Paper Compressor in Homebase for €1.29 down from €28.99

nastysimon

I picked up two paper compressors in Homebase (Nutgrove) for €1.29 each. The price on the shelf was a €5.99 and claimed that the original price had been €28.99, but they scanned through at €1.29. They are going for £0.99 in the UK. Link

I haven't tried it out yet, but it is supposed to make it easy to compress paper into bricks which can be burned in a fire. I'm not an expert on the ecological impact this is likely to have, but it can't be worse than putting the paper in landfill.

Br4tPr1nc3

i dont understand why it says recycle your paper by turning it into small bricks for you to burn?

Thirdfox

Reduce, reuse and recycle... the compressor would fall into the "reuse" category methinks

And...depending on the paper you're burning, you might be releasing some nasty chemicals into the air (bleached papers etc) - this is just a guess of mine. Green bin where they should process it properly would be most ecological (though no briquette for you to burn...)

daigo75

Slightly off topic, but I find it interesting that such device is back on the market after many years. I can clearly remember a friend of my grandfather having it in the early 80s. At that time, newspapers were commonly reused this way (I guess they didn't mind/know about the chemicals). The other use was "wiping" (would you like to know more? LOL).

wyndham

http://readeroffers.irishtimes.com/i-CC-ITDS1462/ECO-BRIQUETTE-LOG/?search=paper

€20 here.

Thirdfox

daigo75 wrote: »

Slightly off topic, but I find it interesting that such device is back on the market after many years. I can clearly remember a friend of my grandfather having it in the early 80s. At that time, newspapers were commonly reused this way (I guess they didn't mind/know about the chemicals). The other use was "wiping" (would you like to know more? LOL).

Newspaper is great for wiping - windows... Just remember to go over it once more with a cloth to catch any stray paper fibres left on the window.

vibe666

apologies in advance, this isn't going to be a happy post but it's from personal experience.

i borrowed one of these (looks like exactly the same one) off a mate a couple of years ago to test and every single step of it is a pain in the backside from soaking the paper in water for a couple of days and mixing it up, to pressing them into bricks and then leaving them to dry out properly (takes several days, or weeks in a well ventilated room depending on the temp).

the worst bit though is the miniscule amount of heat generated by burning paper (even when compressed) compared to anything else you might burn and then having to clean out all the paper ash from your fire afterwards, which for some reason just seems a lot more bothersome to clean up than wood, coal, turf or peat briquette ash.

i'd intended to buy one myself until i tried that one out but after the experience I couldn't recommend it even if it was free, unless you have a huge excess of waste paper, hours of free time to make them and plenty of room inside a well ventilated area that you don't mind filling with condensation.

if you're still going to go for it though, i'd highly recommend getting a paper shredder too to save yourself hours of mixing time as a surprisinly large percentage of paper products don't break up in water nearly as easily as you'd think they would which meas an awful lot of elbow grease is required to get your wet paper into usable mush. :mad:

sorry.

et101

I bought one of these last year and both myself and my husband spent an enormous amount of time making the bricks. I agree that EVERY step is a pain in the arse and honestly not worth the time and effort cos you get VERY little heat or burning time for the amount of work you put into it. You also need to consider how long they take to dry out, where you can dry them and where you can store them. Defo not considering trying it again. Now have a redundant fire block maker. Just one more gadget to add to the pile!!

Bob Z

vibe666 wrote: »

apologies in advance, this isn't going to be a happy post but it's from personal experience.

i borrowed one of these (looks like exactly the same one) off a mate a couple of years ago to test and every single step of it is a pain in the backside from soaking the paper in water for a couple of days and mixing it up, to pressing them into bricks and then leaving them to dry out properly (takes several days, or weeks in a well ventilated room depending on the temp).

the worst bit though is the miniscule amount of heat generated by burning paper (even when compressed) compared to anything else you might burn and then having to clean out all the paper ash from your fire afterwards, which for some reason just seems a lot more bothersome to clean up than wood, coal, turf or peat briquette ash.

i'd intended to buy one myself until i tried that one out but after the experience I couldn't recommend it even if it was free, unless you have a huge excess of waste paper, hours of free time to make them and plenty of room inside a well ventilated area that you don't mind filling with condensation.

if you're still going to go for it though, i'd highly recommend getting a paper shredder too to save yourself hours of mixing time as a surprisinly large percentage of paper products don't break up in water nearly as easily as you'd think they would which meas an awful lot of elbow grease is required to get your wet paper into usable mush. :mad:

sorry.

et101 wrote: »

I bought one of these last year and both myself and my husband spent an enormous amount of time making the bricks. I agree that EVERY step is a pain in the arse and honestly not worth the time and effort cos you get VERY little heat or burning time for the amount of work you put into it. You also need to consider how long they take to dry out, where you can dry them and where you can store them. Defo not considering trying it again. Now have a redundant fire block maker. Just one more gadget to add to the pile!!

Must be why they so cheap

alastair_doom

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eko-Mania-Briquette-Bands-Boxed-Set/dp/B001N7QR1K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1279674086&sr=8-2

Found these on Amazon. Just bands you use to tightly wrap newspaper/magazines together for burning.

