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The great thing about the sawdust bricks is that they're making use of what's normally just waste.

When comparing wood species for heat production, it’s important to remember that a pound of any wood ,regardless of species, creates the same amount of heat measured in btu’s. The moisture content is the big variable because the moisture has to be boiled out of the wood and ends up going up the chimney as water vapor. You will note that the heavier species seem to give off more heat but that is because of their density. Weight is the best way to compare how much heat you will get from a volume of wood as long as the moisture content of the two species are equal.

Hi Adam , just found you today. I’m one of those 70 year olds that has mobility issues and can’t chop or carry wood anymore for my wood burning stove. I haven’t used it for a few years. So for me these bio bricks seem to be a great alternative for me. I thank you for this video. You really explained everything very well. Thanks!

I'm going on 75 and still go out into the woods and cut firewood and come home and split by hand with a maul. Yes, I enjoy the outdoors and the physical activity. It keeps me going -- I have about 2 to 3 yrs worth of firewood and still go out when I find decent wood. Nice video!!

‘I’d think about using the sawdust bricks, if I was seventy years old’. Hey, ease up on the ageism Adam ! Being 73 years old I greatly enjoy felling, bucking, splitting, stacking, drying and finally burning my own firewood. Nothing like it for a feeling of accomplishment/cheating the system by obtaining ‘free’ fuel/having a gentle, gym membership free, workout. You have a great channel, keep ‘em coming.

My brother bought 2 pallets of Bio Bricks and loved them. The company pulled up to the house with a truck and Forklift and drove them right into his garage. No mess and no bugs👍

Hey, I’m 77 years old and I still cut my own firewood and run my own sawmill. You’re only as old as you feel and think. Greetings from northern Idaho.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, when sawdust is pressed, one can add a binder like paraffin lamp oil, or just wax from candle stubs, etc- it's a DIY Duraflame log, and if one has access to sawdust, it's basically free. I've tried it with moderate success. Thanks for the tips. I used a bench vise and a shop made mold to make a few a while ago- I think it worked only due to adding the binder. (The one made with bacon grease smelled great, too 😃)

I relied on bio bricks alone for a winter in Vermont, they work well but it's a nightmare to start the fire without wood, I think it doesn't last as long if you dont have a nice bed of coals from wood. The bricks wont make a bed of coals because they desintegrate.

I mix in the blocks with firewood throughout the winter. They're nice and burn clean with very little ash. Very easy to get started. Menards in Ohio has these packs for around $3.50 each which I think is a really good value.

I think a better comparison would have been by weight instead of volume.

I definitely appreciate you testing this for us. I am a 66 yo woman and while i still can chop wood my goal is to live independently as long as possible and am looking to things i can implement that will enable me to do so. I will start making these with waste products and while i like the crackle of a wood fire, creating these in advance of need will ensure that even if i dont want to use them today, if i have problems hauling wood tomorrow i will still have the ability to heat my home and reduce waste at the same time.

You are right! Most people would not take the time to compare each type of fuel’s burn time and average temperatures. Maybe not even the manufacturer. What you did was to do the homework and to provide the rationale for people contemplating the purchase of enviro bricks as a heat source. Great job Adam!

I got a pallet of these bricks 2 year ago. Had them stacked outside under a lean too. long story short we had a heavy rain storm with high wind, and they literally doubled in size and never really dried out again. I'm now back to real wood.

Well I am 70 and I cut my own firewood for over 50 years and most of that time I enjoyed doing it but now I have a Furnace a Wood stove and a Pellet stove. I now purchase my firewood already split and seasoned for at least a year after being split. I pay some local Amish boys to unload and stack at least 2 tons of pellets plus 2 pallets of these fire bricks into my Mud room so I can burn wood or pellets all day and late at night before this Old Man turns in I put 8 to 10 bricks on the hot coals and my house stays comfy warm all night. Thanks for the Video Young Man and enjoy everything in life and don't blink because 70 will creep up on you faster than you can believe.

Well, I for one, really enjoyed your test. I'm 78 years old and have always cut split and burned my firewood. I averaged about 4 cords/year, but sometimes had to buy some locally, if my work week and other activities didn't allow for me to get all my own cut. But this past year, I bought one cord in the spring, and bought these fuel blocks to try out. And I have to say, I agree with everything you said. Even though I am lucky to be in pretty good shape, at my age I wanted to start taking it easy, hoping to prolong my health. (Sold my 2 Stihl chainsaws and bought an electric chainsaw for emergencies). Using the fuel blocks, mixed in with the firewood I bought, worked great. I will prolly buy another cord, or two, this May, and order a pallet of the 12 pack fuel blocks, because they burned so well. The bonus for me is that my wife can easily handle the blocks, where some of the firewood pieces were awkward and heavy for her to handle. BTW, I use a propane combi-boiler when it's too warm out to start a fire but chilly inside. YMMV. Thanks

Adam, your comparison videos have a lot of value for those who cannot do the work. Keep up the good work!

