Burning Eco Brix and a little Intro

[agartner]

I've been lurking the hearth.com forums for some time now...definitely learned a lot and it's helped me out in some immeasurable ways during the winter seasons. I haven't had a reason to actually register and post until now however. I figured I would give back a little of my experience with one of those "firebrick" products.

This year, I decided upon taking the plunge with a biomass fuel and getting 3 pallets of "Eco Brix" from woodpellets.com. Not having a ton of room to store several seasons of cordwood I thought this would be a convenient and not too expensive way to get the fuel I needed for the season. Plus, when I need to bring more fuel in the house, it's just a trip to the garage instead of trudging out to the woodpile. Go ahead, call me lazy.

Well, as I've read here on the forums, biomass is far from cordwood. And I'm also finding out that not all biomass is created equal. These particular little Bio Brix nuggets are manufactured in Salem, New Jersey. Like other products of similar nature, they are a waste product of some manufacturing process, recycled into something easy and convenient that I can use to keep the propane boiler from kicking on.

My first instinct was to treat these puppies like a New England Sawdust "BioBrick", which consists of getting a few of them going and then building a very tightly spaced brick "mass" around your starter fire. The result was that after about 40 minutes or so, I had a black, cold, smoldering mass filling pretty much the entirety of my woodstove. Not good heat.

After letting the monster mass burn down, I tried various methods and load patterns with the goal being for the brick to burn at a consistent temperature, for a reasonable amount of time considering the size of my old-school woodstove that was manufactured before the EPA even knew what a woodstove was. Some things worked better than others, and it's been a sometimes frustrating process, but I think I've landed on a process that works well for this particular brick.

The secret I found, is that the "Bio Brix" need air to circulate around them burn effectively. What I've found to work well with my stove, is to set the brix up in two or three "corn rows" spaced about an inch apart, with the rows running front to back, with the bricks standing vertical instead of laying down horizontally. Create a two-brick teepee in front of the corn rows, and light with your preferred method of ignition (ie supercedar, starterlogg, etc). This so far has produced a nice 400-500 degree burn for several hours, with continual flame in the firebox and a fairly fast startup and little need to continually play with the inlet air.

Well, for those of you in New England who also bought these particular brix, I hope this helps you out some. If you have different experiences with these, I'd love to hear back.

Stay warm, and enjoy the snow...

-a.

 

[BioPellet]

I've been lurking the hearth.com forums for some time now...definitely learned a lot and it's helped me out in some immeasurable ways during the winter seasons. I haven't had a reason to actually register and post until now however. I figured I would give back a little of my experience with one of those "firebrick" products.

This year, I decided upon taking the plunge with a biomass fuel and getting 3 pallets of "Eco Brix" from woodpellets.com. Not having a ton of room to store several seasons of cordwood I thought this would be a convenient and not too expensive way to get the fuel I needed for the season. Plus, when I need to bring more fuel in the house, it's just a trip to the garage instead of trudging out to the woodpile. Go ahead, call me lazy.

Well, as I've read here on the forums, biomass is far from cordwood. And I'm also finding out that not all biomass is created equal. These particular little Bio Brix nuggets are manufactured in Salem, New Jersey. Like other products of similar nature, they are a waste product of some manufacturing process, recycled into something easy and convenient that I can use to keep the propane boiler from kicking on.

My first instinct was to treat these puppies like a New England Sawdust "BioBrick", which consists of getting a few of them going and then building a very tightly spaced brick "mass" around your starter fire. The result was that after about 40 minutes or so, I had a black, cold, smoldering mass filling pretty much the entirety of my woodstove. Not good heat.

After letting the monster mass burn down, I tried various methods and load patterns with the goal being for the brick to burn at a consistent temperature, for a reasonable amount of time considering the size of my old-school woodstove that was manufactured before the EPA even knew what a woodstove was. Some things worked better than others, and it's been a sometimes frustrating process, but I think I've landed on a process that works well for this particular brick.

The secret I found, is that the "Bio Brix" need air to circulate around them burn effectively. What I've found to work well with my stove, is to set the brix up in two or three "corn rows" spaced about an inch apart, with the rows running front to back, with the bricks standing vertical instead of laying down horizontally. Create a two-brick teepee in front of the corn rows, and light with your preferred method of ignition (ie supercedar, starterlogg, etc). This so far has produced a nice 400-500 degree burn for several hours, with continual flame in the firebox and a fairly fast startup and little need to continually play with the inlet air.