They get pretty average reviews tho and still suffer from low energy output and creating a lot of ash.

vibe666

at the end of the day, no matter how you slice it (or roll, mulch or mash it) you're still burning paper and it just doesn't give out much heat.

tampopo

oh dear, I made loads of them over the summer!!!

wondered what the reviews were like, did a quick search on here....

vibe666

tampopo wrote: »

oh dear, I made loads of them over the summer!!!

wondered what the reviews were like, did a quick search on here....

sorry.

fergiesfolly

A group of us had one when we were kids,back in the 80's. Spent a summer collecting newspapers from our neighbours and making bricks, which we dried out in our back gardens.We sold these off that winter and made a mint(from a 10 year olds point of view).Even more people came back the following year offloading their papers and ordering for that winter. Can't think of a single child in our area now,having the same work ethic or eye for making a quid, but it might be worth trying it for ye're own kids. You never know, you might have the next Bill Cullen.

goat2

tampopo wrote: »

oh dear, I made loads of them over the summer!!!

wondered what the reviews were like, did a quick search on here....

i have also made them, alot of work for no heat, is my verdict

T-Maxx

Save them up for Halloween.:pac:

bambera

You people are environmental monsters :eek:

goat2

bambera wrote: »

You people are environmental monsters :eek:

at least we did try them, i do wish they did give off a bit of heat, but alas too much mucking about, and no result, no result means no heat,what a pity i would have loved if it worked

vibe666

goat2 wrote: »

at least we did try them, i do wish they did give off a bit of heat, but alas too much mucking about, and no result, no result means no heat,what a pity i would have loved if it worked

did you try soaking them in petrol?

MrAbc

vibe666 wrote: »

did you try soaking them in petrol?

...maybe waste cooking oil??

Hmmm... messy process though I'd imagine.

tampopo

yeah, thanks.

Actually, it wasn't too much work. A few minutes to put a bucket of water in a container. Wait a few days to let the shredded paper soften up. Ten mins or so to form them and add new shredded paper.

I have this pic to show how I dried them.


the black plastic attracted the heat of the sun, the glass kept the rain off, they got a bit of air too...

I'll be using them along with briquettes and smokey coal, wood etc.

More as bulk than a sole heat source, but thanks for your replies....

vibe666

i wouldn't put too much in per night tho, the powdery ash that you get from burning the paper blocks is a pain in the hole to clean up the next day if you lose a lot of them.

good luck anyway, let us know how it goes.

tampopo

yeah, cleaning an open fire tends to get a bit tedious in the new year alright!!!

I have about 85 bricks. I made about 4 at a time in the beginning, around June, to see how it went.

The last batch I made at the end of August was of 10! i said I'd give it a bash for the summer and see how it panned out....

vandammaged

just use your feet and then throw it in your fire.

nastysimon wrote: »

I picked up two paper compressors in Homebase (Nutgrove) for €1.29 each. The price on the shelf was a €5.99 and claimed that the original price had been €28.99, but they scanned through at €1.29. They are going for £0.99 in the UK. Link

I haven't tried it out yet, but it is supposed to make it easy to compress paper into bricks which can be burned in a fire. I'm not an expert on the ecological impact this is likely to have, but it can't be worse than putting the paper in landfill.

Doodlebug

None left in Limerick store that I could find - staff had no idea about them. Are these still available for this price in any branch?

CiaranP

the link that the original poster posted, says 'Ideal for owners of firepits and chimineas.' I don't have either, but wonder if the bricks are more suitable for them than an open fireplace? the temperature and draught are probably more controllable?

I too made the bricks 15+ years ago and regretted losing the gadget when moving house - but the reviews are bringing it all back!
Back then, paper couldn't be recycled; it was a bit of fun and not too much work making them, though they take ages to dry.
can't go wrong for that price!

tampopo

CiaranP wrote: »

Back then, paper couldn't be recycled; it was a bit of fun and not too much work making them, though they take ages to dry.
can't go wrong for that price!

yeah, this. Paper's more recyclable, a bit of fun, not too much work, I'm raging I stopped in August, September and October have been fantastic for drying....oh well.

This last night, I burned two....

zagmund

I've made them for the last few years. I agree with some of the points above - loads of light ash (which won't sink through the grate) so don't use too many per day or your fire will smother itself. Not a lot of heat per unit.

Making them isn't that much of a pain, in fact it's quite therapeutic (for me, anyway). Drying them off can be a problem if you don't have anywhere that you can easily store them and leave them for a few weeks. I used to have an outside 'under the stairs' which was used to store coal and stuff so I would just pile them up there and let them dry off. I used to make 10-15 per run - it just involves having a big garden bucket, a lot of water and some spare time.

Squeezing them out is my least favourite part - the mush tends to smell a bit if you leave the paper for too long (like a few weeks). It also makes a mess of wherever you are doing the work, but after a while you work out the tricks and how to keep it as un-messy as possible.

In use I tend to stick them to one side of the fire and use them to narrow down the grate and concentrate the heat coming from the rest of the fire if you know what I mean.

The thing that got me was the price of them - they're nothing fancy *at all*. You could buy yourself a decent MP3 player for less than some places charge for a piece of pressed metal. At the bargain price in the original post you can't go too far wrong.

z

vibe666

using a cross cut shredder to break up the paper before you soak it helps a lot to speed up the process, as well as a small amount of bleach (literally just 10ml) which speeds it up as well as minimising the build up of bacteria in it whilst it's sitting.