Here is what I really like about these logs. If you burn four of them, basically a bundle, the fire is huge as in "I hope my fireplace is up for this" huge. It will impress. The fire puts out a lot of heat. Much more then the standard 5 lb log but not as long. It burns stronger and faster. The bigger longs burn slower, but really sort of die down after an hour and a half. Theses are about done at that time, but you got a much bigger fire. The big news is that if you burn one at a time you still get a nice fire two and you get basically the same fire as the 5 lb logs just for a shorter time frame. So basically, you get more fires per set if you live with shorter flame life or the need to put more logs on. The added bonus of cooking marshmallows just makes it all that much better.
The fact they they are done faster means you can clean up faster too. This is especially true if you let the fire burn out and don't use water to kill the fire. If you want a longer fire just put another log on, there is just more control.
I will buy these over the standard logs in the future because they are simply more fun and manageable. I highly recommend them and Duraflame products in general. In twenty years, I have never had a problem with their products.
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I was hesitant about ordering these as I had foolishly purchased another brand of fire log to use in our new outdoor fire pit and discovered that they could not be used to roast marshmallows over. I was remiss in not checking the other fire log packaging where it did mention not to use in a barbecue setting. Of course I discovered this only after we cooked marshmallows over it and it made them taste like they'd been dipped in chemicals blech.Well, the only reason our fire pit exists is to make s'mores and roast marshmallows! I was happy to have found these and ally hoped they would fit the bill. We have had two fires using the logs so far and are quite satisfied.
The "logs" come in 5lb packs, each pack contains 4 12"L x 4"W (approximate) "sticks". Each stick lasted about 45 minutes or so for us. A perfect length of time for our two children to roast their marshmallows. The entire package says it lasts about 2 hours however we got quite a bit longer than that out of them. It is wonderful to be able to use only what we needed to and be able to save the rest. There was a slight odor of charcoal and almost no smoke. It definitely does not bother my sinuses or eyes nearly as much as a regular wood fire does. It put out a good amount of heat as well. One trick when lighting the "sticks" is to use only one or two at a time and add more as you need them and light both ends well and be patient. Also, you do not need any other fuel with these. If you add wood it will smoke and smell like a regular fire. Not bad but wholly unnecessary. It leaves no more ash behind than a regular wood fire however, we did make sure to soak it thoroughly with water before going inside. The other 3-hour fire logs we purchased stayed hot for many hours after we had soaked it and that made us nervous. We had read of people seeing them re light even days after they were supposedly put out. These individually packaged "sticks" are small enough that they don't hold the heat after a good soaking. If you want the ease of use and convenience of fire logs and you want to be able to eat the food you cook over it without poisoning yourself these are definitely the way to go!
