I just stick a couple of these in my woodstove. They retain and reflect heat ling after the fire burns out, which means I don't need to keep getting up to toss on another log! Also, a couple on top likewise remain hot, and I set my coffee pot there. Arrived with corners a bit broken, no biggie.

I couldn't tell what I was getting for sure- hardbrick or softbrick. I ordered this product twice, about 2 weeks apart. The first time I got structural bricks, each about 3lbs 14oz, whiter, no visible pours, one side smooth, the other with small ridges. The second time I got a brick that is more gray, porous, each brick weighs about 2lbs 3oz. I don't have the box from the first shipment to see if the part # was actually listed different on the shipment, the second shipment the box says part # 85848E. Looking at responses to questions (where I also left this info), others seem to have gotten different things, too. It would be nice to list a weight and if this is hardbrick (structural) or softbrick (insulating). And yes, softbrick is still hard, it cracks with a hammer and would hurt your head if you got smacked with it.

Got two sets (12 bricks total) to fill up my Traeger Texas Elite. A few small chips when the arrived, but nothing bad since they were going into a grill. My have gotten around 40 degrees higher on high temp cooks (I had problems with the grill itself over 325 degrees...was tough to get it to 400), but now I can do my 350 cooks no problem). I still should be able to get higher according to the controller, but that's another story.

Low cook temp was around the same, but I'll have to monitor pellet use. "Seems" better, but I'll have to do some long familiar ones before I know for sure.

I have a very oddly designed 80's era fireplace in one level of my home. It has vent tubes that run under the burning wood which then curve upward and to wall to disperse the heat. The issue is that thee are large gaps in these and material falls everywhere and creates as mess. I purchased these bricks with the intent of laying them out to give me a flat, continuous surface to build my fire on. That plan was fine, the issue was with the product itself.

I ended up receiving and then returning 3 packages of these bricks because each package had every single brick broken. I never once got a pack that didn't have bricks that were either broken into multiple pieces, broken in half, or chipped and crumbling all around the edges. I understand that these bricks are brittle by nature and they are not designed to be extremely strong, but they were all so destroyed that I could not make them work at all. Seems that it might be a packaging/shipping/handling issue rather than a product manufacturing issue. I ended up seeing a long string of returns in my future so I went another route to solve my problem.

On a positive note Amazon's returns were always easy and free of charge! I gave the product 2 stars because I know some reviewers have gotten lucky and received their bricks intact. As I stated above, the problem is not with the product manufacturing but rather the shipping causing them to break. They would have worked fine if I had received them intact.

These Firebricks are much more dense and heavy than I had anticipated however, they appear to be quite sturdy. I give it 4 out of 5 stars because I was expecting bricks that were a bit more porous and easier to cut down into desired angles, but I do think they will work just fine with a bit of elbow grease. But overall, they seem to be good quality; I have only taken one out of the box at this point, so if I find anything to the contrary once I set up my studio, I will update this review.