Anyone researched wood briquettes?

Greenfires

You bought the wrong ones then - or didn't burn them properly. Ours often last long enough to relight the stove the following afternoon - and a single pallet will easily last us all winter - and that's burning nothing else. Different types are as different as oak and willow, or cheap garbage housecoal and Welsh steam coal.

Leif

I bought some heat logs, they are dark brown, made from compressed hardwood waste, with a hole down the middle, £6 for ~12, 10kg I think. They are slow to start, but then burn very well, lots of heat, and last quite a few hours. I do wonder how they compare to solid hard wood logs. My suspicion is that they work out cheaper, as the real logs burn more quickly, and are lighter, with higher moisture content (20% versus 8%).

I also tried some lighter brown ones, that crumbled easily. They make good kindling, but are nowhere hear as good, much less heat, and they burn quickly.

Greenfires

Obviously a lot depends on the price people are paying for logs - it varies an awful lot around the country. In many cases though, once you allow for the fact that the briquettes contain an awful lot more energy than logs, due to being much denser, and way drier than even kiln dried logs, then they will often work out cheaper in "real terms". The biggest problem we have is getting people to try them! With the best will in the world, a pallet of briquettes rarely looks like much for your money, compared to the pile of firewood you'd get for the same money. However, when you consider that a pallet will last most average customers the whole season, then things look a bit different. Also of course, you'll never have any worries about what you'll get for your money - as the briquettes will be exactly the same size and moisture level from load to load and year to year. No wondering about whether the next load will be dry enough to burn, or whether the "trailer load" will be as big as last time. I've been burning nothing but briquettes for years, and would only go back to logs if they were coming out of my own wood.

bockers

Adding my twopenneth to this debate.

Finally got our Burley Debdale wood burner fitted 2 weeks ago, having ordered if from our sweep in October! Burley were not at fault I might add and their customer service is fantastic.

So as the stove was so late in arriving I found most of the bulk log providers locally have sold out of seasoned logs and only selling part seasoned. I tried some “kiln dried logs” from B&Q and they were mixed in performance. One bag felt dry enough but would sulk in the stove and never got burning properly. And the cost of buying small bags or nets from garages it ludicrous let alone the bad quality. Logs needed toping up every 45 mins and the quantity I got through was alarming when buying in small quantities.

So I started doing some research into briquettes. And what a minefield it is. There are so many types/providers and claims that it is hard to decide.

So far I have tried Hotties, Heatlogs and Verdo Logs. And I must say all are fantastic! There are loads more on the market too but I wanted to try and get UK made ones, which Verdo and Hotties are but not sure of the provenance of the heat logs (not to be confused with UKHeatlogs which I have yet to try)

The Debdale we have is quite small and the Verdos score highly in that they can easily be broken into 3 parts by hand and fit the stove perfectly. They are solid and do not have a hole down the centre and do expand slightly but still hold their shape. The flame is superb and lasts about 45min then they glow very hot for a further 45mins. The glass stays clear too even with the air flow lever just to the left of mid point. I bought a trial pack of 6 for £10 and will get that back on a bulk order.

The Hotties and Heatlogs were good too but are smaller and take two per one Verdo but the two will last just over 2 hrs. They both have centre holes and seem similar. Cost works about the same as Verdos with the Hotties being the best of the two holed logs. The Heatlogs are available in most UK garden centres so easy to pick up a bag and give them a try, again for £6. But they come in 10s.


My own calculations based on my own experiences and the fact that dry logs (less than 30%) are a rarity, means logs will not be used unless I get season them myself and source them free or cheap to season myself.

So I am getting a Pallet, for next year and will spend this spring collecting my own free wood which I will season for 18 months and then mix with briquettes in 2015.

Which briquette pallet to get is still open to further research but the Verdos are the current top runners.

p.s. I am not in business of selling any of these or any other fire related items, just trying to get my wood burner to pay for itself and look good !

zymotik

We had our log burning stove installed this year by a builder in Birmingham (www.heatash.com) and as we didn't have any seasoned logs yet, we decided to try wood briquettes out. We wished we'd asked the stove installers advice first!! Picked up a ton bag load from a guy in Kidderminster who advertised on eBay. £45 a ton bag full. Looked like a bargin... They burn hot, but quickly, so they break up into piles of ash that then burns slowly, which would be fine, but its not exactly hot. Pallets are naff wood, but we much preferred them to the briquettes. They were supposed to be hardwood, some even oak. Oh, and they are really messy!! Dust everywhere all the time... in the bottom of the bag as they break up easy... on the floor... every time you open the stove door a cloud of dust... urghhh!! Might just be these briquetts, they look like this:



I noticed the guy had this machine:

Greenfires

It is those briquettes - they're what I call garden centre specials and I wouldn't touch 'em with a bargepole. Doesn't matter what sort of wood they're made of - if they're small and soft and crumbly they'll be rubbish - end of story. Cheap machinery makes cheap briquettes equals cheap performance. Cheap on paper doesn't always mean a better deal. If cheap briquettes last half as long as expensive ones, you need to double the price of the cheap ones to get a valid comparison. We sold cheap briquettes for one season alongside our "expensive ones" - none of our regular customers bought the cheap ones more than once, simply because in use, they worked out MORE expensive!

outside.the.box

Hello,

I'm new to this forum. I am a mechanical engineer from Canada and I have done a great deal of research and development in Bio Mass materials. My experience is that higher compression and heat formed briquettes approximate lignite coal heat values and characteristics except with low ash residuals. We presently use a machine that produces a simple "RUF" briquettes using 5/8" chip material. Presently this is our best solution to minimize briquette expansion and maximize burn quality (longevity, even heat, easy light).

Thanks for the thread.

Greenfires

If you want to minimise expansion - use an extruder. Extruded briquettes don't expand - end of story. They also form much longer lasting embers.

outside.the.box

Any idea what kind of pressure they are able to achieve with the extruder technology? Just so I understand, on extruder technology, are you using a screw or hydraulic to drive thru a die? The hydraulic ram technology I have seen will achieve 4000 to 5000 psi compression, much beyond traditional piston style mechanical systems (which fall apart or suffer expansion). One last thought is the moisture content of the briquettes. The briquettes that are coming apart during the combustion process, do they have more than 15 percent moisture?

misty2_2

Greenfires wrote: »

Just to follow up on this rather old post - we're "back in the game" as it were with a new briquette that's very similar to the old ones, being screw extruded rather than piston compressed - so still none of the problems with expanding and falling to bits that most of the others suffer from. These are made in the UK of course - we're still not dealing with the Russians - and in fact the whole factory is powered by renewable enrgy from a biogas digester next door, so they tick lots of green boxes!

Cheers,

Andy

Could you please inform me how I can order this product from you ?
thank you
misty2