Where to get Wood Brick Fuel in Centeral Mass? How much are you paying?

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nojo

New Member
Dec 22, 2009
224
Western/cent Mass
Hey guys I've miscalculated my wood for the season and I've got maybe 3 weeks of wood left. I was looking for a source for bio bricks or eco bricks or whatever to get me through the season. What are you guys paying? If i can find them for around 200 a pallet I might do it. Do you find a pallet last longer than a cord of wood like they advertise?

thanks!
 
nojo said:
Do you find a pallet last longer than a cord of wood like they advertise?

I used them a bit, and I think they're a very nice product, but the hype about them being equivalent to a cord of hardwood? Maybe basswood or willow, but no way could they replace a cord of well-seasoned hickory or locust. Still, if you're out of good wood, they will be tons better than struggling to keep wet oak lit. $200/pallet is a bit unrealistic unless somebody is dumping their inventory. They're $250/ton near me, and that's the best price I've seen so far.
 
Consider using some pallets. Just don't overdo it as they burn hot.
 
I am in Vermont and I just saw this add on craigslist. I know it's not near you but thought it may give you an idea on price. The picture looked like a big pellet.

ENERGY PLUS LOGS
HARDWOOD MADE FROM 100% HARDWOOD. COMES IN 30LB BOXES- 10 BOXES IS EQUAL TO 1 FACE CORD. BURNS HOT, CLEAN AND PRODUCES ALMOST NO CREOSOTE. KEEP YOUR FAMILY WARM AND SAFE THIS WINTER. MIX IT WITH YOUR GREEN WOOD TO KEEP YOUR FIRE HOTTER. CAN ALSO BE USED IN YOUR WOOD FURNACE OR BOILER. BOXES ARE ONLY $7.00 EACH 70 BOXES PER PALLET CALL US AT HULBERT SUPPLY 802-862-6426 OR 518-561-4572
 
MF1529 said:
I am in Vermont and I just saw this add on craigslist. I know it's not near you but thought it may give you an idea on price. The picture looked like a big pellet.

ENERGY PLUS LOGS
HARDWOOD MADE FROM 100% HARDWOOD. COMES IN 30LB BOXES- 10 BOXES IS EQUAL TO 1 FACE CORD. BURNS HOT, CLEAN AND PRODUCES ALMOST NO CREOSOTE. KEEP YOUR FAMILY WARM AND SAFE THIS WINTER. MIX IT WITH YOUR GREEN WOOD TO KEEP YOUR FIRE HOTTER. CAN ALSO BE USED IN YOUR WOOD FURNACE OR BOILER. BOXES ARE ONLY $7.00 EACH 70 BOXES PER PALLET CALL US AT HULBERT SUPPLY 802-862-6426 OR 518-561-4572

Wow, souds like a good deal. I've been thinking of buying some myself. For the same reason as you Nojo. I haven't researched as much as I could, but Spaulding fence in Worcester has them for $280 plus $20 delivery. I don't think you'll find them for $200/ton. If you do please let me know! :cheese:
 
VCBurner said:
MF1529 said:
I am in Vermont and I just saw this add on craigslist. I know it's not near you but thought it may give you an idea on price. The picture looked like a big pellet.

ENERGY PLUS LOGS
HARDWOOD MADE FROM 100% HARDWOOD. COMES IN 30LB BOXES- 10 BOXES IS EQUAL TO 1 FACE CORD. BURNS HOT, CLEAN AND PRODUCES ALMOST NO CREOSOTE. KEEP YOUR FAMILY WARM AND SAFE THIS WINTER. MIX IT WITH YOUR GREEN WOOD TO KEEP YOUR FIRE HOTTER. CAN ALSO BE USED IN YOUR WOOD FURNACE OR BOILER. BOXES ARE ONLY $7.00 EACH 70 BOXES PER PALLET CALL US AT HULBERT SUPPLY 802-862-6426 OR 518-561-4572

Wow, souds like a good deal. I've been thinking of buying some myself. For the same reason as you Nojo. I haven't researched as much as I could, but Spaulding fence in Worcester has them for $280 plus $20 delivery. I don't think you'll find them for $200/ton. If you do please let me know! :cheese:

Actually that sounds like a terrible deal. $490 for 2100 lbs of compressed firewood. I've found them for about 250 locally but I still thinks thats a bit high.
 
And for sure, before buying a lot of them, try a few. If these are low compression logs, they are not worth it in my opinion.
 
BeGreen said:
And for sure, before buying a lot of them, try a few. If these are low compression logs, they are not worth it in my opinion.

I read about the logs they are supposed to be basically super compressed.


I found "wood brick fuel" brand locally for 259 a pallet.

And some canadian hard maple block product for 262 a ton here -> http://www.southshorewoodpellets.com/wood_stove_fuels__prices

Though that location is not exactly near me.
 
