Compressed heat logs

kah22

 Ran out of my normal kiln dried blocks and my supplier couldn’t deliver for a few days, so I bought myself  some super heat logs, compressed birch in my case. 

Purely out of curiosity I was wondering what’s their pros and cons?

FreeBear

Some of these compressed heat logs are made from "recycled" wood. As a result, they may contain bits of paint, plastics, and other bits of rubbish - Have had some from one local budget supermarket, and found bits of foam & flakes of paint inside.

savers_united

Agree stick to the well known brands, I am almost 50/50 now with wood.
By mixing I find I get the best from the logs and the wood, A decent heat log should burn well for around 3/4 to an hour. With good heat throughout. 

kah22

Thanks for the information.  The logs I have seem to be ‘clean,’ if you understand my meaning.

Savers-united I’m a bit puzzled when you say you are almost 50/50 , that seems expensive!
I can buy a crate of ash for £200 and burning it alone I get cc 3 months in the winter, last bought on the 11 Nov and during the Sumer months I get between six and seven months. Averaging it out I guess I’m spending between £10 - £12 a week. 

I might just try an experiment over the next short while just to see how costs stack up 

FreeBear

kah22 said: that seems expensive! I can buy a crate of ash for £200

If you are buying crates of kiln dried logs, that is also going to be expensive. Shop around for loose loads (assuming you have somewhere they can be tipped). Get a load or two delivered between now and say May, stack them somewhere under cover, and they should be dry enough to burn next winter.

savers_united

I say 50/50, it's more like 70 wood and 30 heat logs.
I used to get free wood for years but having been paying the last couple of years then for me the heat logs can work out better value, cleaner and easier to store. I mainly use Hotties, they do not expand and give off a great amount of heat for around an hour without crumbling.

I typically mix 2 Hotties in with 5 or 6 good sized 8-10" logs. That seems to burn hotter and longer than a dozen logs on their own.

They just seem to get the burner up to temp quicker and then the wooden logs maintain that temp giving a nice clean  burn. 

And you know what your getting with consistency, wood can be hit and miss. 

Ectophile

I tend to find that the "heat logs" burn faster than real logs.  But they are more consistent.  Real firewood is really unpredictable in how well it burns.

They should be made of offcuts of wood; 100% clean wood.  Generally, the darker they are, the slower they burn.  Paler ones tend to puff up when they start to burn, and then blaze away too quickly.

You must keep them totally dry.  They absorb water very easily, and if left in the damp for too long will disintegrate back into a pile of sawdust.

kah22

As said I normally buy a crate of ash but it seems ash is pretty difficult to get hold of, possibly 3/4 weeks so I settled for a crate of birch £190. Bumper bags, trail loads I’m not to sure about you don’t really know how much you are getting or what the quality is unless you buy from a recognised supplier.

My supplier was telling me that ash was getting difficult to get due mainly to ash die back. He was also telling me that there is talk about it been banned altogether in the island of Ireland, but I’ll have to wait and see.

I did buy a packet of Home Bargains ‘Woodensoul ‘Birch Super logs,’ never again!  But savers-united does make some good points and what I probably will do is try out a few different brands and then build up a small stack of the ones I think best. I can see that for a quick fire with a nice warm flame when Auntie May and Uncle Pat comes around they could be very, useful as well as a good handy standby for myself 🤓

FreeBear

Just finishing off a stack of oak which I got from a local tree surgeon. Burns nice & slow with plenty of heat.

I get most of my logs unprocessed and generally still green. But I have the space to cut, split, and stack the logs for as long as is needed. Still a crap shoot as to which species I get, so will end up with quite a mix.

Ectophile

Ash isn't as special as it's made out to be.  And don't even try to burn it green, whatever people say.

I burn whatever I can get for free.  Some woods are better than others, but the ones I like other people turn their noses up at.  And vice-versa.  The only thing I avoid is elder.

markin

kah22 said:

As said I normally buy a crate of ash but it seems ash is pretty difficult to get hold of, possibly 3/4 weeks so I settled for a crate of birch £190. Bumper bags, trail loads I’m not to sure about you don’t really know how much you are getting or what the quality is unless you buy from a recognised supplier.

My supplier was telling me that ash was getting difficult to get due mainly to ash die back. He was also telling me that there is talk about it been banned altogether in the island of Ireland, but I’ll have to wait and see.

I did buy a packet of Home Bargains ‘Woodensoul ‘Birch Super logs,’ never again!  But savers-united does make some good points and what I probably will do is try out a few different brands and then build up a small stack of the ones I think best. I can see that for a quick fire with a nice warm flame when Auntie May and Uncle Pat comes around they could be very, useful as well as a good handy standby for myself 🤓

Do you mean a pallet? how many KG's?