Not impressed with Crown wood bricks...

[paredown]

Still have not finished renovating, and still do not seem to have time to scrounge and spit.

We have burned quite a few pallets of the Bio bricks and have found them to be a good product. Unfortunately they are having production problems right now, so we bought a pallet of Crown Wood Briquettes
http://www.unitedbiosolutions.com/

We picked them up from a local dealer who used to carry the "Wood Brick Fuel" brand--didn't think to ask if they were carrying the same bricks as before. These come in the small packs of 12 bricks--ostensibly 24 lbs to a pack; 84 packs to a pallet.

SO first fires today with the bricks--and they pretty much suck. They have enough pine in them that they smell like Pine-Sol, do not mention hardwood anywhere on the label (so I'm assuming they are all softwood). The bricks are well compressed, but the composition is chunks and sawdust, not the nice mix of the Bio Bricks we usually get.

Did the usual teepee start with a half a Super Cedar, waited to get up to temps, pushed to back and added two stacks of three. They did not get going easily, and after over a half an hour of burn with the air control open, the stove is a whopping 325 degrees.

Same technique with Biobricks would get me a faster start, and I would be loafing along at 350-400 with the air shut down.

So unless you are desperate, I would suggest avoiding these--or buy the Redstones at Tractor Supply that are no better, but are at least cheaper.

(I'm not sure if these are made by the same folks that used to sell as Wood Brick Fuel (that also got worse when they sub'd a lot of softwood and chips into the bricks, or if it is coincidence that both dealers that we used to get Wood Bricks from are now carrying Crown).

 

[tae111]

I had the same experience with the Crown bricks. These are horrible. You can smell the pine in them. They say on the packaging they are for use in wood stoves and inserts. I might burn a piece of pine now and then but giving your stove a steady diet of pine is asking for trouble. Stick with Wood Brick Fuel, Evni Blocks, or Enviro Bricks if you want hardwood bricks. I have used all three and they burn great.

 

[Longstreet]

Again, when it comes to compressed wood products, namely pellets and bricks, softwoods contain more BTUs per unit than hardwoods. That's because softwoods, especially the more sappy ones, contain more BTUs per lb, and brick products are compressed to a uniform weight per unit.

I'm not saying softwood bricks are always better. There are too many variables between products - moisture level, bark content, ratio of sawdust to chips - to make such a bold statement. I'm just saying that many (most?) informed compressed wood burners prefer softwood over hardwood for higher BTU output.

Edit: My bad, didn't mean to reply to a necropost. Must have missed the date of the original post.

 

[tae111]

I have burned both for a number of years in my stove. The softwoods did not burn noticeably hotter and they produced much more creosote in the chimney when cleaning. The hardwood products produced greater heat for a longer burn time by far and when you go to clean out the chimney there is almost no creosote deposits. I purchased 1 ton of the Crown softwood bricks because the retailer had trouble getting the hardwood ones I usually burn. I will go back to cordwood before I ever burn these again. I have been heating my house with this stove since 1985. For most of those years it was with cordwood. I usually burn between 4 and 5 cords each winter. For the past 3 years I have been burning the hardwood bricks. My favorites are Envi 8 and Enviro Bricks. I am burning 4 tons (4 pallets) for the season and getting the same or better burn times and heat output as the cordwood. They are a little more expensive than purchasing cordwood but for me the convenience is worth it. Pellet stoves may burn softwood pellets better and because of there design they may be able to do it safely. Burning compressed softwood products in a regular woodstove is asking for trouble and in my experience they don't out preform the hardwood products at all. I may not be an informed compressed wood burner but 31 years of heating with wood has taught me what works and what doesn't. I would probably turn on the electric heat before I ever use softwood bricks again.

 

[kennyp2339]

Ahh the secret most don't know about those compressed wood bricks, The bricks that look like scrap plywood compressed together are the best, the bricks that look like saw dust compressed are okay to good.

 

[fibels]

I find the Canawick bricks the best of all.

 

[blades]

Ahh the secret most don't know about those compressed wood bricks, The bricks that look like scrap plywood compressed together are the best, the bricks that look like saw dust compressed are okay to good.

More likely a different style machine- there are screw type compression through a die or ram/hammer type compression through a die, and straight Hydraulic compression in a mold.

 

[Wickets]

while reading the forums, I came across good mentions of Wood Brick Fuel and because my wood is about a year old and not too seasoned, and also because buying seasoned wood is hit or miss I decided to try the bricks. I called the supplier (kuiken brothers), was told that they were in stock, drove over an hour to buy them and only when i got home did i notice that wood brick fuel had become Crown. Not thinking anything of it, I tried using them....obviously things didnt go to well because here I am responding to a thread started over a year ago! My not so season cord wood burns 10 times better. What made me realize there was a problem is that posts here spoke about how hot the wood brick fuel blocks got...these barely get hot enough to melt a marshmallow Will look for the Envi 8, Canawick and Enviro Bricks and see how that goes.

