Heat logs/briquettes vs wood for wood burner

[HeyMacWey]

We get excellent seasoned wood from our local log man, but I've been looking at the briquettes as it seems might be more economical.

Has anyone made the change to briquettes?

We use the woodburner daily throughout the winter from about 2pm onwards.
Probably get through about 2m3 of wood a winter as we also use coal.

What do you think? Are they cheaper than logs? How many do you use a day?

You would probably have done better to start another thread, but never mind! I have exactly this same problem, and I am afraid I have never found a solution. I've noticed that the sooting of the glass tends to happen as the fire dies down and cools. My only answer is to include cleaning the glass as one of the 'fire laying' tasks (glass must be cold though), which is virtually every day. I use cream cleaner/Astonish/Bar keeper friend (as available) and polish it up with kitchen towel.

This guy. wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.com/?m=0

You will have to go right through but, at one point, he went into great depth about wood stoves, how they work and best practice.

I am new to log burning having just purchased a log burning stove but I must say that heat logs for me are the easiest to get going and burn well. I usually use one to get started followed by a couple of small kiln dried logs and kindling. I would not be without heat logs!

Further to my earlier post, I can easily clean my soot covered door at the end of a wood burning cycle but as the instructions say it’s self cleaning glass and suggests there’s a problem if the glass ends up blackened then I expect better. It also suggests that it might not be burning to the optimum temperature which of course is not good for the flue or the environment. Does anybody know how I can resolve this?

Read through the above link. It’s all in there.

I was told by my chimney sweep who has been doing the job for about 20 years that briquettes produce more soot than logs and he dislikes them. I think he said they don't do the flue much good but not sure about that.
I know briquettes are convenient and burn hot but I will continue to use kiln dried hardwood after his advice as the price isn't that different.
I don't get a blackened glass door as such, but I burn the logs hot and do not close everything right down when I go to bed, just let it burn out. Just get a faint dark rim on the glass in the morning now and then usually when the chimney isn't drawing much due to outside weather conditions.

Beachcomber70 that is very interesting. As I said I am new to using a wood burning stove but after doing some research and hearing what you’ve said I think I’ve cracked it! When I bought the stove I purchased seasoned logs and kiln dried logs but they got mixed up when I put them in a basket. So when I first burnt logs it seems they were seasoned logs that took time to get going and smoked a bit. I then used heat logs coz they burned easily and are very hot! However they like the seasoned logs left the door blackened. I have now tried good kiln dried logs with kindling to start and that was the cleanest burn so far! Even the door was clear when they burnt out. So now I have the answer!

Clean, seasoned logs should not take a long time to get going, nor should they smoke a lot. They sound either not fully seasoned or damp.

I tried seasoned logs when I first had my stove [8 years ago] then tried kiln dried and haven't looked back. Any extra cost is worth it to me in terms of the clean burn and less ash. The multi fuel stove I have runs efficiently on them.

I have them delivered in crates, and cut up and use the crate frames and pallet for kindling the next year. [As they are made from untreated wood].

Thanks for all the advice. I’ve also learnt different ways of loading the wood to keep it burning clean such as lighting top down and loading with two large logs first followed by kindling and a couple of firefighters then a large log on top.