My Review on the Wood Brick Fuel product
Longest story short: I'll keep buying and using them in addition to real wood, when that's available.
The Pros
Easy to transport - being bricks, I put them into totes because water destroys them. This gave me 3 handy boxes to carry around.
Easy to light - they caught very quickly with just a simple 3 block teepee and some cardboard and a paper towel rolled up inside of it. I caught the paper towel on fire, that lit the cardboard and the whole thing was up and burning with no fuss.
Safe to transport - this was the biggest thing. There are no restrictions on travelling with them - I can take them 1,000 miles away if I wanted to.
Even heat for cooking - once these got hot, they were a nice even and steady heat for cooking. We cooked burgers on my Amazing Grill and it made it pretty easy because it was a consistent heat.
Inexpensive (compared to camp store wood) - these definitely lasted longer then $6-worth of the camp store wood that I typically am stuck with.
The Cons
Need Protected from Water - as I mentioned before, these deteriorate when exposed to water.
Smokey start up - I didn't compare these against real wood, but the first three and then later 4 or 5 more were pretty smokey until they got red hot. However, I didn't compare this against an equivalent amount of wood.
The fire didn't feel "alive" - once they got hot, there was little flame. Basically it made good embers, but there wasn't any pizzazz or life to the fire. I kept throwing twigs and small branches on to have some yellow to look at and love. You also couldn't "play" with the fire - the bricks, once red hot, would break down if poked at with a stick.
Truth be told, this was probably my single biggest issue with these.
Expensive (compared to a cord of wood delivered to home) - locally, I can get a cord of wood for (rarely) $150 to (more commonly) $200. A 1,000-brick pallet (weighing 2,000 pounds) would cost me $300.
Final Verdict
I'll buy and use these again with the plan on augmenting them with wood from the camp store or from a local seller. It should give me a nice combination of less expensive "wood" that is easy to transport and find and the "life" that I'm looking for in a fire.
Pictures!
20 bricks - $9 worth (we used 2 contains in 1 night with camp store wood):
Wood Bricks Packed and Ready to Go:
Fire Starting - Teepee Setup:
Fire Started - Burning: