In order to confuse my stove search even more, I went to a friend's house yesterday to clean his chimney and stove pipe. He's never burned wood before, so I was happy to help. Long story short, I have a man crush on a Lopi Liberty. A quick online search shows that only some dealers carry this model. Is the Liberty still made, and if so, what's a ballpark price?
Lopi Liberty question
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We're in a period of transition. The current Liberty is being replaced by the next generation model. So far I have only seen pictures of the newer version. The old version sold for around $2800 last I checked, but that could be out of date. You'd have to call around to see if any dealers still have one in stock. There are other stoves in this size range that may be worth considering, particularly if you want to N/S load on a regular basis.
Or failing that, find out if there are any at a distributor that a local dealer could get. They might want money up front, I don't know.
So I take it the current model isn't 2020 compliant, if you're moving on. Is this another "sell by May" stove?
Yes. The Nex-Gen Fyre model only has a picture on Lopi's website so far. webby3650 may have some insight on the changes.
Online review sites seem to bring out the cranks, but I've read a few reviews that say the glass is easily browned over. Is that a stove issue or operator error?
Most likely operator. The Liberty I saw running had a pretty clean glass. Damp wood or wood loaded too close to the glass will brown it.
Just perused the Lopi website to get some phone numbers. The site says the next-gen fyre stoves will be out in December, which is nearly over. Has anybody seen one?
jmb6420
Burning Hunk
jmb6420
Burning Hunk
Good looking stove. Took the old endeavor and made soom mods. Ash pan added and door has a different latch system. I'll be installing one in my house in a couple of months.
We have one on order and still haven’t received it. We have the 2020 Endeavor and the evergreen so far.
They replaced the fire brick and steel baffle system with a lot of stainless steel and a ceramic wool blanket. I would expect the Liberty to be the same.
They also added a 4th burn tube and changed the firebrick baffle to an insulated board and blanket. Looks like they changed the bypass a bit to accommodate the baffle changes.
Will the insulated board and blanket be an upgrade, in your opinion, or consumables which need replacing every few years?
I always like the stout nature of Lopi firebrick baffles, but I can see why they made the changes to keep the firebox hotter for more complete combustion. Not sure what they will do with the Liberty. A board baffle needs a bit more care to not bang it with wood, but they can last ok with care. These stoves are easy to clean through the bypass which helps reduce handling of the baffle and they added a front edge guard on the baffle board on the Endeavor which should protect it better.
Liberty blower was quiet when I heard it at the stove shop a couple years ago. I didn't mess with it to hear the different speeds, though..
These 2020 stoves have the new 400 CFM fans too. Very nice huge computer type fan and we'll hidden. The new Endeavor I saw was moving a ton of air.
Adding the ash pan and doubling the rear combustible clearance killed it for me though, would have been perfect otherwise.
Adding the ash pan and doubling the rear combustible clearance killed it for me though, would have been perfect otherwise.
jmb6420
Burning Hunk
I don't like using them. I don't like the look either, especially on the new Endeavor and Libery. Otherwise they would be pretty slick looking.
Clearaces have changed? I read the specs for the last generation of Liberties, and was good to go. Can I find specs for the new model online?
I just looked at the Lopi site again, specifically at the nexgen-fyre Liberty, and the clearances appear to be the same as the last generation, based on a pdf file I looked at earlier. Can anyone shed some light on this?
On the Endeavor it went from 4.25" to 8". I think the Liberty was already 10" so maybe it won't change. I don't think the actually 2020 manual for the Liberty has been posted yet. Everything on the website seems to have 2013 data except for the one main photos.
After nearly 20 years with a VC that we loved, I finally ran across a lightly used Liberty that I'd actually been looking for for a few years.
The stove is amazing for our needs. I only loaded it about halfway last night and still had a bucket of hot coals to quickly restart a fire this morning.
My ONLY regret, if you can call it that, is that it took so long to commit to changing and to find the right one and switch over. The dealer here has all of their pre-'20 stoves @ 30% off to try to move them out. If I'd known that was coming I may have bought new, but I doubt it. They're just too well built stoves to not look for a well cared for used one, in my opinion.
The stove is amazing for our needs. I only loaded it about halfway last night and still had a bucket of hot coals to quickly restart a fire this morning.
My ONLY regret, if you can call it that, is that it took so long to commit to changing and to find the right one and switch over. The dealer here has all of their pre-'20 stoves @ 30% off to try to move them out. If I'd known that was coming I may have bought new, but I doubt it. They're just too well built stoves to not look for a well cared for used one, in my opinion.
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