Fireplace advice

[TedLasso]

Good Wood Logs | Compressed Sawdust Logs | 100% Recycled

Good Wood Logs give you a big flame & serious heat, without the fuss. Made from 100% recycled, compressed sawdust, enjoy hours of eco-friendly warmth.

www.goodwoodlogs.co.za

I have to say, this stuff is awesome. Lights easy ,does appear to give off more heat and super easy to break if your fireplace has a small opening.


Last year bought 100 of them. (I see they now have a card board packaging option ). And they are great


This year after comments on this thread, decided to buy a few off packets of wood off the street to compare. Of course, nobody knows what you get then, but this was the wood I used to buy in the years before I found the good wood stuff. And the only reason I found it , was even when I bought bakkie loads of dried wood, sometimes the pieces were too big to fit in my fireplace. I ain't no Smoky Robinson.

Anyway back to this year's tests. My god, how difficult it took get the fire going with the wood bought from side of street. When going , it was hot of course , but that was with three or four pieces for wood in there. But I needed nearly two packets of fire lighters (I had no kindling) With good wood , i need two at any given time and a quarter fireblock is all is needed to get it going.

The fireplace fan that was recommended in this thread and which I bought , is also a clue for me as to how long it takes the fireplace to get hot. With Goodwood it's faster to activate and cos it burns through everything - ash tray takes forever to fill up.

Anyway that's my humble 2p contribution. Would love to hear others recommendation.

 

[Chingha]

Saw this option for firewood in CT and Pretoria/Jozi

Contact Us – We're Ready To Chat Wood | Stompies

Quick and easy checkout. Secure your premium firewood delivery with Stompies Braai and Firewood.

www.stompieswood.com

But prices seem steep to me?

Bought bluegum from them, specifically asked for the red, hard wood for the combustion stove but got maybe 40 percent cut up branches and other soft wood. When I asked about this just got a shrug and well that's how they come attitude.
Changed suppliers immediately.

 

[storms1]

Hello


Any idea what type of wood this is , bought at local gas supplier and he vouched its Bluegum...@r18 a bag 7-8kg bit wet wood

 

[Guest 290922]

Just make sure the chimney is built correctly, I'm sure you don't want the smell of soot ruining the ambience.

 

[Snyper564]

Hello


Any idea what type of wood this is , bought at local gas supplier and he vouched its Bluegum...@r18 a bag 7-8kg bit wet wood

Which area you in? some of that looks like bluegum some not

 

[storms1]

Jhb South , Linmeyer.....i think a supplier drops most of these wood all over and on some corners ....I'll go past the Gas supplier if theirs still stock he had plenty and everyone buys lots

 

[Tinuva]

Hello


Any idea what type of wood this is , bought at local gas supplier and he vouched its Bluegum...@r18 a bag 7-8kg bit wet wood

Strange. I ordered 10 bags of bluegum and when they were delivered and packed, the 1 bag was half full of rooikrans. I said its fine I will keep the rooikrans for when I braai. Usually more expensive anyway than bluegum.

 

[cenredash]

Good Wood Logs | Compressed Sawdust Logs | 100% Recycled

Good Wood Logs give you a big flame & serious heat, without the fuss. Made from 100% recycled, compressed sawdust, enjoy hours of eco-friendly warmth.

www.goodwoodlogs.co.za

I have to say, this stuff is awesome. Lights easy ,does appear to give off more heat and super easy to break if your fireplace has a small opening.


Last year bought 100 of them. (I see they now have a card board packaging option ). And they are great


This year after comments on this thread, decided to buy a few off packets of wood off the street to compare. Of course, nobody knows what you get then, but this was the wood I used to buy in the years before I found the good wood stuff. And the only reason I found it , was even when I bought bakkie loads of dried wood, sometimes the pieces were too big to fit in my fireplace. I ain't no Smoky Robinson.

Anyway back to this year's tests. My god, how difficult it took get the fire going with the wood bought from side of street. When going , it was hot of course , but that was with three or four pieces for wood in there. But I needed nearly two packets of fire lighters (I had no kindling) With good wood , i need two at any given time and a quarter fireblock is all is needed to get it going.

