. Don't believe any 12 hour burn time bull, none of them last that long! The stove will typically burn in the 500 deg range without any problem, with flue temps around 350 or so once everything equalizes. That's a great differential thus proving that the heat is staying in the stove and home and not going out the flue. Door gaskets are usually on a 3 year cycle for replacement and they aren't hard to do.

I hope I answered your questions on the Lopi Libery. Do I think its worth $2400.00, yes I do! I paid about $1900.00 back in 1997 and that included a brass door, and fancy legs. Would I buy the very same stove again, yes I would! In fact, I have a regular masonry bricked fireplace in my living room and by next year I'm going to have a Lopi insert in it, then I'll have both of them going!

Good luck with your decision..........

Craig
 
Craig– Thanks for the feedback. So you have no insulation on the basement walls? Any registers in the floors? One other thing I have working against me is our basement ceiling is drywalled. Who drywalls a basement ceiling with no heat, and no insulation in central-PA? Every time I want to run a new wire or access plumbing I have to cut into the ceiling. And it's sculpted on top of that! Idiots. Anyway, I have some large openings I've already cut and made into access panels, so I plan on just leaving those open when heating. Maybe cutting some registers in the floor above. The room I want to put a stove in is also on a side of the house that has about 3 feet of basement wall above grade on the outside. So I am thinking about insulating that wall. Probably wouldn't cost too much to do one wall.

One thing I'd like to know is how to insulate the wall around the flue thimble and clean-out door that are already there. I guess I have to have someone extend those out the same distance as whatever I add in thickness to the wall. But how far away from those do I have to keep any flamable materials?
 
You are correct, I have no insulation in my basement. My whole basement is a walk-out type, meaning that about 1/2 of my home is backfilled and the other 1/2 is exposed on a sloped lot. When I designed the place it has all 12" block for the foundation with a full brick exterior. All wall framing are 2x6's and it's built hell-full strong and insulated well. The whole house has 43 windows in it, so it is a furnace's worst nightmare! That's the reason I burn wood. My foundation is a full 14 course of block high, so that means I have a very high basement ceiling, not the typical 10 or so you see in most homes. The basement is completely unfinished with all the ductwork being exposed, allowing it to be heated from the stove. I also have cut only (1) opening into a return duct allowing the warm air to be pulled into the opening via the furnace fan. This will allow the warm air to get directly into the cold air return, which has worked out well. One of the biggest things that helps to keep the warm air circulating is my blower runs all the time 24/7. The system is designed for this as it constantly filters the air and also keeps the warm air from the basement moving around the home.

As for giving you advice on how to frame the flue nipple thru your framing, I can't do that because I don't know myself. I would expect you would have a double wall pipe, but what other framing and insulation around that would have to be researched to do it well. My cleanouts are on the outside of the home, keeping the dirt out there.

Craig
 
I like the Lopi over the Nap, never seen a Osburn. Lopi just looks more stout than the Nap along with that neat bypass and stronger baffle system. If I were to go steel again I think the top 3 would be Blaze King, PE, and Lopi, not necessarily in that order. I'd also rather pay for those little extras in the higher end stoves.
 
Shmudda said:
You are correct, I have no insulation in my basement. My whole basement is a walk-out type, meaning that about 1/2 of my home is backfilled and the other 1/2 is exposed on a sloped lot. When I designed the place it has all 12" block for the foundation with a full brick exterior. All wall framing are 2x6's and it's built hell-full strong and insulated well. The whole house has 43 windows in it, so it is a furnace's worst nightmare! That's the reason I burn wood. My foundation is a full 14 course of block high, so that means I have a very high basement ceiling, not the typical 10 or so you see in most homes. The basement is completely unfinished with all the ductwork being exposed, allowing it to be heated from the stove. I also have cut only (1) opening into a return duct allowing the warm air to be pulled into the opening via the furnace fan. This will allow the warm air to get directly into the cold air return, which has worked out well. One of the biggest things that helps to keep the warm air circulating is my blower runs all the time 24/7. The system is designed for this as it constantly filters the air and also keeps the warm air from the basement moving around the home.

As for giving you advice on how to frame the flue nipple thru your framing, I can't do that because I don't know myself. I would expect you would have a double wall pipe, but what other framing and insulation around that would have to be researched to do it well. My cleanouts are on the outside of the home, keeping the dirt out there.

Craig


That's very similar to what I'm thinking about with my cold-air returns. My basement hovers around 52 degrees in the middle of winter without heat in it. I was talking to a friend who is a very reputable contractor/remodeler yesterday. When I asked about insulating the basement he was very concerned about the moisture that would get trapped between the insulation and block. he said there was no way of doing that without getting mold. He said if I did insulate, the best I could do to remedy that would be to make sure I sealed around the edges really good to encapsulate the mold. Our basement does get damp, especially in the summer, so I can't disagree with him. He has a big Quadra Fire (5700?), that heats his whole house no problem.

Thanks for the Lopi endorsement Fire God. I will definitely be considering the Liberty.
 
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