http://www.eco-energyfuel.com/ -- Based out of South Shore, KY.
There's a hardwood flooring retailer and distributor near my new job which sells these products for about $300/skid (1 skid = 98 packs, 3 bricks per pack).
Each brick is listed at 7-8lb/piece, so it's probably like those Eco-brix(?) I've heard of which are bigger and heavier than biobricks and similar products. I found out these guys carried sawdust bricks b/c they are still listed as a distributor for Chesapeake Biofuels' Liberty Bricks, which seems to be inaccurate.
Anyway, my typical firewood I use is WoodBrickFuel, which is a product similar to BioBricks in general disposition -- 2lb bricks, probably made using the RUF Gmbh wood briquetting machine from "kiln-dried hardwood sawdust". The new product, called "Fuel Blocks", looks quite similar in shape (albeit MUCH larger) but a few noticeable differences--the new blocks seem to be generally cleaner and more consistent in form, don't seem to swell as much while burning, so I'm guessing they're actually compressed tighter than the WoodBrickFuel. I know some people have commented on how some wood briquette products appear "denser" or more compressed than others, and I think that's a comparison I can note here.
According to the retailer where I bought them, they are made entirely with White and Red Oak sawdust, although the company's website above mentions they do Walnut flooring too so there may be some walnut sawdust included (my personal assumption). The label mentions it's kiln-dried to 6-8% moisture content, claims 8500 BTU/lb and has the typical marketing crap you find for these compressed-sawdust products (claims "one 7-8lb fuel block equals approx. 14 lbs of cut firewood"!). For those cordwood purists who snub their nose at these products, I buy them (despite their premium cost) for the convenience factor and the fact that it's always guaranteed to be seasoned.
Two of these fuel blocks produce a decent burn in my old smoke dragon and one characteristic I've noted is they are much slower to ignite and overall burn much slower than WoodBrickFuel. This is probably a testament to the small size of the WoodBrickFuel and the greater airflow around the bricks--four of them with 1/4 supercedar and a short slat of pallet wood on top will get my old VC Defiant II cranking to 600F griddle-top temps for a short period of time (the peak of the burn), and more than 4 bricks will push into the 650-700F range depending on whether I have all the air inlets open.
These fuel blocks, if I put 2 of them leaning against one another long-ways with 1/4 supercedar and a couple charcoal briquettes (for good measure) plus a slat of pallet wood on top, might get the stove up to 450-500F if I'm lucky. It seems adding more pallet wood on top of the mass gets it to higher temps, but burns through much faster.
The first experiment I tried with 2 Fuel Blocks + 1 slat of pallet wood and the aforementioned firestarter setup got my stove up to ~350-400F tops, but gave me a nearly overnight burn (a VERY RARE phenomenon with my setup--I always burn my Defiant in updraft mode to coax a hotter fire for less creosote) -- I lit the fire around 8PM, it took a while to get going (downdrafts from my large exterior chimney + the gusty winds outside caused some backpuffs into the room, and it really does take a while to get going) but the stove was around 120F on the griddle top by 6AM the next morning (heat pump was running though) and there were some visible coals leftover. (I put 4 woodbrickfuel around those and 1/4 supercedar since I doubt the coals would ignite the woodbrickfuel by themselves in my crappy setup, and they fired up rather quickly since the chimney draft was still working and the firebox was already a bit warm)
3 of the fuel blocks together, two leaning against each other long-ways with one laying overtop, no pallet wood, took a while to get going but produced a raging fire that burned through very fast--the Defiant was stone cold by 6AM when I did that, and I'm guessing the house was very very warm (mid-80's) part of the night. The heat pump was running when I awoke though. I did catch the peak stovetop temp (before going to bed) to be around 750F with that setup.
When the fuel blocks are burning, they do not produce much of a large & lively yellow flame but a lot of short bluish-reddish/yellow flames. I noticed often when I opened the Defiant's side door with it cranking at full temp that the sides of the blocks, even though they are not sitting close to any coals, would be blackened with blue flames coming off the entire mass. I'm not sure if this is a function of the greater compression of the sawdust, or the species of wood (probably both), but it's very different from the typical behavior I see with WoodBrickFuel, which tends to either smolder or produce lively raging yellow flames.
I wanted to buy a skid full of them (as I felt my wood supply was a little insufficient, or at least it'd be running down to the wire come March...) but the retailer only had 2/3rds of a skid, so I took it--they sold their remaining 65 packs at the bulk price and I transported them home in my little Subaru Forester. In retrospect, I should have pumped more air into my rear tires 'cause that thing was handling rather squirrelly on the way home
The owner said he'll have to order some more but it's only economical on freight for him to get them when he's also getting a full load of wood flooring from the manufacturer too, so who knows when they'll be stocked.
I will probably include a skid full of these in my wood strategy for next year. For now my pattern is to use 2 fuel blocks with a slat or 2 of pallet wood on top for our nighttime fire, and a short burn of 4 woodbrickfuel with a short slat of pallet wood on top for the morning fire
There's a hardwood flooring retailer and distributor near my new job which sells these products for about $300/skid (1 skid = 98 packs, 3 bricks per pack).
