Can I use Bio-bricks in my hearthstone homestead?

[shieneehead]

My recently delivered "seasoned" wood is saturated and I fear that I am SOL for the winter. :down: I doubt I will find any real seasoned wood at this point. Does anyone know if I can burn bio-bricks in my stove without harming it? What do the cost on average?

Thanks

 

[Gooserider]

According to BioPellet, who is one of the makers of Biobricks, and sometimes posts here, you can burn them in most wood stoves. Other users agree, but you need to be careful doing it and avoid overloading the stove, or putting them in loosely so that they flare up at once as either can cause an overfire.

Some stove makers try to prohibit the use of Biobricks and other "artificial" logs - some of this is probably concern about the overfire issue, and some may be a failure to distinguish between the "compressed wood" items like Biobricks and stuff like the Duraflame style wax and sawdust logs that you definitely do NOT want to burn in a wood stove.

As to sources, you definitely want to call around.

One other caution - the Biobricks MUST be kept DRY! I had a friend that had a couple packages that got wet - they "melted" back into the sawdust that they were made from, and expanded greatly - made a real mess!

Gooserider

 

[Highbeam]

That reminds me of a frozen can of shaving cream. Peel off the steel can and let that puppy thaw!

I have burned the biobrick product in my old LOPI and found them to be a decent product with predictable combustion when used in moderation. Start with two or three bricks in a cold stove.

 

[SteveT]

I'm successfully using BioBricks in my Hearthstone Clydesdale. They are working fine. No reason they won't be fine in a Homestead.

My only caution would be (a) don't use too few -- I don't think that less than 4 or 5 works well and (b) don't use too many -- as with any dry wood product there is a risk of overfiring.

I find that 6 to 8 work very well in my stove, both for the first burn and adding them to a bed of coals. That way I get good temperatures and an hour or so of secondaries. In the Clydesdale (with my setup) I think that loading 10 or so at once would be a real overfire risk.

Learn their use in your stove and they'll be fine... starting with few and working up makes sense.

 

[shieneehead]

Thanks for the pointers Rep! Just what I wanted to hear.