Pressed log burner, what are your thoughts?

Check out this bad boy;

The people’s choice award

The general public voted on which stove they thought had the most potential, and the winner was 509 Fabrications, the first stove to burn pressed wood logs. In our testing, it was incredibly clean and its efficiency was 81% HHV.

You guys may have seen this before but I have missed it.
Looks like a hybrid wood/pellet stove.
A great idea if it is reliable. It certainly looks simple enough which is a great start.
Making the pressed logs is far easier than pellets so it should be cheaper fuel. Don't know if it is though.
Any comments would be appreciated. Maybe this is the breakthrough the Wiseway had promise of being??

 

Looks like a real winner

 

I voted for it.Pressed logs are getting quite popular,with wood stove owners,I am surprised something like this has not come out before.

 

Looks to be a variation of a rocket stove. Fuel fed from above cross flow for combustion air at bottom, exhaust port low on back side which says combustion flows goes up then down to exhaust port. Pricing I have yet to find - no dealers located in WI. I believe the logs were the presto style. From Northwoods which are not available here either.

 

I do not believe they are in heavy production,yet.

 

Yes I wonder if it is possible to reload while the stove is running. I am guessing with the loading cap locked airtight shut it is safe enough but the fire could burn up the loading chute if the cap was left off too long.
The price is around 3,000 USD which is pretty steep but I am sure they will be able reduce that once the are making 1000s of them.
I have sent off an email to the manufacturer, I will report on any info I get.

 

Now hows this for a crazy idea;

I have used these logs before in a pellet stove. You just prop them up over the burn pot and they burn away over time. You can see from this old video it was 6 years ago. I really am ahead of the curve


What would be the problems with inserting a tube through the top of a pellet stove and just dropping the bricks straight into the pot like the 509 ?
As long as the drop pipe lid is airtight I don't think it would burnback???
Same principle as the drop chute on a pellet stove really.
Anyway I am going to saddle up the ironhorse and head to the mill tomorrow and get a few bricks and cut the top out of a stove and see what happens.
Should be fun.

 

As far as I know pressed logs can already be burned in a wood stove, so I'm unsure of the advantage of a dedicated pellet log burner, besides the self-feeding part. Also, I need more than 10 hour burn time as I am gone for work as much as 15 hours (hopper extensions are a must on my pellet stoves). Also, at this point, pressed logs are about $350/ton. So a ton of pressed logs are about $100 more than a ton of pellets - at least in my neck of the woods. Pressed logs have just started showing up this past year or so, so prices could go down.

I was looking at some of the automated airflow stoves, and the stoves that produce their own electricity, which looks pretty useful.

 

It would be interesting to see the comparison, BTU-wise, if a calculator for those ever was created.

 

There are comparisons out there based against cord wood for pellets and compressed wood blocks.

 

ok ok - rule of thumb, 1 pallet of pellets or 1 pallet of wood blocks ( a ton)= 1.25-1.33 tons of wood splits. after that you need to play with btus available per type of wood by weight , course then you need to spec weather the pellets are all soft wood or hard wood or a mix . The convenience of compressed wood blocks or pellets and no bugs is hard to deny. ( although rodents due seem to like pellets and there is an off gassing of CO from same to be aware of).

 

I reckon I can do that.
Watch this space but don't hold your breath

 

(because I can't find the popcorn emoji )

 

I fixed it for ya BB

 

Well,I was quite impressed with chickenmans test,from years ago.To the extent,next trip to town,I may buy a pressed log,and test.However,as most pellet stoves have small burn pots,unlike chichkenmans stove conversions,I may just have to cut off a section,and see how it burns.Also,hardwood vs soft wood pellets give off the same amount of BTU's,neither has "more" btu's.10 pounds of oak has the same BTU's as 10 pounds of pine.Yes,in a wood stove,hardwood burns longer,but that is because it is highly compressed,but,wood stoves waste an immense amount of heat.Differences of wood pellet burning comes from the amount of dirt,bark,and other crap,that the processors allow into the processor format.

 

Been doing a bit of playing, smokin out the house and cheezin off the missus.
This is one hard egg to crack.
My idea was to use the pellet stove as a pre-igniter for the falling log from above. This works fairly well and I can comfortably reduce the pellet rate by 1/2 and have more heat than normal. The issue is with the logs and gravity. Currently I only have one log with a dummy pipe over it (test before I go full postal and hack the top out of the fire box) and whilst the logs swell up and burn they don't drop. Might be different with extra weight on top and if you just let the beast rip with full air but the trouble is you wouldn't know if you were sweating like a pig because of a) 500 degree house or b) from stoking the fire like a steam train!
Really for this to have legs it will be need to be possible to control the low range of the fire. Easy with pellets as you control feed and air but here you only have air and the feed looks like it is going to be unreliable.
The fact that you are burning the bottom face of the log also make it tricky as the fire wants to go around and up the tube. This causes the swelling, the log fills the tube.
More head scratching to do, the idea is not in the bin......yet
It make you appreciate working with science (motors) with pellets compared to nature (gravity) with the logs. If it had a pipe shaker or tube agitator then it would be easier but that is getting way too tricky.