Well, for those of you in New England who also bought these particular brix, I hope this helps you out some. If you have different experiences with these, I'd love to hear back.

Stay warm, and enjoy the snow...

-a.

Dear -a I would like to get you an example of the original BioBricks(R) so that you can understand the differences. I think you will lift your eyebrow

 

[agartner]

I would be very interested in seeing the differences between the two different fuels. From the looks of your website, the physical brick is very different from what I have now. I can say the Eco Brix have been a challenge to get get right, and by far the biggest issue I have with them are being left with a half stove full of sawdust mass just sort of sitting there smoldering away and having to manage that mess to try and get as clean and efficient burn as I can.

 

[fredarm]

In my experience BioBricks won't leave you with a mass of smoldering sawdust. They just burn.

 

[WoodNewbie]

I am brand new in wood heating world. I have a Jotul 550 which was installed last August. The dealer told me that I should buy wood quickly to be ready for this winter. So I checked around and decided to purchase one cord of "seasoned hardwood" from a supplier for $275 delivered in my driveway on August 23. Even for my newbie eyes, it was obvious that 1) the wood was freshly cut (some logs had still small leaves on it) 2) there wasn't less than one cord (probably three quarters or so...I figured it out when I stacked the wood). I was then back to square one: no wood for this winter. I had the choice of trying my chance a second time...or try one ton of Biobricks for $279 plus $30 for delivery in my barn. I decided to try the bricks.
After some learning (and by no means I am an expert), i now have a reliable way to heat my house: I burn 15 biobricks at a time for about ~6h of heating. Every new fire looks more or less than the previous one: blower kicks in after 1h, the bricks burn slowly when stacked closely to each other and leaves few ashes. The stove stays clean (no black residues on the bricks inside the stove or on the glass). In short, I am happy.
I live in the Boston area and by now a cord of seasoned hardwood (looks seasoned this time) goes for $350-400...the issue is even at that price I am not sure of what I am buying.

 

[MikeP]

I am brand new in wood heating world. I have a Jotul 550 which was installed last August. The dealer told me that I should buy wood quickly to be ready for this winter. So I checked around and decided to purchase one cord of "seasoned hardwood" from a supplier for $275 delivered in my driveway on August 23. Even for my newbie eyes, it was obvious that 1) the wood was freshly cut (some logs had still small leaves on it) 2) there wasn't less than one cord (probably three quarters or so...I figured it out when I stacked the wood). I was then back to square one: no wood for this winter. I had the choice of trying my chance a second time...or try one ton of Biobricks for $279 plus $30 for delivery in my barn. I decided to try the bricks.
After some learning (and by no means I am an expert), i now have a reliable way to heat my house: I burn 15 biobricks at a time for about ~6h of heating. Every new fire looks more or less than the previous one: blower kicks in after 1h, the bricks burn slowly when stacked closely to each other and leaves few ashes. The stove stays clean (no black residues on the bricks inside the stove or on the glass). In short, I am happy.
I live in the Boston area and by now a cord of seasoned hardwood (looks seasoned this time) goes for $350-400...the issue is even at that price I am not sure of what I am buying.

Be nice to get them at that price here. I bought some to try and seemed to work as advertised, but the local supplier is selling them for $7.79 a package. That works out to $389.50 A PALLET/TON. For that price I'll burn the wood that I have, keep my eye out for any dryish wood i can find, and just run the thermal storge units as needed.

Anyone know why the bricks would be considerbly more than regular pellets? I'm no expert, but i would think the quality of the bricks raw material wouldn't have to be as good as the pellets, when you consider that a woodstove would be much more forgiving of the quality than a pellet stove??? Same place mentioned above is selling pellets for $249 a ton...

 

[WoodNewbie]

I also bought one bag for about $8 but when you buy a ton you don't pay 50 times that price. You should specifically inquire for the price/ton.

 

[kevinwburke]

WHat about the fact that most EPA stove manufacturers say you can not burn the bricks or you will void the warranty?

