OK, to answer why I don't like my Lopi:
1. I liked the top-loading feature, but the handle was solid metal, and so close to the stove, that you couldn't open it without gloves.
2. Little draft control. There is a lever at the bottom for draft control, but it seems to do almost no good. I suppose it's possible that it's broken or not attached, but I bought it brand new 2 years ago, and it's never seemed to do much.
3. The literature claimed up to 12-hour burn times, but I was never able to get more than 5-6 hours, and that was with large pieces of seasoned hardwood and everything properly set.
4. The ash pan was rather annoying to work with, but it did the job, whenever the ash managed to get in there. I really like my antique stove where the ashes sift down into the ash compartment quite easily, and I can empty the ashes while it's still burning. Not so with the Leyden. I have to let the fire die out in order to empty the ashes, and very few of them even make it down to the ash pan, but then I guess this is a normal thing on a lot of stoves today.
5. The porcelain bricks inside were very pretty, but didn't last long. Some needed replacement after only one season, and now that I've burned two seasons, they're in really rough shape.
6. There is a feature that causes the bottom of the wood to burn when you turn a certain lever (this supposedly helps with the longer burn times). I've had to continually adjust the screws on this lever in order to make sure that it locks in the proper position or else it would just flip back to the other position as soon as I let go of it.
So there you have it. Maybe I'm just being picky, but that's why I don't like my Lopi stove.
Oh, and yes, I did get my moustache caught in it once - I was loading it with wood when I turned back to grab another armful, I noticed the top-loading door had closed on one side of my 'stache, and burned a good 18 inches off. I had to trim off another 4 inches just to get all the singed hairs out, which meant I had to also trim that much off the other side. I cried for a week.