A number of my friends ask me why I bother to do certain things. I do it because I'm naturally curious. I just want the answer. I think what you do is great because you seek answers to what are very simple questions. At the very least, you are setting yourself apart from a lot of other content creators. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for doing this. Nice to get this info for those of us who don’t have small back yards where chopping wood or storing a cord of wood just isn’t going to work. Wood fires still have a great look that pellets or bricks can’t match.

Swinging an ax splitting your own wood and enjoying the warmth. Cathartic, relaxing, and satisfying.

I’ve seen people use the compressed bricks before and they have liked them. Personally, I’d prefer using real firewood, but each one has their pros and cons. I’m actually surprised how well the bricks did. Adam, great test and a great way to start my Sunday morning 👍

The one thing missing was you were comparing bundle firewood vs bulk firewood. $5 for a bundle meant for a campfire is a lot more than bulk firewood bought by the cord. Otherwise, pretty much what I expected. Good job.

As someone who's going into scientific community, I enjoyed your process and the way you tried to account for variables like starting temperature. Keep up the good work!

This is great. Thank you sharing your testing.

Thanks for the comparison, Adam. I have a thermometer similar to that one and bought it to use to find air leaks and drafts in my old farmhouse. Works great.

I think the best, or at least an interesting way to compare, would be by weight. Most woods give off the same BTUs per pound, perhaps give the cord wood an extra 10% weight as the water content will be higher than the bricks

We appreciate the comparison. It's always nice to see the real data behind certain things we use on a daily basis. My father-in-law uses a wood-burning stove and does carpentry. He uses the byproduct of carpentry to make those bricks for his stove. Excellent use of resources.

My grandpa used to collect sawdust from work and local factories and pour it in to large cardboard tubes compress it with a hammer and board. Burns long time and starts easy

1st of all, Doug looks amazing for 70 years old! :) Our test/analysis/review videos about these Bio bricks have been some of the best performing videos on our channel. There's certainly a place for them. I enjoyed your plot lines on the chart showing the temperature. I was surprised how much cooler a standard wood stove burns than our catalytic combustion stove.

I’m just like you… I enjoy doing these type comparisons, learning for my own knowledge and sharing with others. Not a waste of time. Keep up the good work!

Great video thanks for making the time to do it. I made my own press and use sawdust, shredded paper, lint from the drier and dry tree leaves.

Fantastic test. I own a sawmill and I am going to start making these sawdust bricks out of my excess sawdust!

Great comparison. I cut my own firewood and live burning wood. I recently bought a Solo stove and it burns great with firewood but I picked up a pack of the sawdust bricks to try out because when I go mobile with the Solo it would be much easier to transport the bricks as fuel. I haven’t tried them yet though.

Adam, Thank you once again for these great videos. I use these Bio Blocks for inside the house only because of the ability to store a ton or more in the basement for years without any mess or bugs. Also I only need to clean out the fireplace insert a few times all season because of almost no ash left behind. I still burn thru about 3 cords out in the workshop of traditionally cut firewood that I process myself . I absolutely still enjoy the whole act of cutting and splitting firewood to keep me active and knowing that i have the ability to supply heat to my workshop as well as the house no matter what is going on in our crazy world ! Your channel has become one of my favorites as I have unsubscribed to another channel who is in your neck of the woods, they seem to focus more on bragging about all of their latest equipment purchases, where you keep it simple for us simple guys who never in a million years will own dozens of brand new shiny pieces of machinery . Of course Neighbor Doug's channel is gaining some traction as well ! Thank you.

Thanks for taking the time to do this test. Very informative.

this answered alot of questions that I had about these compressed bricks. thank you. these would be perfect for my purposes; just to have when I can't otherwise get firewood, or feel a bit lazy.

Adam, excellent content! Maybe at some point in the future you could start making your own sawdust bricks to compliment your wood stacks. It’s always fun to learn something new, you wouldn’t be paying the man, and given your knowledge of heat production you’ll probably find some sweet spot of mixing three two. Keep it up!

Tim!!!!! Loved it #Binford I guess that makes me Wilson now?

The main benefit of both materials is that they both use a traditional wood stove. So, there's no problem switching back and forth between the two based on what works that day.

Thanks Adam I appreciate all your videos and appreciate your work you put into the topics.

Those bricks are really nice, I used similar ones for over a decade when I was heating with wood. regarding Ash content, burn rate and energy content there is quite some variation between different brands and products, so your mileage may vary by a lot. You meintioned having a woodshop - depending on how much you run it you might have enough sawdust to make your own bricks, same goes for all the sawdust you create when cutting up your firewood. it adds up uver time, There are many designs available that can be built at very reasonable prices.

