I burnt 10 bags this week. Overall they seemed comparable to Turman hardwoods; almost as food as spruce pointes. Ash and burn pot scrapping same as turman more then spruce pointes . glass got as dirty as turmans which were dirtier then the spruce pointes . heat on all three seemed equal. Only downside of the independence is the odor, to me it is unpleasant. Almost like a mild solvent. Not pleasant to me. To me this will be a reason to not buy them don't want my basement to smell like them all summer and winter.