Pressed log burner, what are your thoughts?

If the logs are easy to break then it could be possible to feed the stove in a cheese to mice ration way

 

Nope it comes to that then the idea is in the bin.
It has to be "load and go" or I'd rather pay a lot more just for the current convenience. Our logs are 1/2 the price of pellets and a bit cheaper than wheat. That means they need to be as easy to use as the others or it is not worth the trouble.

 

Well the jury is pretty much in.
Here are the pics of the mule stove transformed into a log burner;



Whats the take home?
Well conversion wise it is pretty straightforward.
Does it work; yes.
Are there problems; yes.
The cartridge feed works better than I expected. The weight of logs above does keep the feed up to the fire, fairly well. The problems start with regulating heat output. Don't be fooled by the pic, these suckers burn hot. Under normal wheat burning I run a flue temp of 90 degrees C, 100 for pellets. With the logs I had trouble keeping the fire running under 130 and it was happiest at 150. From the point of view of burning the crud out of your flue this is good otherwise it is simply wasted heat. Wasted heat is wasted money. Efficiency is everything and I think maintaining efficiency overtime would be a real challenge.
In a larger boiler with a stoker I think this could work as you would be running much harder than a domestic pellet to air fire. With the pellet stove you are trying so hard to choke off the output that it is hard to keep burning cleanly.
Still, if you are not worried about about a bit of waste heat is it a winner. No.
The real issue I see is with the problem of what happens if you have a power outage. The fuel logs in the feeder pipe keep smoldering which is stinky at best and dangerous at worst. Maybe the problem can be overcome with a drafting vertical flue (which I will try next) but that introduces yet another variable to the equation and the poor old stove is only 1 step off being a wood burner so what is the point?
So I reckon that if you have a system with an output of 100,000 Btu or more you could drive the logs, less than that and you are at the mercy of nature and it could all end in tears. Using gravity has massive drawbacks and I dont think that you could use an angled feeder tube as the log expand to almost double size when heated and I am sure they would block the tube. Again if they were being stoked in (so not being pre heated as with the gravity feed), which isnt hard but requires a decent sized external unit - not something in your living room, I sure it would work fine.
The logs do have one benefit though; if you want a burst of extra heat from your stove for about an hour then just pop one in on top of the pot and leave the stove running as normal. The cat won't be impressed as the stove gets pretty hot but your house will be toasty and once it burns away the stove just keeps on going as usual.

 

Well,went to town to get fuel for plow truck,place that sells the pressed wood logs would not sell me 1,I would have to purchase a bundle/box.After seeing Chickenmans testing,I have lost interest,he pretty much did informative testing,and I did not want to spend the money,and have those other logs laying around.

 

I haven't revisited the testing as I kinda lost interest after the first underwhelming performance.

Pellet stoves do a pretty good job on their regular sized fuel particles whether wood or grain. I'm not sure it is worth the effort to adapt to the log. I reckon that it is a fuel best suited to a normal wood stove due to the loading and control issues. The logs are far closer to normal wood in their burn characteristics.
The other reason I have stopped is it has been 100 degrees here for a week.

 

Ive been burning wood scraps in my shop stove on a regular basis... good heat! Just place the wood on top of the burn pot...

 

OK,was not going to do it,but did,farm store had a pack of those logs on sale.Note,I too have been known to burn wood scraps in my integra,as I do woodwork down in the basemen.Works fine,kinda waste full,but gets rid of small scraps.Trieed to cut the log with a hacksaw,lol.Thought about using the big power chop saw,said screw it,slammet it on edge of work table,several times,easily broke into manageable pieces.First test,the Integra,as I was running it because of the below 0 weather.Positioned a chunk(rather large)vertically,into the pot,far enough away to not block the auger drop chute.I did not hook up an auger shut off wire,would not have mattered,because the Integra slows down the combustion fan with lowering the heat setting.It burned OK,but smoky and dirty.Lots of ash compared to pellets.When turning the heat range down below 1/2,it more or less smoldered,would have to burn them above that.Now the Harman Accentra.Could not stand a section up on end,because Harmans back panels lean inwards,and have a flame guide.Laid section sideways.Would burn for a while,then,"thunk"it would roll forward and stop against the airwash channel.Tried 3 times.Dirrerence is,when it was back,before the rollout,it burned fine,as the Harman combustion fan runs at constant speed,most times,auger would shut down and log would burn.I have 1 broke section left,I may pull the flame guide,so log would stay in place,but,would probably have to do it cold stove,it may have a problem self starting that way.Also,more visible smoke,and more ash,same as Integra.Guess I will save the other 5 logs from the carton for camping,or give to wood stove neighbors.

 

Yeah I reckon they work fine in a normal wood stove but their value in a pellet stove is marginal at best.