GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - fire pits on your patio and newspaper paper compressors

Lou[_2_]

lid says...
tesco are selling those 'fire pits' round bowl fireplaces that you
could have a small log fire on your patio.

then they sell for £19 a paper compressor (apparently you make
newspapers wet and then stuff them in and compress them, then
when they dry out, kind of solid; they burn like logs of wood).

has anyone tried all this? the idea sounds great (who doesn't like
a bonfire, even a tiny one) but how does it work out in reality?
i'm
thinking if it was really good, people would have been doing it for
years.. i know these compressors came on to the market years ago.

I don't know about the firepits or the paper compressor. But...

Firewood, say oak, has a density ranging from 590-930 kg/cubic meter. Paper
ranges from 250 kg/cubic meter up to 1500 kg/cubic meter. Printing paper
typically is around 800 kg/cubic meter (50 pounds per cubic foot). We might
expect newsprint to be somewhat less.

Still, it looks like newsprint falls into the density range of oak. You'd
probably do as well to just stack up the newspaper in the fire, and save
yourself the bother of compressing the stuff or making logs of the stuff.

Unless you're going to cook with the stuff - hot dogs on a stick, or steaks
on a grille, anything open to the flames. I wouldn't use newspaper for that
unless there was no other choice (like being caught in the depths of a
nuclear winter) - who knows wht contaminants might be in the inks
(especially colored ones) or the paper itself? For that, use wood/charcoal,
unless you're one of those who barbecue on a gas or electric grille.