eco bricks, envi blocks, bear bricks, bio bricks ot information overload

[nhimack]

Ok after searching through many posts on all the above bio “bricks” I came to no conclusive decision as to which is the best burn for the buck

Any help from the “Obi Wan Burnobies” on this site

eco bricks, envi blocks, bear bricks, bio bricks

Stove is a late 1980's Vigilant multi-fuel

 

[karri0n]

As long as they are wax free, they are all pretty much the same, IMO

 

[edthedawg]

Density plays a role to some degree - EcoFirelogs and Smartlogs both look kinda similar, but the Eco's are denser and IMO burn longer.

 

[80s Burnout]

I am burning Bio Bricks and Envi-8's right now. Before I provide my opinion, keep in mind that the Envi-8's are roughly twice the size of Bio Bricks.

So, my experience is that the Bio Bricks burn up to temperature quicker and ultimately burn hotter but last for a shorter period of time (expected since they are smaller). The Bio Bricks seem to expand much quicker (again probably size related). I use the Envi-8's for my overnight burn. If I put 5 Envi-8's in with large split in the back and then a few smalls around 10:30 pm. I will still have coals at 6:30 a.m. when I get up. The Envi-8's take a while to expand and get hot. Because I'm home during the day, I use Bio Bricks (~6 at a time) during the day mixed in with wood and re-load every ~4 hours. This way I can keep a higher, more consistent stove temp. The Envi's go in at night. When the stove gets up to ~550 deg., I throttle back the air and go to bed.

I've only been burning these guys for two weeks and confess that I am still trying to figure out the best way to burn them, meaning how many to put in and how to stack them.

 

[SaratogaJJ]

I burn Enviblocks - the full size version, not the Envi 8's. This is my first winter burning them, so these are my most notable observations so far:

(1) You need a really good bed of coals to get the Enviblocks going. If you try to light them with just kindling, newspaper and maybe a chunk of Super Cedar, you're going to be fairly frustrated. Ditto if you have a small bed of coals. Essentially, you need at least one good-sized split having burned down to coals to get the Envi's going.

(2) Not sure how big the firebox is on your Vigilant. On my Hearthstone, the firebox is just too small to accomodate the full size Enviblocks. Ideally, I'd like to pack in one split and two blocks before going to bed, but this is not always feasible. So the geometry of the interior of your woodstove is an important determinant.

(3) If you stack them tight to one another, they can burn for quite some time - I've packed in four of them before bed, and woken up 7 hours later with enough coals to get a fire going again without a ton of effort (although not with a new set of Enviblocks - not quite enough leftover coals for that.)

(4) They expand quite a bit when they heat up. Probably not a big deal on most stoves, but on mine the primary air outlet is dead center on the lower front edge of the firebox. Accordingly, I need to be very thoughtful about how I position them when I stack them inside the stove, so that they don't expand and cover up the primary air outlet. That's kind of a pain in the butt.

Next year I think I am going to try the Envi 8's. The slightly smaller size should work a lot better in my stove.

[EDIT:] As for my point in #1 above, I should add that I am somewhat new to owning a wood stove, also. As time goes on, it is certainly possible that I will get more proficient at lighting the Enviblocks with a smaller coal bed, or possibly even from a cold start.

 

[SteveT]

To me the major discriminator is price. All of these products will - like pellets - provide about 17 million BTUs per ton, so I'd shop price.

Beyond that I'd look at packaging. BioBricks are well packaged in 40# plastic wraps - easy to handle and relatively neat (I don't know about packing on the others).

Biobricks start very easily with 1/4 super cedar. Since one of the other posters said there was difficulty starting the larger logs I might consider that too, but probably would just use a bit of kindling with the starter.

 

[karri0n]

Is the main advantage of these not having to split wood, and the fact that you are guaranteed that they won't need seasoning? Seems to me like a lot of cash to throw if you're using them consistently as a fuel.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

More compact than wood, easier to store inside with no fear of bugs/mold, already well dried, can get some serious heat output.

Their value vs. wood has been debated. With the falling price of oil- their value, and that of wood vs. oil heat will be debated as well for those that buy wood.

Some fine folks here contacted me to say that they went in on some bricks and that I can score a few hunnert pounds this weekend from their stash. I will probably experiment with these in my kiln where I need hyper-overfiring conditions. Lurnin curve nuthin. Urrp.

