# compressed wood bricks



## agmccall (Jan 26, 2017)

Hello All

Has anyone used those compressed wood bricks in their woodstove or furnace. I bought a couple of packs of the Redstone brand from Tractor Supply. I put 2 in before I went to bed and they kept a nice hot bed of coals for about 5 hours. According to the reviews I read they are the worst of the bunch. Then I found a local lumber yard that sells Hotbricks, from what I read they are one of the best. But they did not do as well. I think it might be the fire, I put those on a real hot fire and they burned out real fast. I did some more reading and it seems there is a learning curve to these bricks. You are supposed to get them going then turn the damper down to the lowest setting. Some have said it is like learning to burn coal.

The reason I want some of these is the convenience of stacking in the house. Currently I can get about a cord of wood in the basement without taking up too much of my usable space, with the bricks I could get an equivalent of 2-4 cords (depending how I stack them) in the same space. It would be a great supplement to my wood burning and also if I am unable to get wood inside my wife would be able to handle these much easier.

Anyone's input would be greatly appreciated

al


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## Deebo (Oct 27, 2012)

I have no input, but I like the way you think.


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## sideKahr (Oct 15, 2014)

I've used a kind of engineered waxy log that looked to be compressed wood shavings and sawdust. They burn at least as long as a wood log. I'm not sure what wood bricks are.


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## ND_ponyexpress_ (Mar 20, 2016)

learn to make your own.... problem solved.


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

i burn wood that I cut and split myself.

Thirty years ago, I built a 25 ton log splitter to do the splitting.

About 15 years ago I built an adaptor to compress the sawdust into "bricks" to burn.

The did burn ok, but at the time not enough sawdust to justify the setup.

The biggest problem I encountered was the breakdown of the brick absorbing atmospheric moisture.

They would not store for over a year, and showed crumbling after 6 months.

I can store cut and split wood almost indefinitely stacked and covered.

The commercial bricks I consider too expensive a product as I do wood pellets.


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## whoppo (Nov 9, 2012)

We started burning compressed wood product in out Jotul-8 wood stove about 10 years ago.
We've tried pretty much everything available in this area.... and there's a lot to choose from here.
We finally settled of two products that seem to work best for us. Canawick bricks and Home Fire Prest Logs.
The Canawicks light easily with a piece of fatwood. We feed the stove a few of these bricks to get things hot with a decent bed of coals, then we start with the Home Fire Prest Logs, which burn for a nice long while. Before bed, we toss in a couple of logs and shut the stove down. Come morning, we open the vent and put a couple of Canawicks on the still glowing coals from the logs and it fires right up... rinse and repeat daily.

The products put out plenty of heat and the resulting ash is very small. Burning cord wood, we need to clean the stove out every few days, but with the compressed wood products we can go a couple of weeks before we need to shovel ashes. At the other end of the process is the chimney. The compressed products burn so clean that our chimney never really gets dirty. We have a guy come and check our chimney every other year and since we started with these products he comes down off the roof as tells us we're all set... nothing for him to do.

We go through about a pallet of each product every year and keep a few years worth in stock. We still burn oil for the conventional furnace, but we only use a few hundred gallons a year. The Canawicks are sealed in plastic "sleeves" which keep the product dry in humid environments. The logs are not, so we run a dehumidifier in the storage area during the summer months to keep them from swelling up and falling apart.

Between the wood stove and the 12 volt household subsystem, the only time we run the generator here is one hour each month for testing... winter weather here in Maine equals power outages.

Note: We tried ten packs of the Tractor Supply stuff earlier this season... it burned nice and hot, but it was kinda messy and we actually got splinters from handling i, so it's off the list.


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

agmccall said:


> Hello All
> 
> Has anyone used those compressed wood bricks in their woodstove or furnace. I bought a couple of packs of the Redstone brand from Tractor Supply. I put 2 in before I went to bed and they kept a nice hot bed of coals for about 5 hours. According to the reviews I read they are the worst of the bunch. Then I found a local lumber yard that sells Hotbricks, from what I read they are one of the best. But they did not do as well. I think it might be the fire, I put those on a real hot fire and they burned out real fast. I did some more reading and it seems there is a learning curve to these bricks. You are supposed to get them going then turn the damper down to the lowest setting. Some have said it is like learning to burn coal.
> 
> ...


Wouldn't the store bought bricks end up being much spendier than wood? Is your storage space limited?


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## Jp4GA (Jan 21, 2016)

We have started making bricks for burning out of paper. There is an abundance of recyclable paper out there. The paper bricks are not hard to make and burn slow and hot. They are easy to stack. If done correctly they become hard as rocks. Very cheap and we will be able to make them even if we are without power.


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## agmccall (Jan 26, 2017)

RedLion said:


> Wouldn't the store bought bricks end up being much spendier than wood? Is your storage space limited?


I realize the cost and this is not a switch I am making, it is more for convenience. Like I said in the OP, if I can't get wood in the house due to injury or sickness my Wife would be able to handle these with ease.

al


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## agmccall (Jan 26, 2017)

Jp4GA said:


> We have started making bricks for burning out of paper.  There is an abundance of recyclable paper out there. The paper bricks are not hard to make and burn slow and hot. They are easy to stack. If done correctly they become hard as rocks. Very cheap and we will be able to make them even if we are without power.


I read an article with some great images of someone doing this. he had a press of some sort. Do they make the presses or is this something I will have to have fabricated

Here is the blog article and it does say the brick maker is available from lehmans and amazon.

https://dengarden.com/home-improvem...-easy-Newspaper-Bricks-for-burning-in-my-fire

al


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## Jp4GA (Jan 21, 2016)

We do ours in a 5 gallon bucket, I will try to find the link we used to learn how to do it and post it sometime this weekend. Using the bucket makes them all a consistent round shape using an item we have several extra of on hand.


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## Jp4GA (Jan 21, 2016)

This link shows 3 different way to make the paper logs. We use the 5 gallon bucket way. It does take these several days to dry. We make them when we know it is going to be warmer and sunny outside. We get most of our materials from the recycle bins at work. Off-grid Project: DIY Burnable Bricks & Logs Out of Paper | Survivopedia


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## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

I use newspaper logs I roll and wire tie.

I soak them in kerosene and put one in between and below three large wood pieces in the stove to light it.

The paper roll about four inches in diameter will burn for about two hours in the tunnel formed by the wood..

It does great lighting the logs, nothing else needed for kindling.


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## RedLion (Sep 23, 2015)

agmccall said:


> I realize the cost and this is not a switch I am making, it is more for convenience. Like I said in the OP, if I can't get wood in the house due to injury or sickness my Wife would be able to handle these with ease.
> 
> al


No criticism from me at all. Sometimes convenience is worth the extra cost.


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