Fuel Briquettes

doningtonphil

We live near dumfries so have been able to visit woodfuel coop in person. As already mentioned, the website is very detailed and the guy certainly can give you a lot of detail. I think his view is that not everyones fires are the same so different fuels perform in varying ways on varying fires. Also you may want a slow burner that doesn't have to look nice as opposed to a lovely flamed fire. I think he hastaken time to select fuels that seem good at what they do and has relied on customer feedback.

That said, the choice is a bit bewildering. We got a selection of briquettes and some seemed better than others but you need a pen and paper ti record your findings otherwise it all becomes a blur.

i dont get the impression the coop would sell anything for a quick buck. There are some which they say wont last long but are excellent for a good start to a fire.

so i can see the benefits of greenfires approach of "we like these so these are what we sell"

doningtonphil

contd.....

however the coop give you the opportunity to find the fuel that SUITS YOU best.

As already said. They are not the cheapest with verdo logs cheaper at homebargains

firefox1956

I have tried to but Verdo briquettes at my local Home Bargains....bit of a pain really because they only seem to ever have a couple of packs in stock at any one time.
Got myself half a pallet of these delivered the other day.....
http://www.whitehorseenergy.co.uk/Briquettes/XL-Briquettes
Seem to be pretty good.

Robwiz

firefox1956 wrote: »

I have tried to but Verdo briquettes at my local Home Bargains....bit of a pain really because they only seem to ever have a couple of packs in stock at any one time.

If you buy online from Home Bargains' website you can arrange to collect from the store of your choice. They phone you when the order is ready for collection. When I've done this the staff couldn't have been more helpful – wheeling the cage of 24 packs out to my car in the car park and helping me load the car.

Kiran

Hi Greenfires, I take your point but I was wondering if briquettes were a one product does all or if it was a case that you had different products for different purposes? That being said if you have one that ticks all the boxes then it sounds like a winner. Would you mind telling me which briquettes you favour as a recommendation is always better than an advert. If you don't want to advertise could you PM it to me?

Thanks

alleycat`

Kiran wrote: »

Hi Greenfires, I take your point but I was wondering if briquettes were a one product does all or if it was a case that you had different products for different purposes? That being said if you have one that ticks all the boxes then it sounds like a winner. Would you mind telling me which briquettes you favour as a recommendation is always better than an advert. If you don't want to advertise could you PM it to me?

Thanks

Hi Kiran,

I'm not sure if greenfires (andy) is about.
He sells these (or he did last year):-

http://www.bridgebrooke.co.uk/

I'll put my hand up and say I've bought from him in the past.

I won't pretend i've tried every heatlog on the market but they are the densest of the 4 types i've tried and last the longest in head to head tests.

I'm not 100% convinced they are so much better than the others that they make a financial "saving" but they do involve less reloading work.

This is my comparison vs blazer, verdo and ukheatlogs and has no scientific background to it outside of running the stove at the same approx. temperature, not messing with them and keeping an eye on the clock.

In my opinion if you are in it for money saving then smokeless is a cheaper option but it's a lot messier.

I tend to use a mix and match of various types depending on what's on sale (at what price) when but i do like the Hotties the most in terms of not having to faff.

The service from the supplier (who phoned to confirm the order) and Andy was great.
The courier wasn't quite as impressive but i suspect that can't always be helped.

Edit: Just to add i don't sell heatlogs or any associated heating products so it's just my opinion as a consumer. In case anyone wonders.

Greenfires

I can see where Phil was coming from I think - but I also think I probably look at it slightly differently too! Yes - all stoves are different, and the same stove can be totally different on different chimneys - but to my mind, the answer is more about learning how to run your stove the best way, rather than altering your fuel. I could offer cheap soft briquettes that would start quickly but not last five minutes - but in all honesty I wouldn't be happy doing so - as I'd be very much aware that I wouldn't spend MY money on them - and that wouldn't quite sit right. Our briquettes are extremely dense, so probably not as easy to light as many - but once you know how to do it, a single cube of firelighter will do the job every single time. It's about learning the stove and learning the fuel - whether the fuel is logs, briquettes or smokeless fuel. None of them is the easiest option - that's gas!

Similarly I don't offer bark briquettes - or even advise overnight slumber burning as a general rule. As a sweep I have to deal with a lot of chimneys suffering from the customers efforts to keep the stove alight 24/7. With a decent stove and a decent installation, it hardly takes any more time to re-light the stove in the morning than to revive a stove full of ash (bark produces a lot more ash than wood), and obviously you're using less fuel as well. I don't know if any of you guys have used these - but I had a customer a couple of weeks ago who was shall we say, less than impressed with them.

So Kiran, to answer your question - I personally think the stuff we sell is a one product answer. We certainly have no plans to offer (or use) any other variety, and as I mentioned, I pay exactly the same price for ours as everybody else does so it's not as if I'm getting mine for free or anything! This will of course change if we come across one we think offers better value - we're not tied to any sort of contract with the factory, so we're free to go with whichever manufacturer we think is best.