My neighbor gave me these and though I've heard members speak of them I have never burned. Apparently the manufacturer lost his lease on his production site and is selling crazy cheap-neighbor brought me a box of these sawdust bricks and warned of their output. How should I utilize them? Will the Fireview handle them no problem? Should I save them for extreme cold? I appreciate in advance the experience you may have to share, heck I'll even value whatever Eric VW has to say on the matter. I trust this finds you all well.
Well, at 16 mBTU's per ton, you mite get sumpin' outa them...... The Fireview will eat them all nite.
I've never burnt that brand, but the ECO bricks I have...I just keep a few around in case I get a load in the stove that just doesn't want to stay in "cruise" mode when the air is shut down...I'll throw one of these on top and away we go! My brother sells 'em and I know some people heat exclusively with 'em...if you are going to use more than 1 or 2 at a time then you will have to stack them in tightly to keep your stove from going into meltdown, kinda like large splits VS small ones Eric is right, they won't hurt your stove...it is just compressed sawdust
I have used those sawdust bricks just because......um, just because. I have never used them for a cold start, rather, fired up the stove and then added them when it is time for a re-load-that way, there is a great bed of coals. Seem alright.
yooperdave thats the only way I would burn them...I dont need them but was I guess worried they might overfire the stove but didnt have ideas of using any more than 2 of them at a given time, possibly in ultra cold if we get any of that this year...I would not buy them but a box as a gift was worthy of researching knowledge of those here with experience...I knew where to go
I haven't used them in a cat stove but I did go an entire winter once using them in a secondary burning stove (hearthstone). They worked best when I would put about ten stacked tightly into a cube with staggered joints. It burns slow and even that way. The biggest advantage to those is that every fire is exactly the same. I could never get over that.
With the kicker stove having secondary combustion and not being a cat stove.....I did not see any difference in stove or flue temps.
I tried the TSC bricks last year as an experiment. In my large wood furnace, it was not worth the expense. There was not a noticeable difference in output,and they did not last very long at all.
The payback is defiantly not in performance- it would be convenience or to make up for not getting ahead on your firewood supply. If I was buying hardwood at $250/cord and could pay an extra $50 to get the bricks, I would do it. They stack so much better and there is hardly any mess.
Those bricks look similar in size to the Gren bricks (20 bricks weigh 38 pounds) I have used in my Fireview. I too don't need them, but do have a slight fascination with them. At most, I add 4 of these bricks to a load of splits. Last couple times I have loaded 4 of them on top of a big square block at the back of the stove for the night time load - they have a low profile when laid on their sides and this allows me to get almost to the top of the firebox at the back of the stove - don't have any rectangular slabs that would fill that space as nicely as the bricks.
Burn them they are equal to regular wood, Here I just found this: How many Btu are in a pound of wood? Air-dried hardwood firewood typically contains about 20 percent moisture, or 0.83 pound of dry wood and 0.17 pound of water. The available heat value is then 7,100 Btu per pound (0.83 pound x 8,600 Btu/pound).