So, a while ago I encountered some logs that seemed to be a compressed combination of coal dust and shredded grain stalks or corn stalks or something. These logs were quite exceptional. However, I don't know that you could burn them in a stove like this - we burned them in a very, very old traditional wood stove.

Thanks for taking the time to do this test. Great information.

Funny, this brings back memories of making fire logs out of rolled newspaper back in the sixties and seventies!

Hello Adam, I do appreciate your analytical videos, this is not what I expected, do you know if the blocks contain any accelerants?

I’ve made similar comparisons, and have a few things to add, good and bad. My primary interest was as a backstop in bad weather and for overnight burning. I find the bricks better for burning low and slow. If I damp down to a level that logs might not burn completely the bricks just burn all night rather than going out. BUT you have to have a great bed of hardwood coals to do that. The hardwood equivalent means a full stove that burns too hot and fast at first to have the wood needed to burn for 8 hours. I find them better for overnight. Some disadvantages in addition to cost: - storage. They have to be dry, dry, dry. No leaving them out with a tarp once the pallet wrapper is removed. My basement garage is limited space. I keep 2 pallets in there and that is a lot of space. - Dust. If you open a sealed bag of 3 there is a lot of sawdust. Worse than wood junk and more fine. - Transport. A pallet is a ton and equivalent to a cord of wood - about. If you have the ability to move 2,000 lbs from where you buy it and into where you store it that’s great. If not, you do a lot of block stacking with the occasional leak of sawdust. See above. I used a flatbed that could handle 4,000 lbs for two pallets but my tractor could only handle about 800 lbs with forks and the extra pallet to move them. So I had to remove the wrapping, stack about 1/3 of the bricks on another pallet, move them in the basement with a pallet jack. The next 2 loads had to be stacked on the pallet on the tractor and then stacked again at the storage location. Using them is easier as I haul one up for overnight burns. - Grated stoves. They can fall apart as the burn down in a grated bottom stove at the end. I have two stoves in the house. My big one is a fancy Vermont Castings with a great. Big. I am reluctant to burn it in there because under the grate is sheet metal for ash removal. The manufacturer also explicitly says not to burn them in there. - They are not very attractive to watch burn. Hard to beat a roaring fire behind glass or even a damped down one with those ephemeral, ghost-like, burns of the trapped gasses that look like trapped northern lights. Other pluses: - They last forever if DRY. I have some 4 years old. - They stack very tight bur you really need a pallet jack to move them around as they are pretty dense compared to conventional firewood. - No vermin. Mice, bugs, snakes,even an occasional porcupine or ermine will live or hang out in or near my woodpile. None seem interested in these bricks in the basement. I still like them for low and slow but now I go through about a half pallet a year. Best on the shoulders of the seasons when an overnight fire is called for but not super cold. That has been my experience over 4 winters trying them in various stoves. Great overnight in a flat bottom stove without grates.

Hey man thanks for posting this. It is very interesting and informative to see the research condensed down in time. Thanks!

Trying out two pallets of these bricks this winter and a cord of douglas fir on standby. We get mostly douglas fir and sometimes Arbutus (which burns super hot) up here. Thanks for the video.

Would you normally put that much wood (or bricks) in at once? I'd love to see this test run on consecutive days and see how long the fire lasts keeping you warm while slowly adding bricks or wood. But otherwise, interesting to see how those bricks burn!

This somehow popped up on my feed. Im live in an apartment from nyc and found this video fascinating. Great work!

Thanks for the honest review. I certainly have been considering them, so thanks for doing the data too. Think I might do a mix. 👍🏻🇮🇪🇬🇧

Hahahahaha, 70 years old. 🖕

I appreciate you taking the time to do a video on something like this. I was wondering.

I appreciate this video. I don't have access to lots of firewood at the moment and this makes me feel better about the options that I have.

THANK YOU! I looked at the bio bricks yrs ago but for the same reasons I stuck with fire wood. Now that we are older it's getting harder and harder to do all the work. So looking for an alternatives it's back to the bio bricks. Since we mainly burn fir I am sure the bio bricks would work better for us. I am so glad you did this test saved me tons of time looking into all of this. THANKS AGAIN and blessings to you and yours.

Great comparison and well done analysis!

thank you for the info I was on the fence about making firebrick from my sawdust pile but now I will

Thank you for your service! What you did helped me tons!

Well thought out comparison. Good job

This answers some questions I had on wood stoves and their applications. Thanks

thank you 4 taking time to give us . this very important info .

