JillA
Well-Known Member
How long do you find it takes them to dry enough, do they burn well, do you need to mix them with coal or wood etc etc. Anyone managed to do enough to make it worth while?
Burning poo bricks - how is it going?
- Thread starter JillA
- Start date
Garnet
Well-Known Member
My Dad has made over 200 bricks since Christmas and has constructed a fantastic drying rack system in the garage. (My Mum is not only a poo-brick-maker widow, but she has also lost all her bamboo canes from the vegetable garden to become drying racks!!)
Dad has snuck a few bricks into the house to dry out alongside the woodburner and he has tried burning a few. There was no adverse smell and the bricks burned well, with very little residue. Dad reckons the poo bricks will never make a roaring fire to sit in front of on a freezing day, but they will be great for keeping the fire in overnight as they smoulder rather than creating flames.
Dad has tried various additives, the most successful of which is shredded paper (so he is now tidying his study to find more scrap paper to feed the shredder!) and has now fine-tuned the amount of water to add to the mix. Their pony is kept on rubber mats with a small amount of easibed, so there is no long fibre in their muckheap.
All in all, Dad thinks the poo-brick-maker is a fantastic gadget and he is thrilled that all the poo will have a useful function at last. Their garden may not grow so well, but my parents may save a bit on their heating oil bill! My sisters and I gave him the gadget for Christmas and it has been a source of activity for Dad and hilarity for all of us ever since!
Dad has snuck a few bricks into the house to dry out alongside the woodburner and he has tried burning a few. There was no adverse smell and the bricks burned well, with very little residue. Dad reckons the poo bricks will never make a roaring fire to sit in front of on a freezing day, but they will be great for keeping the fire in overnight as they smoulder rather than creating flames.
Dad has tried various additives, the most successful of which is shredded paper (so he is now tidying his study to find more scrap paper to feed the shredder!) and has now fine-tuned the amount of water to add to the mix. Their pony is kept on rubber mats with a small amount of easibed, so there is no long fibre in their muckheap.
All in all, Dad thinks the poo-brick-maker is a fantastic gadget and he is thrilled that all the poo will have a useful function at last. Their garden may not grow so well, but my parents may save a bit on their heating oil bill! My sisters and I gave him the gadget for Christmas and it has been a source of activity for Dad and hilarity for all of us ever since!
JillA
Well-Known Member
Thanks Garnet that's interesting - so in the 2 months since Christmas they haven't really dried enough without having them next to the stove? Did you get him the heavy duty press that fixes to the wall? I'm just beginning and wondering whether there could be a market for the liquid fertiliser that squeezes out - you never know, according to Tesco every little helps 
HazyXmas
Well-Known Member
This sounds amazing, where do i get one?
HappyHooves
Well-Known Member
Oh the power of advertising!! Its Asda not Tesco's that say evrylittle helps. I would have thought that the 'juice' would sell well especially if you can concentrate it a little - back to drying/evaporating which might happen if we ever get any warmer weather. I bought something ike this in France - thick and gloopy and you had to dilute it. But one bottle went a long way.
dominobrown
Well-Known Member
Wrong its tesco's..... http://www.tesco.com/everylittlehelps/
Apparently horse poo needs to be treated a bit like peat. Look up peat drying?
JillA
Well-Known Member
There was someone on here who was turning them out at a fair old rate, but I never heard how it was going with burning them.
Garnet
Well-Known Member
Dad has the heavy duty one from ebay, like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/paper-bri...e_Garden_Other_Fireplaces&hash=item2a28f1c30e
Obviously the weather has been cold and wet since Christmas, so the ones stored outside have not dried enough at this time of year, but Dad is hoping to build up his production line over the summer when they will dry naturally, so that he has a continuous supply for next winter. He just brought a few in to dry indorrs because he couldn't wait to see how they burned!
There is no waste liquid from Dad's bricks, he has a tub trug underneath the press to catch the excess liquid and then adds that to the next batch. Oh and I forgot to tell you the funniest bit - he uses his concrete mixer to make the mixture!!!!!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/paper-bri...e_Garden_Other_Fireplaces&hash=item2a28f1c30e
Obviously the weather has been cold and wet since Christmas, so the ones stored outside have not dried enough at this time of year, but Dad is hoping to build up his production line over the summer when they will dry naturally, so that he has a continuous supply for next winter. He just brought a few in to dry indorrs because he couldn't wait to see how they burned!
There is no waste liquid from Dad's bricks, he has a tub trug underneath the press to catch the excess liquid and then adds that to the next batch. Oh and I forgot to tell you the funniest bit - he uses his concrete mixer to make the mixture!!!!!
JillA
Well-Known Member
Up for the evening shift