 

[kennyp2339]

Will look for the Envi 8, Canawick and Enviro Bricks and see how that goes.

That's horrible, I'm going to buy a couple packs from kuiken this weekend and see for myself since I posted here 2 yrs ago saying they were a good product (better the TC redstones)
*Friday I'm going to pick them up, forgot x-mas was Saturday and Sunday.

 

[Wickets]

saying they were a good product (better the TC redstones)

just finished ordering a trial run of redstones from tsc!!

Unfortunately the canawicks dont seem to be readily available in nj

 

[kennyp2339]

I picked up a few packs of red stones from tractor supply and a few packs of the crowns from Kuiken bro's
I plan on testing both out to see which is better.
Right away the difference is the red stones pack weigh in at 20lbs and the crowns although a smaller package weigh in at 24lbs
The crowns also look like there made from more of a compressed wood chips and the red stones look like there compressed saw dust

 

[Wickets]

Looking forward to reading your review. I'm still waiting for my order at tsc to be delivered. Happy and warm holidays!

 

[kennyp2339]

I have 7 crowns in, there burning pretty good so far, my cat probe is like normal, little smoke, we'll see how long this lasts

 

[fibels]

just finished ordering a trial run of redstones from tsc!!

Unfortunately the canawicks dont seem to be readily available in nj

I don't know where in Jersey you are but I think you can get them in Conn.

 

[kennyp2339]

So 7 bricks only lasted me about 3hrs of useful heat, these aren't as good as the original wood heat bricks I got a few yrs ago

 

[kennyp2339]

After doing some thinking the plan with these is fairly simple, 20lbs for 20lbs. Tonight I will throw in one whole pack of TS Reds (20lbs) let them burn with nothing else, then tomorrow night I will do the same with the crowns (10 bricks = 20lbs)
I have to go to mom & dads later today, I think he has a couple packs of Wood brick fuel laying around, I'll see if I can take 20lbs of those to for Monday night, In my head I believe the original Wood brick fuel was the best around here, also the packs were bigger (volume and weight)
Also Kuiken is charging $4.50 per pack of crowns but if you buy over 10 packs the price drops down to $4.00, a ton which is 84 packs cost $328.00 (which to me seems very expensive) I think when I bought my dad a ton of the Wood brick fuel I spent no more than $260.00 or at least in that ball park.
TSC redstones were $3.19 a pack, also 84 packs in a ton so they would be $267.96 for a ton which is in my higher limits of buying wood but sometimes you got to do what you got to do.

 

[kennyp2339]

Well after burning a couple packs of crowns and a couple TS Redstones I have to say that the crowns are garbage, The crowns are more difficult to light off (I'm burnt 1 whole package at once) the burn time was about 6 hrs of useful heat, they leave a ton of ashes. The TS redstones burn hotter, longer and have less ash. I hope this review helps with anyone on the fence.

 

[BrotherBart]

Another member posted a great method for burning brick fuel last season. Push your coal bed to the back of the stove and tightly load your brick fuel in front of it up against the coals. The bricks start burning from the back and then over the top and down the front and settles in burning from the front.

Works great.

 

[spirilis]

Another member posted a great method for burning brick fuel last season. Push your coal bed to the back of the stove and tightly load your brick fuel in front of it up against the coals. The bricks start burning from the back and then over the top and down the front and settles in burning from the front.

Works great.

I need to try this!

 

[EJP1234]

I unfortunately bought a ton of these this year, and I agree, the worst wood bricks I have tried. I stopped in to our local hearth shop the other day to buy some fat wood, and casually complained, and they apologized and have already dropped the Crown Bricks. I wish I wasnt part of the experiment, as they are back to Envi's which I have used in the past and was impressed with. I alwayd buy a ton a year to mess with and like to load on days or nights when I wont be around and want extra long burn times, which I usually get, as I jam the stove super full, and shut the air way down. These crowns however go quicker than tulip poplar and give off very low heat... Not to mention they are usually half way broken before unpackaging, and the pine smell is very evident.

 

[OhioBurner©]

TSC redstones were $3.19 a pack, also 84 packs in a ton so they would be $267.96 for a ton which is in my higher limits of buying wood but sometimes you got to do what you got to do.

Thought they were 96 21lb packs to a skid?

But TSC does mark them up a lot. I don't know where you are but I got them a lot cheaper from a local feed store rather than the big box stores.