This reminds me a lot of when I was a kid. My dad bought a cast iron wood burning stove for our addition. We would spend at least two months collecting, cutting, splitting, and stacking wood. During the winter, it was my job to tend to the fire. I liked it because I liked playing with fire and this was a good outlet for my pyromania.

Amazing data & information. Had no idea there was a such thing as a "clean burning fire". Thx for the education and supporting tips! Michigan.

Thanks for running this test.

This was informative. You should also note that there are many many camp sites that no longer allow campers to bring wood in with them due to tree diseases etc.

I have been using the blicks for years. You are right they are easy to handle and use. I wont go back to old fashioned wood

Thank you for your interesting video. I personally would have seen the test done in such a way that the firewood and the biobricks would have been burnt separately and when the stove was cold in the beginning of both of the test sessions. 👍🏻

Thanks! 75 and arthritis and don’t use the fireplace anymore. These might be any idea I could use , clean,light and easy to store.

Thank you so much for looking into this for us. Did you already do a video on the best most cost-effective way to warm your offgrid home?

Great comparison video and summary at the end.

Good informative,factual video, helpful personally, thanks for being thorough spending your time to share this info.

Thanks for doing this. I was curious and I'm sure many others were and you saved us time and money.

Thank you for giving me this information, which I've been wondering about for a while.

Wow….what an amazing video. Thank you so much for this!!!

I was wondering the exact same question, so when I came across your video, I thought let’s watch it and see the answer. Thanks!!!

Thank you, I was curious about these as well. I imagine if I was to take the time to purchase the equipment or I had more money than time I'd buy the bricks. They do have a large advantage of being able to be stored well inside without bugs and especially spiders.

Had no idea the benefits of a top down fire, learned something new but makes total sense!

I'd never even heard of these before and this year has been insanely busy so I didnt get a chance to chop as much wood as I needed, I'll pick up a few of these for the cold days

I use that kind of torch to start fires as well, originally bought it to start grills but it works great in the fireplace too.

Very interesting test! Thank u!

Adam, 8 months later and I'm looking at a wood stove/insert. Not having a lot of seasoned wood handy, I enjoyed watching your experiment and seeing that I really can't go wrong with bio bricks vs regular split wood. It's really a question of which one fits our lifestyle and circumstances, and we can switch back and forth. That's a big question checked off on my list. Thanks!

Exemplary test, awesome content, Great video presentation. You set the bar when it comes to wood yard stats, comparisons, and technicals . Job Well done.

Cool video, great way to compare from both products.

Good video, thanks. I'm a joiner so Ill definitely be making these blocks.

Great unbiased test.

At 75 years old, with a bad hip, I found those bricks to be a great Boone. My firewood rasslin’ days are pretty much done. The bricks do indeed burn either/both hotter and longer than the mixed but mostly oak firewood available here, and definitely produce much less ash. If you pay close attention to the TSC stocks you can catch deals that greatly reduce the cost. End of season clearance sale is a great time to stock up for next season.

Liked the comparison. I was wondering if you can cook over open flame with the bio bricks? I live in the Dallas area and was here in 2021 when the grid failed. We were lucky because we live about 1.5 miles from a hospital and fire station which kept our power in rolling blackouts rather than the total failure in other areas. Luckily, we had purchased some Duraflame logs which helped out; however, one thing I learned is you can't cook over Duraflame logs. We live in an apartment so space is limited. The bio bricks would be a good alternative for us, but I would like to find something that would give us the ability to cook over the fire if the need arose. Thanks for the demo and info!

Great research man! Love the data.

This., and the shop organization tips were good enough to get a subscribe. Keep it up!

Thank you sir!!! Love the information!!!

nice work! appreciate your time!!

Excellent video , very helpful , I mix the bio bricks with oak to helps keep a hot burn since firewood is not always as dry as it should be, thanks

I would like to see another test starting with the bio bricks.

Thanks Adam I really enjoy your videos

Awesome video Adam. I have always wondered how the bricks would do.

I did not think I got anywhere near as much burn time from the bio-blocks as I did from burning regular hardwood. Also for what you can buy a cord of wood for versus two pallets of bricks the bricks are twice as expensive. BTU’s per pound are the same with any wood. I just found the bricks buried out quicker. The stove I have is an older one and probably gets more air than ideal but the convenience for me didn’t outweigh the extra cost.

There is a company in Michigan called Speedy blaze that makes a similar brick from waste sawdust here. I keep some of them in my trailer for when I’m overlanding. I never have to struggle to find clean dry wood at a campsite, and I’m safe from carrying pests and invasive insects to other states by importing firewood, plus the square shape packs and travels well. I still use wood at home, but It’s a great solution for camping.

Love your vids and info- thank you!!

I live in Hawaii and I thought this was interesting. Thanks for all the time and effort.