Hi Nojo,

My neighbor has an insert, and was talking to him last year and he had a few cases of these bricks....he was talking all summer about them, and I asked him to let me know how they burned.....this year he asked me if he could buy a cord of wood from me :)
Anyway, this was just his expeience with them, as he said they were a waste of money...but might have been based on the type he had purchased.
Also, where abouts are ya located? Also in Central Mass
 
nojo said:
I found "wood brick fuel" brand locally for 259 a pallet.

That is a decent make. I have some on hand and they burn as well as BioBrick and almost as well as Envi, at least for me. $259 is a decent end-of-season price. I wouldn't expect the price to come down until after all the folks who ended up short on wood have finished burning for the year. In fact, this may be the busiest time for the suppliers as an increasingly larger number of burners run out of cordwood.
 
nojo said:
Actually that sounds like a terrible deal. $490 for 2100 lbs of compressed firewood.

I agree completely. A cord of really dry hickory, locust, beech, black birch, white oak, etc. will weigh nearly twice that and will cost half as much, or less than 1/3 the cost if you buy it now and dry it yourself. At that price, it's way cheaper to use fossil fuel.
 
daveswoodhauler said:
Also, where abouts are ya located? Also in Central Mass

Im in the Sturbridge area. You?

I used a bunch of eco bricks last year and they burned really well.
 
I'm up in Westminster
 
I've been buring the Canadian Geo Bricks this year and they burn well. I tried Wood Brick Fuel a couple of years ago and it didn't burn as well. The bricks were not as tightly compressed so they ended up as a big mess of glowing sawdust. However, they may have improved in the last couple of years.
 
fredarm said:
I've been buring the Canadian Geo Bricks this year and they burn well. I tried Wood Brick Fuel a couple of years ago and it didn't burn as well. The bricks were not as tightly compressed so they ended up as a big mess of glowing sawdust. However, they may have improved in the last couple of years.

I suspect that quality may vary from batch to batch. I actually investigated the possibility of producing my own compressed wood fuel for sale. I was a bit discouraged to find out the machine costs well over $100K. Then there is the matter of getting kiln-dried sawdust. I was told that if I didn't have a ready supply, I would need to get a drying oven... at another $100K or so, plus operating expenses to run it.

Then I got to thinking.....

Where is anyone getting kiln-dried sawdust? I mean, it may start out kiln-dried, but surely it will reach equilibrium with the RH of the storage facility in no time at all due to the enormous amount of exposed surface area. Unless stored in a well-heated building, I would expect that sawdust stored in a covered but unheated building in my area would reach 14% MC in short order. Bricks made with sawdust that moist would be just like regular seasoned firewood, eh?

I don't know any more than that, but I do wonder exactly how dry each batch really is.
 
KLEMs has some compressed bricks and 12 bricks for $7.00 I think but not sure what a whole pallet or ton costs. I bought some to supplement and get a hot fire going WRONG they seem to take a long time to catchand really burn but then once they are burning and I have closed off the damper totally and have the "themostat" just past neurtral setting the temp goes up and up so I turn down themostat lever. The instructions stay to lay about 3 bricks on HOT EMBERS so you have to get the fire really going and let it become embers and then set the 3 or so bricks tightly together on the red hot embers and it goes. I did notice that the fire last longer.
My big problem is that I cannot get anywhere near the heat everyone is getting from this stove. I come home and the room it is in (family room on first floor of 2 floor house) is 59 degrees and 2 hours later maybe it is 65. The room is open and only heated by this stove or what heat is in the rest of the house oozes in but there are not baseboards in this particular room. The rest of the house is heated by oil forced hotwater baseboard heat. I would like after a few hours of the stove running to be able to turn down the house heat a little at least but that just does not happen.
This stove is new to me last year but is a 1985 model of the VC Resolute lll. I do not think it has EVER been cleared so at the end of this burning season will get a VC tech to come and clean it totally. The wood is totally dry, have resplit a number of the logs and I am getting between 12 and 14% moisture. I have tested the meter and it is pretty accurate since a piece of wood that was chainsawed this about a year ago was tested and it tested about 28% moisture, so the wood that is 12% I think is close to that really.
I start the stove and get it to about 600 degrees and shut down the damper and leave the "themostat" open, some times it will hold 600 degrees for a while and sometimes it just starts dropping slowly. I guess I am not the frontier woman I thought I was!
 
Here is some good info from Chimney Sweeps Library regarding compressed wood fuel.

