Newly Installed Lopi Republic 1250 insert---showing off photos

[barkoholic]

After many weeks of planning and preparing, working alone and with friends who had fortunately not realized what they were in for when they agreed to help, I finally got my insert installed! Having had fire on the brain for a while now, and having benefited greatly from the advice and photos found on this forum, here are a few pics.

You can see the before--and before that it was actually covered with a built in bookcase, and full of insulation, rat nest and old dog food rats packed in. I had to pull out an old 8" pipe and cut out the damper and some bricks. The in progress shot shows how I extended the hearth which I would definitely do differently next time, but feels really solid and is working well. The final shot is the first fire.

I am curious about the opinion of, or advice from anyone else who knows or uses this stove, Lopi Republic 1250i. It was a snap to start a good fire in it last night with seasoned fir. When it got a big piece of seasoned oak it definitely slowed down but I may have added it too soon. The blower worked great. My chimney is about a foot short of the recommended 15' so I am half expecting to have some kind of draft problem but so far (1 night) so good.

Thanks to BeGreen for his advice and all the experts on here who have advised me by advising others!

 

[Dix]

Big thumbs up !!

That looks really, really sharp !!

 

[WoodpileOCD]

Sweeeeeet. Very nice job on the hearth extension too. Nothing better than looking back and admiring a job well done.

 

[fossil]

Nice job, it's beautiful! Now, scoot that firewood a bit further away from the stove...I'll be more comfortable looking at your pics of the thing burning so nicely and imagining you going off to bed or whatever. CTC's mean CTC's, whether the second C's are fixed or portable. Rick

 

[Iembalm4aLiving]

Good looking insert. Love to see open fireplaces converted to "high performance combustion machines!"

 

[Shadow&Flame]

Nice job- Looked into getting the exact same insert for myself...nice little stoves.
Looking at your hearth reminds me that I am going to have to work on mine sometime.
Never enough hours in a day...

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

nice work- looks great!

 

[barkoholic]

Thanks a lot to all of you for the compliments! Took the bait hook line and sinker :cheese:

Thanks Rick for pointing out the CTC situation there. Definitely need to not be too casual as I figure out how to use the thing. I got a good lidded ash can today.

Now if it would just get cold again here so I can really see the stove in action!

 

[DBoon]

Hi Barkoholic, I have the same stove and the same basic installation, just not the insert style. It throws off a ton of heat. I am guessing that your chimney pipe runs straight up the chimney, in which case you shouldn't have a problem with draft even if you are near the edge of the 15' minimum rating. I think I only have 13' and I draw plenty well at 40 degrees F with dry wood and primary air fully restricted.

Nice installation by the way.

 

[raybonz]

Great job planning and building the hearth extension and the stove looks great too!

Congrats!

Ray

 

[barkoholic]

Thanks for the compliments again!

DBoon mine is cranking out plenty of heat for my house too. I am happy with it. It seems to be getting plenty of draft with the ~14 feet, even with a pretty decent curve in it to make it by the smokeshelf and where the damper was.

My only paranoid worry about this whole setup as far as safety goes is the fact that with that curve, the flex liner touches the wall of the chimney at one point, probably 1/3rd of the way up or a little higher. I couldn't get the foreverflex completely straight after it was all in. I've seen a post on here suggesting that's not a big deal, but it is the one thing that kind of bugs me. I stuffed some Roxul above the smokeshelf but the pipe is uninsulated, single wall foreverflex brand 6" flex liner. From what I can tell looking at the chimney in the attic and behind one of the addition walls, its in good shape.

Anybody knowledgable wanna tell me I don't need to worry, or vice versa? Any suggestions?

Thanks

Nick

 

[blacktail]

I'm also in the PNW and had the exact same insert installed in my new house a couple of months ago. It's been fed a steady diet of alder, hemlock, maple, and fir. I'm happy although I ordered a blower for it recently to help it keep up with the recent sub-freezing weather. The stove is rated for up to 1200sf and my house is 1155sf. If I was starting from scratch I'd go with a free standing wood stove in the middle of the house. Since I bought a house with a fireplace at one end, I'm making do with an insert at the very end of the house.
I don't have any complaints about how it performs. Most of my experience is with older stoves and this one seems to be a touch more sensitive about wood being dry, but I'm ok with that. Maybe that's a trait of more modern EPA stoves? It does the job it was designed for.

 

[DBoon]

Hi Barkoholic, knowing how my liner was installed, I am sure that it is touching the inside of the chimney somewhere. But if you had the chimney checked out by a mason before installing the stove, and it was in good shape, then the normal clearances provided between the chimney brick/rock and the framing should be adequate. So, you don't have anything to worry about if your chimney is in good shape.

 

[firefighterjake]

A very nice improvement.