The fireplace fan that was recommended in this thread and which I bought , is also a clue for me as to how long it takes the fireplace to get hot. With Goodwood it's faster to activate and cos it burns through everything - ash tray takes forever to fill up.

Anyway that's my humble 2p contribution. Would love to hear others recommendation.

I've been checking their website for ages, and maybe its just me, but all their logs seems out of stock.

 

[The_Mowgs]

Hello


Any idea what type of wood this is , bought at local gas supplier and he vouched its Bluegum...@r18 a bag 7-8kg bit wet wood

Looks like wattle

 

[TedLasso]

I've been checking their website for ages, and maybe its just me, but all their logs seems out of stock.

Buy some from Builders or Chamberlain (they have a special ATM :- https://www.chamberlains.co.za/good-wood-eco-heat-logs-5-pack-1075457 ):- Same price as if you would have ordered a 100 from Goodwood themselves. I bought 30 today when I was at one as I had collected my smart switches from them. Chamberlain was R100 cheaper than anyone else! First time I ever visited them.

The tip for the GoodWood website (with the free delivery which is required - my car is not happy transporting 30 of these things) is to buy in April/May -- that's what I did last year, but since I had so many left, I didn't this year and now when I needed I saw they were again fully sold out. Walking into Chamberlain and seeing them on special made my day!

 

[I.am.Sam]

i use that saw dust logs to start my fire .

2 small pieces from the log with 2 small pieces of firelighters and im good to go

 

[I.am.Sam]

so i bought from these guys if you in the north in CPT

GoodWood on Milton | Goodwood

GoodWood on Milton, Goodwood. 684 likes · 1 talking about this. GoodWood on Milton is a small local business in Goodwood Cape Town. We strive to deliver the best quality wood to our clients as well...

www.facebook.com

excellent communication

they stack For R10 per 100 and they do a solid job and clean up

Wood not as big as the pieces i bought from a place in athlone but its good sizes

prices quite good as well

 

[TheBadMadMan]

I will definitely post feedback here after using it with and without fans for a few weeks.

Have you had time to enjoy your fireplace? What's the verdict?

 

[Tinuva]

Have you had time to enjoy your fireplace? What's the verdict?

Yes...without the fans working though. Still waiting on gcfires to source me the control unit.

Really love it, but does have its advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

• Makes a ton of heat. If I had the fans working, the whole room would be very nice. It is a HUGE room
• Smokeless house
• Love it when you can hear the crackling of the fire even when fully closed
• Nice atmosphere

Disadvantages:

• Need to add fuel every so often. Not bad, but do kinda need to remember
• Manual lied about the initial bad smell. They said there "may" be some bad smell the first use. Well whatever they use to treat the metal all over, actually let off smoke on the outside. Its not smoke from the wood, it was some other horrible smell. Recommend running it full heat on the first use with all doors and windows open! Doesn't help that we have a chimney thats open to the ceiling space, which is why I removed the braai. Anyways, once this is over, no smoke and no bad smells

Would I do this again knowing this? Absolutely. Would just have the doors/windows open on first burn haha.

Also had to learn AGAIN just how bad non-seasoned wood is in a fireplace. On a braai you can get away with it, but damn its near impossible with a fireplace. Anyways ordered some more wood from different place which turned out to be well season. Even if the flames go away completely, with the heat this thing has inside, you just pop on 2 or so new logs and they self combust into flames.

Really cant wait for the control panel unit.

 

[cenredash]

Buy some from Builders or Chamberlain (they have a special ATM :- https://www.chamberlains.co.za/good-wood-eco-heat-logs-5-pack-1075457 ):- Same price as if you would have ordered a 100 from Goodwood themselves. I bought 30 today when I was at one as I had collected my smart switches from them. Chamberlain was R100 cheaper than anyone else! First time I ever visited them.

The tip for the GoodWood website (with the free delivery which is required - my car is not happy transporting 30 of these things) is to buy in April/May -- that's what I did last year, but since I had so many left, I didn't this year and now when I needed I saw they were again fully sold out. Walking into Chamberlain and seeing them on special made my day!

Thank you. I did an order via Builders.

Not in Gauteng, so would add R200 to my order to get it from Chamberlains.

