Cleaning Glass on a wood burning stove

Babylon-Mol

Vinegar and newspaper worked a treat.. cheap and effective. Saved me a tenner, many thanks

SEE

I use damp kitchen roll on the glass when the stove is lit, but I find you get no sooting of the glass if you keep the door slightly open until the stove is hot.

wrightk

i wipe down every morning with a wet wipe and dry with an old rag. agree with other posters though.i always leave the doors slightly ajar until its burning hot enough. if i have been lazy i use a mr muscle soap pad to scrub off any tar and dry with a rag. its abrasive enough to cut into the tar but doesnt scratch the glass. have tried all the 'fire glass cleaner' products and found they are a bit of a rip off. Used to burn anthracite so the ash and vinegar trick didnt work for me as i was left with mostly clinker

grahamc2003

Use the heat of the stove to clean almost all of it. With a stove pipe temp of 220C/420F, mine starts burning off whatever deposits are on there - in my case hardly noticeable, except for a very clear bit of glass along the top edge. At around 250/500, the clean line travels down the glass, taking I'd estmate 10/15 minutes to get 90% of the glass clear. If there is sufficient air entering at those temperatures, then the glass can't get even a little dirty. Yesterday my stove got to 300/600, which is hotter than I liked, but it cleaned all the glass except for the two lower corners, with about a sq inch of discolouration which doesn't bother me.

Really, if you always get a lot of soot or tar on the window, then the burning isn't very efficient - all the black/brown stuff is fuel which you're not getting the benefit from. The chimney/liner will also be covered in lots of soot and tar too, which isn't great.

Burn at a high temperature (250C/500F is my target) with the correct amount of air (that's not too much and not too little) and not only will the glass keep clear, but the chimney/liner will too.

With my stove, I can't get enough air in to have a coal fire, so I get the temperature up with (dry) wood, then add a couple of small bits of coal into the red hot burning wood. Even with a hot fire, if I add too much coal (say more than 400g) , I get smoke and a dirty window.

Avoiding dirty glass also precludes burning overnight or choking off the air supply to turn the heat down when it gets too hot.

Greenfires

I use Calfire spray on glass cleaner on customers stoves every day - and works a treat. Way better than the aerosol stuff. If you've only been burning wood - damp newspaper dipped in the ash will do the trick - the ash is slightly alkaline (same as the stove cleaner) and won't scratch the glass. Ash from smokeless fuel WILL scratch it though...

Kat_Lowell

I just ensure it's cleaned more or less regularly. Lots of hard work otherwise

Scootmonkee

For REALLY stubborn residue, I use cheap car wheel cleaner spray, the sort that cleans disc brake carbon from wheels. It is instantly effective is done in seconds and never requires scrubbing or scraping.

suisidevw

Really? Mine doesn't blacken up these days............ but then I'm burning well seasoned wood and nice and hot!

shegar

suisidevw wrote: »

Really? Mine doesn't blacken up these days............ but then I'm burning well seasoned wood and nice and hot!

Ive not got a woodburner now but did have them for many years .......Whatever I burnt I always had to clean the glass every other day, an absolute nuisance when you cant see the flames, I also had a "airwash systems", s..t lot of good that is..:mad:...

Had various burners in 32 years, also found they eat logs like there are going out of fashion, very expensive to keep going.....

I now have my fire open and it heats the one room lovely, nice slow burn with a couple large lumps that lasts for 2 to 3 hours, and I can see the flames .:D
But its a case of each to their own and whats best for the individual......

suisidevw

Indeed it is. Mine has air wash and is perfect and burns much less than my open fire in our other room! Both have positives!