Lopi 1250 or 1750

[Yarmoth6]

I have a 1150 sq ft house. Not drafty at all. It has a pretty open layout. Dining/Living/Kitchen flows with just two bedrooms. The living room has an old fireplace we are adding a Lopi 1250i or 1750i insert to. We cannot decide between the two!
For one, the 1250 meets every clearance spec from combustibles.
The 1750 has the hearth from wall to floor - 4 inches shy. So we would have to get a heat pad of some sort on the floor. And the mantle is right at it's clearance level.
Our dilemma is deciding the two - the 1250 is nice because it doesn't stick out and take up the entire room and transforms the room into solely a fire place room.
The 1750 seems like it will dominating the room.
Everyone says we want the 1750 for the size and loading capabilities though.
We are curious if we will be fine with the 1250i or will we be better off with the 1750i and the look too.
Will we hate loading the 1250i?
This is not our main source of heat...and we are not concerned about running it day/night.

Thanks!

 

[Will_f]

I have a 1750i and it will heat my whole house to over 70 with outdoor temps around 20. My house is around 2000 SF and very well insulated. However, when I’ve got it throwing out a lot of heat, it goes through wood pretty quickly. Say 3 hours maximum between reloads. The 1250i is smaller so you may need to load it more often.

With ithe 1750i dampered down, I can pretty easily have a fire that’s down to coals by morning. On the other hand, my 1750 tends to soot up the glass when I don’t run it hard (probably wood with high moisture content). If you don’t have access to nicely seasoned wood, you may want the smaller size so you can keep it hot with clear glass and without driving you to open all the windows.

I guess if it were me, I’d get the 1750i as long as I had access to wood that had been well seasoned. Of course I live in Alaska, so more heat and longer runs are pretty desirable.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I'm not sure what you mean when you say hearth from wall to floor is 4 inches shy? They will be basically the same from an operation and performance perspective but I would pick the 1750 just because it's bigger. The 1750 is not a big stove by any means but the 1250 is pretty small.

 

[begreen]

This is not our main source of heat...and we are not concerned about running it day/night.

At 1.6 cu ft the 1250 is a medium small insert. It will put out a decent amount of heat and should work fine for occasional heating. Burn time with good dry hardwood will be 4-6 hrs. typically. This is a value version of the Lopi Answer stove. Based on your requirements and climate zone, I think it will work well for you.

 

[blacktail]

I heat 1155sf in a mild climate with a 1250i. It probably handles over 90% of my heating needs, and that's without the benefit of high-BTU woods. My electric heat (set at 60°) only kicks on during the coldest periods if I'm gone all day. Longer burns would be nice but the stove is capable for my situation. What really limits my stove is its crappy location in a far back corner of the house. During cold/freezing weather I run an electric oil filled heater in my bedroom because it's the furthest from the stove.
I'm not a fan of east-west loading and I cut most of my wood 13" long to allow north-south loading. With a small fire box, it's worth it to me to fill every inch.

 

[DBoon]

Your house is the size of my house (~1200 square feet) but you are in a much warmer climate. I have a Lopi Answer (same stove as 1250, but more decoration) that sits in the fireplace alcove (not an insert, but kind of installed like one). I have the blower on it and this moves the heat really well.

The 1250 puts out enough heat to warm my house until when it is about 25 degrees outside. When I'm around, I run it 24/7 and load it three times per day. I burn hardwoods (maple, ash, hickory, and some cherry). It puts out a lot of heat, quite frankly. I just loaded at 8pm, the heat output will peak about 10pm, I'll get good heat until midnight, and at 6 am I will still have a nice load of coals to start the next fire with.

I just installed a 1750 at a house I am renovating. It puts out a lot of heat. I can't imagine that being in this 1200 square foot house.

You said

This is not our main source of heat...and we are not concerned about running it day/night.

. Given that, go with the smaller stove. The trick to getting the 1250 to run 24/7 is to split the wood square so you can really stack it in during the coldest days. Even if you buy your wood, you can trim it up to be more square and get more wood in the stove. You might find that you get the bug and want to run it more or 24/7, and loading squared off wood is the trick to getting the most out of it.

You will get a lot of opinions on this site to go with the bigger stove. Just know that is the bias of this site - towards complete heating independence and 24/7 burning. I hope to have that someday, but for now, it doesn't bother me to cut my oil usage by >50% and have the stove go cold when I'm not around to fill it three times per day. Also, I have a nice historic house and I'm not going to sacrifice appearance on the inside trying to stuff the biggest stove into my family room, and then have it be 85 degrees in the stove room.

So, just know what your goals and what the tradeoffs are, and choose appropriately, and work to understand why someone might be recommending one stove or another.

Hope this helps.

 

[Glenncanoe]

Can anyone help answer my question?

AnyLast night I sent a question to the Travis Industries/Lopi office through your their contact page. I received an incomplete, automated, generic reply this morning, defering to the local dealer.

I DID TALK WITH TWO LOCAL AUTHORIZED DEALERS, BUT I GOT TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS. I need to know if Travis Industries/Lopi REQUIRES the installation of the surround panels for the Lopi Republic 1250i fireplace insert.

Please note that the Lopi 1250 stove w/ legs is too tall for my fireplace and that the surround panels for 1250i insert will not work because of the irregular natural stone fireplace.

 

[bholler]

Can anyone help answer my question?

AnyLast night I sent a question to the Travis Industries/Lopi office through your their contact page. I received an incomplete, automated, generic reply this morning, defering to the local dealer.

I DID TALK WITH TWO LOCAL AUTHORIZED DEALERS, BUT I GOT TWO DIFFERENT ANSWERS. I need to know if Travis Industries/Lopi REQUIRES the installation of the surround panels for the Lopi Republic 1250i fireplace insert.

Please note that the Lopi 1250 stove w/ legs is too tall for my fireplace and that the surround panels for 1250i insert will not work because of the irregular natural stone fireplace.

No you don't need to use the surround but it will look unfinished without it. The surround could be scribed to fit the stone but that does take quite a bit of skill