 

[SteveT]

Is the main advantage of these not having to split wood, and the fact that you are guaranteed that they won't need seasoning? Seems to me like a lot of cash to throw if you're using them consistently as a fuel.

That's pretty much it. I also like the ability to store inside without critter worries.

At $250 a ton they looked cheap when oil approached $5.00/gallon. Now that oil is about half that there is no real savings with BioBricks. But buying C/S/D at close to $300 a cord isn't saving a whole lot either.

 

[nhimack]

More compact than wood, easier to store inside with no fear of bugs/mold, already well dried, can get some serious heat output.

Their value vs. wood has been debated. With the falling price of oil- their value, and that of wood vs. oil heat will be debated as well for those that buy wood.

Some fine folks here contacted me to say that they went in on some bricks and that I can score a few hunnert pounds this weekend from their stash. I will probably experiment with these in my kiln where I need hyper-overfiring conditions. Lurnin curve nuthin. Urrp.

not to mention they have a lower ash content less creosote,less ash residue, less particle emissions. As for oil my goal is to never use the 100 gallons that i purchase at 2.65 this year, screw the oil barons. During the day i have mixed the "compressed" wood with "clean" coal (LOL) , the coal burns hotter with the compressed wood than with cord wood. And again I keep an american working buy burning both and the $$ in the USA not in some country that doesnt like the USA or in Mobil's pocket.

 

[Slow1]

Disclaimers first:
1) New to wood burning
2) Running a VC NC Encore (which is a fun stove to begin with as I read here!)
3) See #1

I had a pallet of both Envi Blocks and Bio Bricks as well as my 3 cords of Oak waiting for about 2 months before my stove was installed... (long story there). Now I've had the stove in place for 2 weeks, and was away for the last week on vacation reading the forums here and itching to get home and back to burning this stuff!

My experience and observations:

Bio Bricks : Smaller, seem to be less dense based on the fact that they flake apart easier (when new) and light easier. Not to say they are as easy as it would seem based on the instructions. My first experience following the instructions was a disaster (thankfully nobody was home to see the smoldering mess!). However, that was my first fire ever in the stove so what should I expect eh? (I'll stick to dry pine tinder/kindling and leave the newspaper in the recycling bin thank you). Now that I know how to light them, they do seem to work well when used as instructed. Stack them well, plan the burn so that you manage how many faces will burn at once and you can get a nice consistent (long) burn with them.

Envi Blocks: Larger (approx 3x? Bio) and feel much more dense/solid. Less flaking and thus less mess. Packaging is annoying as they are square and don't stack well, plastic slips easily so beware of falling piles!. I have not tried a cold start yet, I've only dropped these on a hot bed of coals and found they light up very well. They burn VERY hot when you place them on a hot bed of coals - I put two in once on a 3" bed of coals in a HOT stove NW to SE config with expansion set vertical and about 1" between them. I think that was a mistake - all sides lit up very quickly and despite my dampening air down about 10 minutes later and putting it in afterburner mode, stove hit 700+ and didn't crest for quite a long time. On the bright side I still had good heat from that stove some 4 or 5 hours later.

Overall I think that these will become a regular part of my burning plan. I think that I'll pay attention to the expansion direction (i.e. look at how they are compacted - they expand on the same axis) consider this so that in my 2brick near-disaster they might have at least expanded into each other and limited airflow between each other instead of increasing the surface area burning and reflecting off each other as they expanded... The "coals" from these do not resemble real wood coals and just don't pack the same fire-starting punch from my experience (i.e. a small pile of 'real' coals can get a split going much easier than same dimension pile of these).

Another nice thing on these is low ash at least by spec - I honestly am not totally sure about that one as I'm surprised at how little ash I get from my wood. Having not burned a full day with only sawdust I can't be sure it really is much lower for a full day's burn.

Cost in my area was nearly identical for both products - at least by the pallet. However, I think by weight I received more lbs with the envi-blocks. I still need to actually weigh them though to be sure (at least some sample packages) and see what the full pallet weight really was. I paid about $295/pallet for each (for reference I had to pay $270/cord for my wood - I sure hope that comes back down next year!) Thus my cost differential between these and wood isn't all that great IF the claims of near equal pallet to cord energy output are at all meaningful (another debate, I know).

