We've had people tell us we're too expensive and they'd rather buy cheap firewood.
We get it.
We understand that over the past 5 years, the price of everything has skyrocketed, and everyone is looking for ways to save money.
However, when it comes to your log burner or open fireplace, don't be fooled by cheap firewood - it can be a false economy.
If you're burning firewood for heat, you want wood that lights easily, burns hot and doesn't burn through too quickly. You might pay less for cheap firewood but it often burns through more quickly so you end up spending more.
We tested our ash and beech firewood against some cheap firewood we bought in plastic bags from a supermarket. We aren't going to name the brands, but you'd definitely recognise them if you saw them.
Have a watch of the video and see our Love Logs premium ash and beech logs burning next to cheap supermarket 'hardwood' logs. The results might surprise you!
Can't be bothered to watch the video? Here's what happened.
We built a roaring kindling fire then burned two supermarket logs of different lengths next to our Love Logs logs - one full length 25cm log and one Hobbit log.
Per kg, the supermarket logs were around 10% cheaper than Love Logs, but although they were listed as hardwood they felt light and weren't very dense so we suspect they might have been softwood (strong emphasis on the word suspect - we don't need any lawsuits here!).
When we put them on the ember bed, the cheap supermarket logs caught fire more quickly than our logs, but they burned out much faster.
Of course we timed them, and we found that the Love Logs Hobbit log burned for 48% longer than the supermarket log and the 25cm log burned for a massive 57% longer.
In both cases, the Love Logs logs left a bigger ember bed, which means they would have kept heating the room for longer too.
The Hidden Costs of Cheap Firewood
Burn time and heat output are obviously really important factors when considering whether to buy premium or cheap firewood, but there are some hidden costs to buying cheap firewood that you might not have considered.
1. More log burner maintenance
Burning properly dry hardwood in your log burner minimises the amount of smoke and soot given off by your fire, which minimises the creosote build up in your chimney.
There will always be some soot, so you should always have your chimney professionally swept once a year.
However, if you're burning properly dry hardwood as your firewood, your chimney sweep will notice! The creosote build-up will be minimal and it's likely to be a quick and easy sweep.
However, if you regularly burn softwood, wet wood, or manufactured 'Night Briquettes' which are designed to smoulder, you're likely to get a bigger build up of creosote in your chimney.
This puts you at a higher risk of a chimney fire so you'll need to see a Chimney Sweep more often, your chimney will be more difficult to clean and you may need your flue replacing sooner. All of these things can potentially add more cost than spending more on properly dried hardwood logs.
2. The work to get the firewood to your log burner
The cheapest way to buy firewood is usually in bulk. However, this normally means you have a full load tipped on your driveway, or a bulk bag or pallet left at the end of it. You then need to move all of that firewood to your log store, and bring it inside bit by bit as you need it. You also have to pay for all of your firewood in one go at the start of the season.
If you're buying small bags of cheap firewood from the supermarket or petrol station, how often are you 'just popping out' to grab them and what is the cost to you of that time and petrol?
Love Logs is delivered in strong, recyclable cardboard boxes to your door by DPD and you can set up a regular subscription so it comes when you need it. There's no big cash outlay at the start of the season, no having to go backwards and forwards to the log store each evening, and no nipping out to the shops every time you run out. Think of all that time you'll save!
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