80lbs/40hrs

I think the key would be whether a stove could take a full load of ecobricks and burn them slowly and steadily and getting the energy out of the smoke (cat) as it does so. Many stoves would go pretty hot or if damped down to avoid it, might choke. Interesting to try an experiment!

Hmmm. I'll volunteer if I can find some. TSC is the only place I've seen them around here, and I'm sure they're way into gardening season now.

There isn't a whole lot of magic in a really big firebox with really good control of the air going into it. From what I've seen, the thermostat doesn't do much regulating, it's just a knob to turn instead of a handle to slide.

I think most people who own them know that 80lbs is a big load of wood. The key to these stove is the convenience and fiddle free operating they provide. Dealing with it once a day(less for the King users) when it's warmer is a huge bonus instead of building multiple little fires to not overheat the house.

jeff_t said:

There isn't a whole lot of magic in a really big firebox with really good control of the air going into it. From what I've seen, the thermostat doesn't do much regulating, it's just a knob to turn instead of a handle to slide.

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Yep, for low burn the t-stat doesn't do a thing! I think the key is BK has a really good handle on the air flow going into these stoves.

Supposedly the eco bricks have 2.5 times the punch of the same weight in hardwood..I dunno.
I have burned eco bricks plying around and I don't think I could get 10 hours of good heat from 4 of them..nope.

jeff_t said:

Hmmm. I'll volunteer if I can find some. TSC is the only place I've seen them around here, and I'm sure they're way into gardening season now.

There isn't a whole lot of magic in a really big firebox with really good control of the air going into it. From what I've seen, the thermostat doesn't do much regulating, it's just a knob to turn instead of a handle to slide.

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I am VERY interested to see what Elvis can do with a stuff full load of ECO BRICKS. Id bet you can go more than 40 if you get the settings just right.

I'll have to wait for some milder weather. My heat addicted family won't survive that long at a low burn with the current temps.

I'd like to add my opinion on the eco bricks after burning 3 tons of them over the past year. The claim is that they have 2X the output of seasoned hardwood. The truth is that compressed hardwood sawdust (eco bricks) has 8000 BTU per pound, which is the same as seasoned hardwood splits. So 2000 pounds (1 ton) of eco bricks has about 2/3 of the heating potential of a 3000 pound cord of wood.

They aren't made of some magical material only wood and my NC-30 needs approx 7 pounds of them every hour to hover at 500 degrees. Which at my cost in the Boston area is 1 buck an hour.

wkpoor said:

Most stoves will probably hold temp for a good while in the 300-400 degree range but that magical 500 takes some muscle to stay there.

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I've always been curious how long the Princess would stay above 500 but I've never needed to push it that hard so I haven't. Maybe next winter I'll have that kind of demand so I can find out.

If you get a stove in the living area I think you'll find you don't need the magical 500 number too often to maintain a steady temp.

rdust said:

wkpoor said:

Most stoves will probably hold temp for a good while in the 300-400 degree range but that magical 500 takes some muscle to stay there.

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I've always been curious how long the Princess would stay above 500 but I've never needed to push it that hard so I haven't. Maybe next winter I'll have that kind of demand so I can find out.

If you get a stove in the living area I think you'll find you don't need the magical 500 number too often to maintain a steady temp.

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Wheres the best spot for a therm on the princess? I usually just go by the cat thermo but Im going to attach another one.

True the eco bricks are denser but we're just looking at the BTU per pound. There is no way of getting around the fact that the total energy potiental of 1 pound of eco bricks compressed hardwood saw dust equals the total energy potiental of 1 pound of traditional hardwood splits. I eventually figured this out after seeing the 8k BTU per pound number on one of the eco brick manufacturer webpages. My guess is they got that 2x number by comparing them to some undense wood that a cord weighs sub 2000 pounds.

I've had a couple near over fires with the eco bricks trying to load up for long burns. My current method is to load 28 pounds of eco bricks to start and then feed it 14 pounds at a time as needed when the stove drops to around 400 degrees. I would never put 40+ pounds of those in a stove at once. My bet would be a melt down due to the increased surface area of the compressed sawdust.

Hope my comments aren't coming across the wrong way. Just trying to share my experience with these things. I drank the koolaid and dropped $300 a ton for the eco bricks thinking each ton was equal to a cord. Lesson learned.

weatherguy said:

Wheres the best spot for a therm on the princess? I usually just go by the cat thermo but Im going to attach another one.

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I don't have a thermometer but use and IR gun, I find the hottest spot is usually above the cat pretty much just in front of the cat probe.

Troy said:

True the eco bricks are denser but we're just looking at the BTU per pound. There is no way of getting around the fact that the total energy potiental of 1 pound of eco bricks compressed hardwood saw dust equals the total energy potiental of 1 pound of traditional hardwood splits. I eventually figured this out after seeing the 8k BTU per pound number on one of the eco brick manufacturer webpages. My guess is they got that 2x number by comparing them to some undense wood that a cord weighs sub 2000 pounds.

I've had a couple near over fires with the eco bricks trying to load up for long burns. My current method is to load 28 pounds of eco bricks to start and then feed it 14 pounds at a time as needed when the stove drops to around 400 degrees. I would never put 40+ pounds of those in a stove at once. My bet would be a melt down due to the increased surface area of the compressed sawdust.