 

[nhimack]

Envi Blocks: Larger (approx 3x? Bio) and feel much more dense/solid. Less flaking and thus less mess. Packaging is annoying as they are square and don't stack well, plastic slips easily so beware of falling piles!. I have not tried a cold start yet, I've only dropped these on a hot bed of coals and found they light up very well. They burn VERY hot when you place them on a hot bed of coals - I put two in once on a 3" bed of coals in a HOT stove NW to SE config with expansion set vertical and about 1" between them. I think that was a mistake - all sides lit up very quickly and despite my dampening air down about 10 minutes later and putting it in afterburner mode, stove hit 700+ and didn't crest for quite a long time. On the bright side I still had good heat from that stove some 4 or 5 hours later.

Well after trying smart logs - burn to fast, eco bricks - to loose flaky, and envi 8 I'm sold on the envi 8's. they are more compact seem to burn a lot longer than the eco. The place i bought the envi's gave me a sample of 12 eco bricks they were gone in less than 6 hours, the also had in stock bio bricks which seemed to be about the same as the eco bricks. I tried night logs what a joke 4 hours and 2 were ash. two envi block stacked on top of each other towards the back of my VC vigilant and 6 hours later they were still putting out heat, stove top reading 500+ degrees. put a third one in front of the other two and 8 hours later I'm still putting out heat and there is large chunks of all the bricks left. I'm sold on the envi brand, the 8's are a good size for the vigilant stove. I did find stacking the envi's with the label up on top of one another seemed to work best, cold start with shredded newspaper from a cold start was no problem, maybe i should have been a pyro LOL.

2 parts Envi 1 part coal and my oil heat never comes on. house temp 75-80 degress.

 

[Slow1]

I'm finding that I like using the BioBricks as a quick way to establish a coal bed to get my VC NC up to everburn temp/status. I take three of them and build a 'house" (two on side, one on top - maximum surface area inside) and place a piece of SC inside to ignite). Once it is burning well, I break it down and apart as the coal bed to build up the rest of the fire (wood) and once I then hit 450, I engage the damper. It seems to go quicker for me than wood coals on a cold start, but hey, I am on fire day 8 now so what do I know

 

[nhimack]

I'm finding that I like using the BioBricks as a quick way to establish a coal bed to get my VC NC up to everburn temp/status. I take three of them and build a 'house" (two on side, one on top - maximum surface area inside) and place a piece of SC inside to ignite). Once it is burning well, I break it down and apart as the coal bed to build up the rest of the fire (wood) and once I then hit 450, I engage the damper. It seems to go quicker for me than wood coals on a cold start, but hey, I am on fire day 8 now so what do I know

wood is ok, but for an old man with a bad back it's not so good, not to mention the ash thats left has to be carted out. so it's envi and coal for me. guess one "green" fuel cancels out with the "clean" coal, funny both products come from penn. LOL but screw em as "global warming" is damn cold in nothern NH, and any tree hugging green people or politicians (they arent people) that dont like it can spend the winter in my barn with the goats and one lump of coal no matches. <WEG>

 

[NWfuel]

I am sold on the 8lb North Idaho Energy logs. These logs were first manufactured in 1929 and the same machinery is in operation today. Back then they belonged to Weyhauser. These are the original Presto log which the name has since been sold. Two logs will burn 8-10 hours. I hear it every day as I am a dealer for these in Washington State. I wish you all had these on the east coast.
Thomas

 

[nhimack]

moisture content seems critical factor & i'd rather get some with wax.

I dont think anthing with wax is usable in a wood stoove without some kind of damage. maybe one of the experienced pyro's could verify that

 

[Slow1]

moisture content seems critical factor & i'd rather get some with wax.

I dont think anthing with was is usable in a wood stoove without some kind of damage. maybe one of the experienced pyro's could verify that

I've been curious about this - I know that my manual says not to burn anything but wood and I think it even has a specific mention of such logs. I hope someone will chime in with the reason behind this. I wonder if it is because the heat in the stove will melt the wax and vaporize it too quickly thus creating essentially a huge cloud of concentrated fuel which will then be mixed with air (per stove design) and shot up the stove pipe like a vertically mounted rocket...

 

[nhimack]

moisture content seems critical factor & i'd rather get some with wax.

I dont think anthing with was is usable in a wood stoove without some kind of damage. maybe one of the experienced pyro's could verify that

I've been curious about this - I know that my manual says not to burn anything but wood and I think it even has a specific mention of such logs. I hope someone will chime in with the reason behind this. I wonder if it is because the heat in the stove will melt the wax and vaporize it too quickly thus creating essentially a huge cloud of concentrated fuel which will then be mixed with air (per stove design) and shot up the stove pipe like a vertically mounted rocket...

hmmm now that sounds like a fun way to test my life time stainless steel liner i had installed in the chimney, ok so I'm a bit twisted. Actually I have read that the logs with wax are "not to be used in wood stoves" on the warnings labels of said "logs"

 

[kflorence]

I would have to say in my opinion a waste of money. I tried the "wood brick fuel" for the first time last night. I am not sure if they all work the same just different names. I did exactly what the instructions stated to light. I put in 5 blocks and little newspaper and let it go. Took a little finesse to get it going. After 30 minutes pushed them to the back of the stove, added 10 more bricks to the front and shut the door. Burned for 7 hours, great, but no heat! Took and 1 1/2 hours just to reach 200, then went to 300 after the 10 additional bricks and thats it. After 4 hours dropped to 200. Waste of money. Yes the burn longer but what it the point if no heat. Very little ash as well, but no heat. I would not waste another penny on these. I will stick to cord wood.

 

[joustinghill]

I've got a pallet of Home Fire Prest-Logs that I've been burning, along with my 2 cords of kiln-dried hardwood. I *detest* the Prest-Logs. I wish I'd had the chance to actually try them before having to commit to a full order. They burn forever, but don't throw off any useful heat after the first two hours. They'll get and keep my stove up to temp, but then decline rapidly. After a couple of hours I have to start adding splits if I want to keep the temp up. 9 hours later I'll still have little Prest-Log coals that are sufficient to relight the fire so I do use them as part of my overnight burn but overall I think they were a giant waste of money.

 

[Slow1]

I did a test recently working with a combination of EnviBlocks and BioBricks. I was able to get a total of about 7 1/2 hrs of useful heat out of a load of them as follows:

stacked 4 EnviBlocks on left side of the stove (E/W, 2 under 2 placed as far to the left as possible). Placed 6 BioBricks on right side as follows - first layer flat with two N/S in back corner, one EW in front, then second layer on top of this with back EW and front NS. All of these pushed together to back right corner and placed to have as little gap as possible in between. I then placed two or three long pieces of kindling pine boards (.5"x.5"ish by about 9" long) running NS in the space between the two piles of sawdust bricks. I placed a piece (approx 1/6) of Super Cedar on top of the middle of this pile of kindling and then placed one more BioBrick balanced above the SC, bridging between the two types of bricks about in the middle of the stove. So the full load is: 4 enviBlocks and 7 BioBricks, a little kindling and a bit of SC.

8:10a lightoff, damper open and air open. Stove was cold start (i.e. no coals or anything, previous fire out for several hours)
8:45a stove up to 400 surface
9:15a stove top over 500 - close damper, cut air to 3/4
... Not sure of times (will need to check my notes don't want to misquote myself here)
... Peak temp was over 600f, cut air to 1/4 at that point
approx 4:00p stove temp crossed below 400

I have more detailed notes at home (on vacation at the moment) but basically the key point is that I was able to get what I consider to be 7 hours of good heat out of the load. Cost to me is $1 each enviBlock and .30 for each biobrick bringing the load cost to $6.10 for the 7hrs so just under $1/hr which is rather expensive compared to wood, but still one of the longest burns I've managed with minimal actual intervention of the stove. I don't know if I can perhaps reduce air at the 9:15a point and avoid the 600 peak and perhaps get a longer burn or not...

Now, why did I mix the two types of bricks? Two reasons. 1) I can't fit the EnviBlocks in my stove very well - only wide enough for one to fit EW and they don't go NS (I need to try the Envi8 product). The BioBricks are much less dense and I have learned that they burn faster and hotter. I like to use the BBs to get the stove up to temp and get the EBs burning good - then the EBs seem to cruise along very nicely for a long time when stacked well.

Another thing that I have been doing is using the less dense BBs mixed into my load of 'less than ideal' wood to help get it good and hot (and lower the overall average moisture content of the load).

How to make a simple thing overly complicated eh?