 

[Dune]

I don't know what size bricks you guys are burning, but I found four at a time was plenty. I think they were about 2 pounds each.

 

[WoodNewbie]

Kevin, my understanding is that the stove manufacturers warranty doesn't cover damages caused by overfiring the stove. I am not sure they specifically prohibit the use of biomass material. I know that Jotul in Europe doesn't have any objection concerning their use, if it is done carefully and according to the directions of the bricks manufacturers.
Dune, mines are two pounds each as well. Burning more bricks at a time doesn't change the temperature of the stove. Just heat the house longer.

 

[Dune]

Kevin, my understanding is that the stove manufacturers warranty doesn't cover damages caused by overfiring the stove. I am not sure they specifically prohibit the use of biomass material. I know that Jotul in Europe doesn't have any objection concerning their use, if it is done carefully and according to the directions of the bricks manufacturers.
Dune, mines are two pounds each as well. Burning more bricks at a time doesn't change the temperature of the stove. Just heat the house longer.

Really?

 

[WoodNewbie]

This has been my experience so far. Nothing more.

 

[Dune]

It just didn't work that way for me. No matter what I did, I could only get a 4 hour burn from bricks. If I put more in the stove just burned hotter, but still only for 4 hours.

 

[prajna101]

So much depends how you load. If you want hot now, then just throw them in with lots of air. But not too many as they burn hot.

But if you want a longer burn I stack them in tightly. Each stove will be different. I use bear bricks sometimes, the larger ones that are 3 lbs a piece. I can stack 6 side by side sitting upright slammed against the back wall. There is no room in between them. Put them on a bed of coals, then I through some wood or even a couple more bricks on top. This is in a Lopi Answer (tiny) I get a 6-7 hour burn out of that stack until it is too cold to do any good. I rarely get that out of cordwood.

They are clean and easy, but I dont like paying for stuff. If it were free, I would probably burn them exclusively.

t

 

[Dune]

See, thats the problem. I have no trouble having overnight burns with oak or even pine, but never more than four hours with the bricks.

 

[agartner]

A little continuation of the Eco Brix saga. End all of the story was after burning through a pallet of these things, I was about to simply relegate them to summer use for the smoker, camping, and outdoor firepit. They were just a huge pain in the butt to deal with, didn't burn well, and just fell apart into a smouldering pile of sawdust. I figured before I gave up, I aught to at least try calling the distributor of the product, woodpellets.com, to see if they could be of any assistance.

Well, after a phone call or two, I got a hold of their quality assurance person. She understood the problem I was having, she had burned them herself and experienced similar issues, and she had a possible solution. Because I'm only a short distance away from their offices, she invited me down to pick up a few bundles of a new shipment of the EcoBrix that they had just received, indicating that there seemed to be a difference between the "old ones" and the "new ones". I did so and the difference was outstanding. These "New" bricks just burned, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do to screw them up. Open door, throw in bricks, burn. Build little teepee structures in stove, close door, burn. Stack them together, burn (not quite as well, but they did burn). They still expand quite a bit, but the they hold together instead of flaking apart into a pile. Below is a comparison of the "Old" and the "new". Its hard to see, but the new brick is much more tightly compressed, and you can easily see the "eco" impression, whereas the old one that stamp was barely visible.

(broken link removed to http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/z3YdjatYWnPX-9BPp7HNKw?authkey=Gv1sRgCMuyn8icqfHBjgE&feat=directlink)

I had two full pallets of the old bricks in my garage. They just came by, picked them up, and gave me two pallets of the "New" bricks. No muss, no fuss, just taking care of business the right way.

Al
Kent Sherwood

 

[fredarm]

Man, I love happy endings!

 

[DFEwoodsman]

I am located in Ohio and found a new product called BioBlock. They say its the same density and size of BioBrick. I am very satisfied with the product, especially when Im at work and come home to a burning stove. It took a while to figure out how to dampen it to burn hot and long, but now its the same every time.

 

[agartner]

I am located in Ohio and found a new product called BioBlock. They say its the same density and size of BioBrick. I am very satisfied with the product, especially when Im at work and come home to a burning stove. It took a while to figure out how to dampen it to burn hot and long, but now its the same every time.

That's what I'm liking about the bricks - the "predictability" of them once you get the load right.