Which should I buy and why? Sierra or Lopi

[mg93108]

Hello fellow woodburners,
We have an off-grid little cabin with a beautiful fireplace that sure looks nice but doesn't heat the 432sqft cabin.
Being that this is our only source of heat, we need to do something. In our "regular" home have very successfully used a Buck Stove 26000 insert for years. So we thought that we'd get a wood stove insert for our cabin.
We have a choice of two of them. One is a Sierra and the other a Lopi. The Lopi looks like it might be missing something or that a box was added to it. But I don't really know. To me it looks like the Sierra is in better shape
The Sierra is much less expensive.
We aren't at the cabin too much so I'm not sure that we will really see a big difference but perhaps you folks could shed some light on this for me. The first pic is of the Sierra and all the rest are the Lopi.
THANKS

 

[aussiedog3]

That Lopi appears to be an insert that is missing the blower that should be under the ash lip in the front. I have been burning a Lopi insert from the same era for 10 years now. I love it, it's built like a tank, well used when I got it and installed it.
The one you are looking at looks a bit rough but may clean up well, firebrick is cheap and rope gasket for the door is easy to replace. Probably worth $75-$100.00.
I have no experience with Sierra but would not be afraid of the Lopi.
Good luck.