Welcome me to the 20th century -- "new" Lopi

[rhetoric]

Last year was our first full season burning (new home) and we were absolutely in love! All the metaphors of the hearth proved true as the family sat around in our "great room" and talked, read, and otherwise stayed warm together. No glass window, just heat. Bedrooms got pretty nippy on the sub zero nights, too, but I like cold sleeping. Of course, I (ever the tightwad) also loved my sub $100 natural gas bills. But we were burning a 1979 National Stove Works "Monster" (not it's real name) that ate through cherry like an industrial chipper on steroids. Huge fire box, but even with a damper on the flue and the automatic air intake thingee damped down, a full load of wood would be ash in about 6 hours. It had a 8 inch flue reduced to 6 (so it would puff smoke when loading). It kept us warm, but only if we stood their and stuffed the beast. Can I guess an efficiency of maybe 35-40%?

So we've been keeping an eye open for somthing a bit more contemporary and we were leaning toward a Englander 30. We have a good sized house ( split level w/ an addition and the stove's in the addition) but I was a little bit nervous that it would be too much, and fairly sure I'd have to completely redo my alcove. That stove is about the size of Spain. I actually liked the Lowes Century with the fancy door -- it was about 750 clams, but reviews here were mixed.

But we've also been eyeing cr**glist and eb*y for something used. Then a stove came up on Cr**gslist -- a mid-90's Lopi Endeavor and it looked pretty nice. $700 (he later lowered it to $600). Drove down to the Southern Tier (western NY) to beat a guy from Erie and picked it up Thursday.

The stove is virtually new. It was in a hunting cabin and got fired, he thought 10-12 times. It looks it. The gasket is barely dirty. He said they sold the cabin and he brought it home with plans to install it at home but decided he didn't have a good location for it. So it had just been sitting most of it's life. The secondary burn tubes are in great shape and there's not a scratch on the thing.

It fits my hearth beautifully. It has the reduced clearance heat sheilds which meant no modifications.

I'm a bit worried that the stove may be too small. The fire box sure seems small. I know I'll have to start cutting my wood shorter. I'm just hoping with the increased efficiency (70%) and a blower (perhaps) I'll have enough to keep warm. I know that a burn time of 10 hours is amazing compared to my stove and even if I got 8 burning it a bit hotter, I'd be golden. If worse comes to worse and it's not enough stove, I'll sell it and get a Lopi Liberty (or something equally monstrous).

I'd attach a photo by the @(*$&!@ Kodak software doesn't have a resizer that I can find anyway. I'll post a pic later when I have the energy to figure it out. Needless to say, it looks amazing.

 

[WarmGuy]

www.shrinkpictures.com

 

[Dunadan]

The Endeavor is basically the stove version of the Revere insert, that I have. They both are rated for the same heat output, have a firebox capacity of 2.2 cubic feet, and can take 18" logs.

It's hard to answer your question without knowing at a minimum how large your house is, what the layout is, where the stove is located, and what climate you live in.

I'm in Upstate NY, and we have a pretty wide open split level/raised ranch (the raised part of the house with bedrooms is 3 steps up from the lower living room/dining room/kitchen area) and total living area is about 1,400 sq. feet. We also have a finished basement, but no heat from the insert gets down the stairs to that area.

My Revere (with blower) does a great job keeping the entire main level of the house and the bedrooms heated. This past weekend it was in the low 50s and when burning, the temps were low 80s in the main part of the house, and mid to upper 70s in the bedrooms. Last year in the middle of winter, we burned 24*7 and the temps in the main part of the house were mid to upper 70s and low 70s upstairs. After an all night burn, with no re-loads, temps would drop to about 70 in the main part of the house, and upper 60s in the bedroom area, which is fine for us.

If I load my insert full up with wood before going to bed (say 10:30) I will still have a hot stove with plenty of coals when I get up in the morning (6:00). Rake them all forward, turn up the air, then add some more splits and the fire will be raging in minutes.

I have gotten a 10 hour burn before (on a single load), but after that long the coals are almost all gone. Still, it only takes a few got coals and some small kindling to start a fire again.

 

[Gooserider]

As a very rough first guess about how well the new stove will do for you, do you have any idea about the size of the firebox in the old stove, and / or about what volume of wood you fed it at a time? Typically you get about 1/3 more heat out of a given amount of wood, due to the improved efficiency of a modern stove, so a modern stove should put out about the same heat as a smoke dragon it replaces if the firebox is about 2/3 the size of the one in the dragon.

Even if you don't get quite as much heat at any given instant, you may find that the longer burn times will make up for it.

Gooserider

 

[rhetoric]

Thanks, Gooserider -- if your rough calculations are even close, we will be quite happy. Our other stove was probably a third bigger than this one, but no baffles and such. On bitter cold nights, the dragon didn't keep us warm mostly because it died so quickly. Plus there was the hassle of feeding it in the morning, feeding it in the late morning, feeding it... I almost fired it last night, but I'd rather wait till I have sub 45 degree days. --Cowrider (probably Kawrider would be more accurate).

Dunadan -- I am also an upstate New Yorker -- Rochester, essentially, so we have real winters. My main living area is probably 2400 sq ft, but the lower 500 doesn't get much wood heat. I will experiment with fans, but we didn't have alot of luck last year. Actually, I'm going to experiment with a solar collector for the lower split -- I know it won't solve the problem at night (unless the moon is really bright).

Just eager for cold weather! (Actually we're eager for rain -- major league drought. Wells are going dry.)

 

[rhetoric]

Thanks for the shrink link... Here's my installed stove!

 

[BrotherBart]

Really nice stove and hearth. Enjoy.

 

[Gooserider]

Looks like a real nice install, good job. The purists might say your wood bin's on the close side (you're supposed to have 36" to the woood supply) but otherwise it looks great. I will admit I ran close with my wood supply as well, and feel like it isn't the biggest concern as long as you keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get TOO hot, and keep cycling it through.

Gooserider

 

[rhetoric]

The guitar won't be that close either. Nope, the kindling is just there for decoration (and space) until we start burning.