Anyone researched wood briquettes?

stinky_5000

Just wondering if anyone had tried any of these and if so which are the best value for money? A family member uses Blazers logs, any comparisons with these would be interesting?

Thanks

alleycat`

A sweep called "greenfires" sells them, is quite knowledgeable about them.
Haven't seen him on here for a while but he might be able to help.

Edit: I should add I'm not associated with him nor have i bought any of his product. When i looked into it he was quite helpful and not pushy about sales.

muckybutt

As alleycat says Greenfires is your man for the biologs, however I am at a trade fair next week as I am also looking into them.

stinky_5000

ok thanks, i think greenfires is in my area...i will see what he has to say!

alleycat`

muckybutt wrote: »

As alleycat says Greenfires is your man for the biologs, however I am at a trade fair next week as I am also looking into them.

I know you sweep in my area MB so I'd be interested in what you find out / if you start selling them.

muckybutt

alleycat` wrote: »

I know you sweep in my area MB so I'd be interested in what you find out / if you start selling them.

I have to say a lot of my customers use them, me included. There are so many different types out there at the moment, hence the trade show research i'm doing next week. Theres a company in Driffield that sell them with their own stamp on them but I'm pretty sure they are just drop shipped bought in ones with their info on them, never the less though they are decent quality and burn for a good length of time.

Always go for the chipped briquettes though as opposed to the sawdust ones.

I'll be back !

stinky_5000

Be interested to hear what you find out.

alleycat`

muckybutt wrote: »

I have to say a lot of my customers use them, me included. There are so many different types out there at the moment, hence the trade show research i'm doing next week. Theres a company in Driffield that sell them with their own stamp on them but I'm pretty sure they are just drop shipped bought in ones with their info on them, never the less though they are decent quality and burn for a good length of time.

Always go for the chipped briquettes though as opposed to the sawdust ones.

I'll be back !

How'd the trade show go MB?

muckybutt

alleycat` wrote: »

How'd the trade show go MB?

Didnt make it unfortunatley

Greenfires

Hi guys,

Not been on here for a while, but I'm here again now!
Unfortunately the briquettes we dealt with are now out of production - and my customers are not at all happy, particularly those who have shopped around a bit and tried different types. One of my regulars near here ran out and had to buy another type - she said that even her friend who was visiting remarked that they weren't nearly as good as what she normally had!

It's all down to money sadly. The selling price of briquettes is partly determined by what the competition is selling at - and much of the competition is imported and then flogged as a "green option". Some of the importers have very little knowledge of their product - some may never even see it - it will come in on a ship and go straight to a distribution centre and all they'll do is take peoples money and pass on the delivery details to a carrier.

Also, quite a few outfits have set up making briquettes to get rid of their waste. Not a problem with this at all, but many of them are using cheap machinery from other industries to make them, and whilst these machines will produce briquettes of a sort, they're often comparitively soft and tend to be short lived in the stove. A producer like this can be in business for less than £20k though.

This is what our manufacturer was up against, and although their briquettes may have been way ahead of the competitors - lasting on average 40% longer in their own tests (not "scientific tests" - but the best they could do comparing equal quantities in the same stove under the same conditions etc) there's no way they could charge 40% more for them. It's all about volume really - with a bigger machine they could produce a lot more volume for a relatively small increase in costs, and that would allow them to stand a fighting chance against the briquettes mentioned above. However, the machinery to make briquettes like these isn't cheap - you're looking at £160k at least. The owner of the factory has never operated with profit as the major factor since he set up - he works right alongside his lads - who think the world of him incidentally, and often made the deliveries to us himself wearing the same old jumper he was wearing when I first met him years ago. The bottom line is that he hasn't got £160k - or anything like it, and the investors who have been interested for ages, and to whom £160k would be pocket change, don't want to part with a penny until he's bought the new machine, until he's developed the market to fill the new capacity, until he's showing good margins - and THEN they might come up with some money in return for a big chunk of his business! Not good.

It's particularly sad given that as far as I know, there are no other briquettes like these on the UK market. Almost all the others do the expanding and falling to bits routine - ours did neither and that's what made them so much better, and resulted in a higher heat output for a much longer period.

On a personal level, we're still undecided where we're going with briquettes in the future. There are other UK manufacturers we could go to, but at the same time, I think I'd find it a bit difficult to start promoting another type that I knew weren't as good when I've been flying the flag for these for so long. I sold these and these alone because they were the best I'd ever found. We tried a cheaper version a few years back that our factory were doing a joint venture on - they were about a quid a pack cheaper - and I encouraged my regulars to give them a shot. They all said they were okay - but without exception they all wanted to carry on with the usual ones at the higher price - which said it all really.

From a purely business point of view, the briquettes were a loser for us. Well perhaps not quite a loser, but considering the time and effort that went in to them, they only covered costs really. We carried on with them though as sometimes there are more important things than the bottom line - our customers loved them, and we like happy customers more than we like big profits.

And that's about it! The factory are still hoping that an investor can be found who thinks along similar lines, but most of these money people seem to care about little more than bottom line - it doesn't matter that it's a good product that's good for the local economy and good for the planet - if it's not going to make big bucks then they're not interested. The factory are doing other stuff at the moment but could get back into the game if some money comes along - but unfortunately, the volumes they could produce with the old machine were barely covering the costs of running the factory.

I'll keep you posted if there's any news.

Cheers for now,

Andy

elastic

I am disappointed to hear that your briquettes are no longer available Andy, as I found them very good! I have tried many briquettes over the last winter and was also impressed with Eco Logs. When I saw them, I was disappointed and held little hope, but they proved to be better than expected. They do swell and need topping up more than some, but were hot enough to run our fire and 7 radiators in pretty cold weather. If we wet out and the fire died, they were easy to relight and get back up to temperature! I also found peat briquettes good, but am more reserved about these due to sustainability. I look forward to hearing if anyone else adds to this thread!