 

[TheBadMadMan]

Yes...without the fans working though. Still waiting on gcfires to source me the control unit.

Really love it, but does have its advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

• Makes a ton of heat. If I had the fans working, the whole room would be very nice. It is a HUGE room
• Smokeless house
• Love it when you can hear the crackling of the fire even when fully closed
• Nice atmosphere

Disadvantages:

• Need to add fuel every so often. Not bad, but do kinda need to remember
• Manual lied about the initial bad smell. They said there "may" be some bad smell the first use. Well whatever they use to treat the metal all over, actually let off smoke on the outside. Its not smoke from the wood, it was some other horrible smell. Recommend running it full heat on the first use with all doors and windows open! Doesn't help that we have a chimney thats open to the ceiling space, which is why I removed the braai. Anyways, once this is over, no smoke and no bad smells

Would I do this again knowing this? Absolutely. Would just have the doors/windows open on first burn haha.

Also had to learn AGAIN just how bad non-seasoned wood is in a fireplace. On a braai you can get away with it, but damn its near impossible with a fireplace. Anyways ordered some more wood from different place which turned out to be well season. Even if the flames go away completely, with the heat this thing has inside, you just pop on 2 or so new logs and they self combust into flames.

Really cant wait for the control panel unit.

Excellent feedback. I'm considering the same unit WITHOUT the fans though. I do not have any electrical outlets or power remotely close to the existing fireplace. So no need for electricity makes for 1 less thing to put in place. Besides, with load shedding I won't have power in any case.

Does the unit pump out hot air decently without the fans (purely by means of convection) or is it primarily the radiant heat that you are feeling?

Edit: Also whose your wood supplier of choice?

 

[neoprema]

Our house has a Jetmaster gas fireplace. I finally got shown how to use it, and had it on for 4h.

if ever there was something that wastes something and does nothing lol.... it barely heats up the room its in.

 

[Tinuva]

Excellent feedback. I'm considering the same unit WITHOUT the fans though. I do not have any electrical outlets or power remotely close to the existing fireplace. So no need for electricity makes for 1 less thing to put in place. Besides, with load shedding I won't have power in any case.

Does the unit pump out hot air decently without the fans (purely by means of convection) or is it primarily the radiant heat that you are feeling?

Edit: Also whose your wood supplier of choice?

just radiant heat without the electric fans. I cant say yet, but I am sure once I have my control panel, I will highly recommend you consider getting it electricity somehow at least when no loadshedding.

As for supplier, guess it depends where you are.

I used to use thewoodgoodgurus here in cape town. Excellent service. You can place an order on a weekend after 6pm and the guy gives me a call to thank me for my business and ask for a suitable time to deliver.
Ordered redgum fireplace wood. The wood is not well seasoned, stupidly difficult to get going so not using it. Ordered 100 pieces to test with. My usual order for braai wood from them is always 1000-1500 pieces rooikans at time. I never had issues with their rooikrans, even when slightly wet, because well on a braai you just moer everything you got on and its one big wham bam boom and it goes. A fireplace is a well a new art for me.

Used namibianhardwood for the latest batch of bluegum, 10 bags, not sure how many pieces, looks less than 100, but this wood burns excellent with some kindling and firestarter. Maybe the bagged wood is usually seasoned? Dno. They quite a bit slower than thewoodgurus on delivery, you wait a while.

Then I saw the post above by @I.am.Sam whose pricing is much cheaper than the 2 above places, which I am considering to give a try and see how their wood turns out.

 

[I.am.Sam]

so the wood i bought in athlone burnt much better

this wood i got from goodwood on milton burns out too fast for me and crackles alot

what could that be , a seasoning problem ?

the wood i bought before i could start with small pieces and add bigger

with this new batch i cannot add big pieces cos it takes longer to burn but the small pieces burn out too fast

sometimes if i dont watch it i need to restart the fire

 

[Jehosefat]

Our house has a Jetmaster gas fireplace. I finally got shown how to use it, and had it on for 4h.

if ever there was something that wastes something and does nothing lol.... it barely heats up the room its in.

Yeah, the house we bought had one of those gas fireplaces in it too. Useful for ambience but not much else.