We have Country Stove C-260 Insert, we normally burned wood in it, but last year we bought a few bundles of Bio-Bricks from CT Pellet to try and were pleased with the result. This year we bought a pallet of Envi-Blocks from CT Pellet. And have not had good success. We primarly use it heat a family room from 5:00 pm until 10:00 and weekends. Typically we start it with some crumbled newspaper and a piece of fatwood with the two blocks "A-framed" over it. after it gets going we add a third to the front side. It seems we need to keep the damper wide open and the door slightly open in order to keep them burning. We have all we can do to get the room up to 69 degrees with the blower going. With the wood we had trouble keeping the room under 75. The stove and full lining we cleaned this past Oct. We are obviously doing something wrong. Any ideas?
Envi-Blocks in Country Stove C-260 insert not getting much heat, any thoughts?
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Not sure what all flavors of burning you've tried, but you do mention it working well on other setups - I'm presuming that you HAVE recently tried running some regular wood very recently to confirm nothing has changed with the setup? No blockages, flue controls working properly, etc? If you can absolutely isolate the problem down to the Envi-Blocks, then you may simply try adding more Envi-Blocks. Just curious if doubling them up corrects or compounds the issue. having anything that flammable "just not burn", in a system w/ proven success otherwise, seems like something is a bit off.
BioBricks are a bit difficult to start but burn great once they get going. Due to the larger size I suspect the EnviBlocks are even worse. So I'd double or triple up on the fatwood and/or add some kindling to get it to a bigger/hotter burn and let it sit there for a few minutes before throttling back.
Or you might try SuperCedars (search this site for an offer for free samples). Using even 1/4 of the "puck" gives a good start --- way better then fatwood.
Or you might try SuperCedars (search this site for an offer for free samples). Using even 1/4 of the "puck" gives a good start --- way better then fatwood.
I burn Envi-blocks as well. Trying to get them going from a cold start is very difficult, I have found, even using half of a super cedar.
So far, I have found the best method is to establish a really good bed of hot coals, rake the coals forward as much as can be managed, and then stack the bricks behind the coals. Not sure about the geometry of your firebox, but I stack two bricks E-W inside the firebox, close to but not right up against the back wall of the firebox, and then one more brick N-S, up against the back of the stove and the two other bricks. (Imagine that if you were looking down through the top of the wood stove, the arrangement would be L-shaped, with the top and right side of the 'L' right up against the walls of the firebox.)
Then I push some of the coals back so they are nuzzled right up against the bricks.
Open primary air up 100%, then wait about 10-15 minutes. By this point, the front surfaces of the bricks should be going pretty good. Start gradually reducing primary air over the next few minutes, after about 25 minutes or so, the bricks should be going nicely and you should be close to secondary burn, at which point you can cut primary air to maybe 5-10% open.
The Envi-blocks are a pain in the butt to get going, but after going through the procedure above, I can keep them burning for probably about 5 1/2 or 6 hours before needing to reload.
I've tried to start them from a cold start twice so far, and it's just really difficult to do, even with kindling. One idea that I am going to try is to place two of them N-S in the firebox, with enough space between them to slide in half of a super cedar. Then place a third brick E-W on top of the other two, directly above the super cedar. Fire up the cedar, and see what happens. (Again, this is a hypothetical scenario, that I have not actually tested yet.) Since the primary air outlet in my stove is on the lower edge of my firebox, dead center, I'd place that void between the two N-S bricks right in front of the air intake, so that the cedar can take advantage of a strong stream of air to ignite the bricks.
Good luck!
So far, I have found the best method is to establish a really good bed of hot coals, rake the coals forward as much as can be managed, and then stack the bricks behind the coals. Not sure about the geometry of your firebox, but I stack two bricks E-W inside the firebox, close to but not right up against the back wall of the firebox, and then one more brick N-S, up against the back of the stove and the two other bricks. (Imagine that if you were looking down through the top of the wood stove, the arrangement would be L-shaped, with the top and right side of the 'L' right up against the walls of the firebox.)
Then I push some of the coals back so they are nuzzled right up against the bricks.
Open primary air up 100%, then wait about 10-15 minutes. By this point, the front surfaces of the bricks should be going pretty good. Start gradually reducing primary air over the next few minutes, after about 25 minutes or so, the bricks should be going nicely and you should be close to secondary burn, at which point you can cut primary air to maybe 5-10% open.
The Envi-blocks are a pain in the butt to get going, but after going through the procedure above, I can keep them burning for probably about 5 1/2 or 6 hours before needing to reload.
I've tried to start them from a cold start twice so far, and it's just really difficult to do, even with kindling. One idea that I am going to try is to place two of them N-S in the firebox, with enough space between them to slide in half of a super cedar. Then place a third brick E-W on top of the other two, directly above the super cedar. Fire up the cedar, and see what happens. (Again, this is a hypothetical scenario, that I have not actually tested yet.) Since the primary air outlet in my stove is on the lower edge of my firebox, dead center, I'd place that void between the two N-S bricks right in front of the air intake, so that the cedar can take advantage of a strong stream of air to ignite the bricks.
Good luck!
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