Hope my comments aren't coming across the wrong way. Just trying to share my experience with these things. I drank the koolaid and dropped $300 a ton for the eco bricks thinking each ton was equal to a cord. Lesson learned.

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I like some of the compressed log products better, they're denser and burn longer. I have to be careful when I burn those as they burn hot hot hot, I usually just add a couple to a wood load on the coldest of nights to get a longer, hotter burn.

SmokeyCity said:

I am VERY interested to see what Elvis can do with a stuff full load of ECO BRICKS. Id bet you can go more than 40 if you get the settings just right.

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I am guessing Mrs Smokey has Xanax in her possession at all times.... :smirk: :coolsmirk:
Just sayin'....

rdust said:

Wheres the best spot for a therm on the princess? I usually just go by the cat thermo but Im going to attach another one.

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A generic magnetic thermometer fits nicely right over the top of the door. Its a great way to tell how the stove is running from across the room, and over time I've figured out how I can tell when the cat is likely to be inactive based on this temp.

wkpoor said:

A 40hr burn on the King is a low burn and from what I've read that means about 3-400 stove top.

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I did it once when I first bought the stove because I didn't believe the marketing BS. I would have to have a lot of primo stuff laying around to consider doing it routinely. I always try to use the least desirable dry wood on hand that will get the job done. Saves the better stuff for when you need it.

I picked up six packs of eco bricks at TSC this morning. I put three bricks on a fairly hot bed of coals at 10:30. Stovetop temp on the cheapy Rutland was 300, and the cat probe was at the top of the inactive zone. Took a bit of hot burning to get the cat up to temp. It seemed to settle in and burn nicely at 400, with the cat in the middle of the active zone. It seems like a full load in the BK would be controllable. It might burn forever.

However...
1. I'm not sure that they give off enough smoke to keep the cat active at low burn rates. Five hours later, stovetop was still at 400ish, but the cat had cooled off towards the bottom of active and I was getting a bit of smoke out of the chimney. I opened up the thermostat to 3, and it flamed up a bit, but stovetop and cat temps have actually dropped in the last 20 minutes, and still getting smoke. I think I'm going to have to add a few splits. It was fine earlier when the sun was shining and temps were in the mid 40s. Now the sun is gone, temp has dropped about 10°, and the wind is blowing 20-25 mph. Getting chilly.
2. There is a lot of stuff blowing around in the firebox. I'm a bit concerned about fly ash and the cat.

I'm not sure a full load is a good idea. It would be interesting, but I think I'll mix the rest of them in with cordwood, or burn them in the furnace when I'm goofing around in the basement.

jeff_t said:

I picked up six packs of eco bricks at TSC this morning. I put three bricks on a fairly hot bed of coals at 10:30. Stovetop temp on the cheapy Rutland was 300, and the cat probe was at the top of the inactive zone. Took a bit of hot burning to get the cat up to temp. It seemed to settle in and burn nicely at 400, with the cat in the middle of the active zone. It seems like a full load in the BK would be controllable. It might burn forever.

However...
1. I'm not sure that they give off enough smoke to keep the cat active at low burn rates. Five hours later, stovetop was still at 400ish, but the cat had cooled off towards the bottom of active and I was getting a bit of smoke out of the chimney. I opened up the thermostat to 3, and it flamed up a bit, but stovetop and cat temps have actually dropped in the last 20 minutes, and still getting smoke. I think I'm going to have to add a few splits. It was fine earlier when the sun was shining and temps were in the mid 40s. Now the sun is gone, temp has dropped about 10°, and the wind is blowing 20-25 mph. Getting chilly.
2. There is a lot of stuff blowing around in the firebox. I'm a bit concerned about fly ash and the cat.

I'm not sure a full load is a good idea. It would be interesting, but I think I'll mix the rest of them in with cordwood, or burn them in the furnace when I'm goofing around in the basement.

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My thoughts exactly, thats why I just use the eco bricks to burn down coals and I mix the compressed logs with other cord wood to get a hotter burn, I wouldnt use them exclusively in a cat stove though, defeats the purpose of the cat, they probably work great in a secondary burner.

Neat. I liked the Eco Brick test in the Blaze King.

wkpoor said:

I think I can see where in a cat stove they might not be as good. But in my stove they behave fantastic. They burn with a dark blue flame and make really nice secondaries. Even though I still haven't braved putting in more than 4 at one time I'm thinking they work best added to a load of splits. 3-400 degrees is a pretty low temp to try and burn anything correctly so maybe a low slow burn isn't good. I added just a few small splits this morning at 10:00AM so I would have coals tonight and the stove has been 350 all day on just coals (which goes back to my theory its easy to keep a stove top in 3-400range for a very long time). Kinda hard to imagine keeping a stove that low continuosly if anything inside was actually putting off flame.

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I can do it with wood. Maybe just a bit of flame now and then, but mostly just the cat burning the smoke. The bricks just don't make enough smoke to keep the cat going. It certainly wasn't pouring smoke out of the chimney, and probably not enough to be much of a creosote concern, even with somewhat regular use. I think I could stuff it full and the BK could keep it under control.
The fly ash would be a big issue for a cat, I think. Probably a reason BK says to burn only wood.