..."compressed sawdust logs don't burn hotter, pound for pound, than seasoned cordwood. Each LOAD might produce more heat, however, because each compressed log is heavier (contains more wood fiber) than an equivalent-sized piece of most species of cordwood. This advantage is counteracted somewhat by the fact that some of the resin content (and its heat value) is baked out of compressed logs during the kilning process.
When comparing compressed logs to cordwood, the best measure to use is btu content: most compressed logs contain about 17 million btu/ton. This is about the same btu content as a cord of Douglas Fir or Pitch Pine, as shown on the fuelwood btu charts in our Sweep's Library. Thus, if your price for a cord of Douglas Fir or Pitch Pine is about the same as your price for a ton of compressed logs, your fuel cost would be equal. If you can get a cord of Doug Fir or Pitch Pine for less than the price of a ton of compressed sawdust logs, you'd get more fuel value for your money by buying the cordwood. Similarly, if you can get any of the higher-btu content species shown on our chart for the same price as a ton of compressed logs, you'd be money ahead burning the cordwood.
What sells the compressed logs is the no-bugs, no-dirt factor, and the fact that compressed logs are ready to burn when you buy them (they don't require seasoning, like cordwood does). We've burned them, and found them to be a viable, if expensive, alternative to cordwood. We have observed no difference in creosote formation between compressed logs and properly seasoned fuelwood."
 
nojo said:
VCBurner said:
MF1529 said:
I am in Vermont and I just saw this add on craigslist. I know it's not near you but thought it may give you an idea on price. The picture looked like a big pellet.

ENERGY PLUS LOGS
HARDWOOD MADE FROM 100% HARDWOOD. COMES IN 30LB BOXES- 10 BOXES IS EQUAL TO 1 FACE CORD. BURNS HOT, CLEAN AND PRODUCES ALMOST NO CREOSOTE. KEEP YOUR FAMILY WARM AND SAFE THIS WINTER. MIX IT WITH YOUR GREEN WOOD TO KEEP YOUR FIRE HOTTER. CAN ALSO BE USED IN YOUR WOOD FURNACE OR BOILER. BOXES ARE ONLY $7.00 EACH 70 BOXES PER PALLET CALL US AT HULBERT SUPPLY 802-862-6426 OR 518-561-4572

Wow, souds like a good deal. I've been thinking of buying some myself. For the same reason as you Nojo. I haven't researched as much as I could, but Spaulding fence in Worcester has them for $280 plus $20 delivery. I don't think you'll find them for $200/ton. If you do please let me know! :cheese:

Actually that sounds like a terrible deal. $490 for 2100 lbs of compressed firewood. I've found them for about 250 locally but I still thinks thats a bit high.

I agree, since you put it that way, it does sound like a terrible deal! I was thinking more in terms of $70 for one face cords worth of heat. 10 boxes=1face cord. One pallet =7 face cords. Sounds decent to me. But like others said, who knows the quality of the stuff. BTW where did you find the biobricks for $250/pallet, as I said I'm really thinking about buying some bio bricks. Right now, I'm running on oil heat! Yuck! I can't stand it! We love the stove and my wife would love the bricks even more. She's slightly bothered by the wood being in the house (mold and other allergies,) but loves the stove heat.
 
VCBurner,
I've been getting them from Robbins Garden Supply in Oxford for $250 plus delivery up to Gardner. Unfortunately I just called them for a couple more pallets but they are only selling them by the package because they are running low. I think she said it was 12 packages for $70 which is a bit of a mark-up from the $250 per pallet.

I'm not sure if they are expecting another delivery but for now they are selling energy plus logs by the pallet. They just got them in and she was unsure how much they were going to be selling for, etc.

I've never burned these before so I'm going to look for a package locally and try them out. If I like them as much as biobricks I'm going to call them back and get the numbers.

If anyone in central MA finds another biobrick source please let me know and I will do the same.

Thanks,
Van
 
I'm in southern NH but I got my ton at a Tractor Supply store earlier in the year. Perhaps you have one near you??? I got them probably Sept time frame and they had a sale price of $270 per ton and $3 per pack of 8 if you bought less. Last I saw the pack of 8 was running $4. There is a dealer of some kind in Bedford NH that was selling a ton for $270- Agway was selling the 8 pack for something like $27 last I checked- that's nuts-. I'm new to wood burning but really like them. One of my cords of 'seasoned' wood I bought is very moist but I can put a eco brick in there with one of those logs and they seem to get the job done. Good luck
 
Battenkiller said:
nojo said:
Actually that sounds like a terrible deal. $490 for 2100 lbs of compressed firewood.

I agree completely. A cord of really dry hickory, locust, beech, black birch, white oak, etc. will weigh nearly twice that and will cost half as much, or less than 1/3 the cost if you buy it now and dry it yourself. At that price, it's way cheaper to use fossil fuel.
Really dry firewood at best is going to be 20% water so any dense wood product is going to be 3 times drier
and if you let it sit as long as you "dry" your firewood it will get even drier...
490 is not the actual price - if you call that craigs list add and tell the guy you want to buy a pallet I bet the price will drop to the $250 range.
 
Tractor Supply Company is opening in Sturbridge in about 2-4 weeks. They may have some. I already see their stacks of pellets outside in the fenced in area. Too bad they keep them outside, it would have been a nice close place for me to go with the trailer to pick some up. i hate buying pellets left outside
 
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