Lopi vs Osburn Woodstove

[RichZ]

My wife and I are going to replace the woodstove in our house. We just relocated to a larger farm, and in our previous farm we heated entirely with wood. We are planning on doing the same here. There is a very old woodstove that we will be replacing. The house is about 2600 square feet and the woodstove is in the middle of the first floor of a 2 story farmhouse. Does anyone have any experience with Lopi or Osburn stoves, what are the pros and cons of each and what size/model would you recommend?

Thanks.

 

[Walkin Horse]

I bought the biggest Lopi 2 years ago. I have been satisfied with the stove and the quality of it. I'm heating a 2700 sq ft tradional colonial with it. The fireplace is on an outside wall not in the center of the house. It does not heat well upstairs,but I need to cut in some vents. We use a fan to push air around down stairs.

I would not put too much stock in the sq ft rating as that seems more like something to compare to. Much like fel ratings at the pin. The burn rate of 8 to 10 hours is about rite if the firebox is full. I mean you have to keep the ash cleaned out to get it full. I cut my wood 24" instead of 26" to make it easier to get the wood in straight. There is a lip around the opening that is hard to get 26"s in and get it full.

My stove has 2 dampers. One on top and one at the bottom that controls air into the box. It pulls out, opposite of what you would think.

 

[oosik]

I used a Lopi wood stove from '82 until around 2000. I have a single story ranch style house (1600 sq ft) and it was great for heating. In about 2000 we went to a pellet stove because the wood brought in so many bugs, bark, dirt etc. The only problems were - I broke one of the glass windows on one side of the door with a bigger piece of wood. Replaced it with a piece of diamond plate. Besides, by that time, I was getting tired of "wood harvesting".

 

[dmccarty]

We have an Osburn 2200 wood stove and we are very happy with it. It heats our house 2500 sf house which has 10 foot ceiling and large holes in the walls called windows and doors.

The stove will keep the living room at 80-83 when the outside temp is maybe 20-35. The farthest rooms will be sometimes dipped down to 65 on real cold nights. The only time the stove struggles to warm the house is when the temps fall in to single digits and into the teens at which point the living room gets to 78-80 for a short time. We normally do not get cold down to the teens much less single digits but this past winter we got hit hard. We had three days with the temp down to 6-9 degrees. :shocked: Prior to this year we have only had one single digit night. This year we had three months of wintery weather that kept schools closed. It could have been much worse but it was bad enough. In all of this the stove simply kept the house warm.

The only issue we have is that the side panel glass on the stove will creosote up no mater how dry the wood. Not really a big deal to us but the glass has to be cleaned from time to time. I do have put some oil on the door handle every month or so to keep it easily operable. Not really needed but I do it anyway.

Later,
Dan

 

[KennyG]

I have an Osburn 1800 and use it for supplemental heat in a large house. I'm happy with it. If I'm careful not to load the wood too close to the front, the glass stays pretty clean. After three years of use, the finish is still perfect. I have outside air intake and it requires very little adjustment to keep the burn temperature in a narrow band.