Each brick is listed at 7-8lb/piece, so it's probably like those Eco-brix(?) I've heard of which are bigger and heavier than biobricks and similar products. I found out these guys carried sawdust bricks b/c they are still listed as a distributor for Chesapeake Biofuels' Liberty Bricks, which seems to be inaccurate.
Anyway, my typical firewood I use is WoodBrickFuel, which is a product similar to BioBricks in general disposition -- 2lb bricks, probably made using the RUF Gmbh wood briquetting machine from "kiln-dried hardwood sawdust". The new product, called "Fuel Blocks", looks quite similar in shape (albeit MUCH larger) but a few noticeable differences--the new blocks seem to be generally cleaner and more consistent in form, don't seem to swell as much while burning, so I'm guessing they're actually compressed tighter than the WoodBrickFuel. I know some people have commented on how some wood briquette products appear "denser" or more compressed than others, and I think that's a comparison I can note here.
According to the retailer where I bought them, they are made entirely with White and Red Oak sawdust, although the company's website above mentions they do Walnut flooring too so there may be some walnut sawdust included (my personal assumption). The label mentions it's kiln-dried to 6-8% moisture content, claims 8500 BTU/lb and has the typical marketing crap you find for these compressed-sawdust products (claims "one 7-8lb fuel block equals approx. 14 lbs of cut firewood"!). For those cordwood purists who snub their nose at these products, I buy them (despite their premium cost) for the convenience factor and the fact that it's always guaranteed to be seasoned.
Two of these fuel blocks produce a decent burn in my old smoke dragon and one characteristic I've noted is they are much slower to ignite and overall burn much slower than WoodBrickFuel. This is probably a testament to the small size of the WoodBrickFuel and the greater airflow around the bricks--four of them with 1/4 supercedar and a short slat of pallet wood on top will get my old VC Defiant II cranking to 600F griddle-top temps for a short period of time (the peak of the burn), and more than 4 bricks will push into the 650-700F range depending on whether I have all the air inlets open.
These fuel blocks, if I put 2 of them leaning against one another long-ways with 1/4 supercedar and a couple charcoal briquettes (for good measure) plus a slat of pallet wood on top, might get the stove up to 450-500F if I'm lucky. It seems adding more pallet wood on top of the mass gets it to higher temps, but burns through much faster.
The first experiment I tried with 2 Fuel Blocks + 1 slat of pallet wood and the aforementioned firestarter setup got my stove up to ~350-400F tops, but gave me a nearly overnight burn (a VERY RARE phenomenon with my setup--I always burn my Defiant in updraft mode to coax a hotter fire for less creosote) -- I lit the fire around 8PM, it took a while to get going (downdrafts from my large exterior chimney + the gusty winds outside caused some backpuffs into the room, and it really does take a while to get going) but the stove was around 120F on the griddle top by 6AM the next morning (heat pump was running though) and there were some visible coals leftover. (I put 4 woodbrickfuel around those and 1/4 supercedar since I doubt the coals would ignite the woodbrickfuel by themselves in my crappy setup, and they fired up rather quickly since the chimney draft was still working and the firebox was already a bit warm)
3 of the fuel blocks together, two leaning against each other long-ways with one laying overtop, no pallet wood, took a while to get going but produced a raging fire that burned through very fast--the Defiant was stone cold by 6AM when I did that, and I'm guessing the house was very very warm (mid-80's) part of the night. The heat pump was running when I awoke though. I did catch the peak stovetop temp (before going to bed) to be around 750F with that setup.
When the fuel blocks are burning, they do not produce much of a large & lively yellow flame but a lot of short bluish-reddish/yellow flames. I noticed often when I opened the Defiant's side door with it cranking at full temp that the sides of the blocks, even though they are not sitting close to any coals, would be blackened with blue flames coming off the entire mass. I'm not sure if this is a function of the greater compression of the sawdust, or the species of wood (probably both), but it's very different from the typical behavior I see with WoodBrickFuel, which tends to either smolder or produce lively raging yellow flames.
I wanted to buy a skid full of them (as I felt my wood supply was a little insufficient, or at least it'd be running down to the wire come March...) but the retailer only had 2/3rds of a skid, so I took it--they sold their remaining 65 packs at the bulk price and I transported them home in my little Subaru Forester. In retrospect, I should have pumped more air into my rear tires 'cause that thing was handling rather squirrelly on the way home
The owner said he'll have to order some more but it's only economical on freight for him to get them when he's also getting a full load of wood flooring from the manufacturer too, so who knows when they'll be stocked.I will probably include a skid full of these in my wood strategy for next year. For now my pattern is to use 2 fuel blocks with a slat or 2 of pallet wood on top for our nighttime fire, and a short burn of 4 woodbrickfuel with a short slat of pallet wood on top for the morning fire
