Cleaning stove glass

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johnnywitt

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North Georgia Mts.
Finally figured out a way to clean my stove glass the easy way. Just take a paint scraper- the ones with the replaceable razor blade that are about 3-3.5" wide and scrape that stuff right off the glass. You have to get the angle right, like when your sharpening a knife. All the stuff just basically peals right off the glass, even the light brown stains. Haven't scratched my glass yet. Try it out, you'll like it!:clap:
 
Finally figured out a way to clean my stove glass the easy way. Just take a paint scraper- the ones with the replaceable razor blade that are about 3-3.5" wide and scrape that stuff right off the glass. You have to get the angle right, like when your sharpening a knife. All the stuff just basically peals right off the glass, even the light brown stains. Haven't scratched my glass yet. Try it out, you'll like it!:clap:

I've got to ask , just what are You burning that You need to scrape the glass ? I kind of wonder what Your flue is looking like as well :jawdrop:
I'm not trying to poke fun at You ,but something just doesn't seem right if You are using a scraper to clean Your glass .
 
I had a good bit of residue on my new stove but once I figured out the air controls and got it burning nice and hot (450-550) it all flaked off and is crystal clear now.
 
I just use a dry paper towel folded several times and open the door and go around the glass real quick and close the door.....that works pretty good for me, of course, I am cleaning the glass on my cornstove, as my wood furnace in the basement doesn't have glass.. :)

Todd
 
The one thing that will keep glass clean is a good hot fire. I've been burning my furnace close to 2 months now and have cleaned the glass once or twice. I like to think of the glass as self cleaning when a good fire is burning. If I do clean it, I dip some newspaper in ash and clean the glass that way.
 
The new stoves are awesome for keeping the glass clean. My Napoleon 1100 is perfect in that regard, never so much as turns brown. My old Buck Stove, on the other hand, always picks up a film of soot, no matter how hot the fire or how seasoned the wood. Ashes work great for cleaning the glass.

Jack
 
I like my Nashua but keeping the glass clean is all but impossible. The glass will turn black if I'm burning popcorn fart dry cedar and the stove temp is 700 degrees. And then there are days for no apparent reason the glass will majically turn clear on its own. The black film is easy to clean though with a wet paper towel when I do clean it.
 
The black film is easy to clean though with a wet paper towel when I do clean it.

Yep, I was doing the wet cloth/ash thing and found out that it works just as well without the ash. Helps if the cloth is wet with hot water.

Ian
 
My Napoleon 1900 has been burned pretty lightly this fall. My glass will certainly get dark, especially around the edges and corners when I'm just burning it to take the chill off. It cleans up pretty good with a nice HOT fire. I too occasionally have to scrape it to make it look like new!
 
I have 2 wood stoves but I burn pretty hot fires with wood seasoned for about 2yrs so its not too much of a problem for me. However when I was living in my previous house my wood burner seemed to cloud up the glass pretty quick & I found that tar and insect remover from the automotive shop worked a treat. Does not scratch and polishes the glass up nicely.
 
I like my Nashua but keeping the glass clean is all but impossible. The glass will turn black if I'm burning popcorn fart dry cedar and the stove temp is 700 degrees. And then there are days for no apparent reason the glass will majically turn clear on its own. The black film is easy to clean though with a wet paper towel when I do clean it.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! Keeping the glass clean in my Jotul is flat out impossible. 3 year seasoned ash & locust or scraps from the local cabinet builder, doesn't matter. The airwash system in this particular model just sucks. I clean the glass everytime its cool enough. We'll see how the new-to-me Century (CFM) stove does. Looks like a simple but better design for keeping the glass cleaner. FYI, I've had the best sucess using Windex with Vinegar. Spray it on, let it sit for a minute or so, wipe clean with a papertowel.
 
if the split or log ends are longish and right up against the glass in your firebox ,it will often dirty up quick even if its well seasoned wood
 
I've got to ask , just what are You burning that You need to scrape the glass ? I kind of wonder what Your flue is looking like as well :jawdrop:
I'm not trying to poke fun at You ,but something just doesn't seem right if You are using a scraper to clean Your glass .

Nixon, I've got a High Valley Model 1500 Insert and its a copy of a Buck Stove. I burn Red Oak White Oak and Hickory. Most of the wood is pretty seasoned because I've been out with my new Dolmar 7900 cutting down some big dead standing. I just had a big truckload of unseasoned red oak logs delivered, so this may change soon. Before I got my saw I was buying "facecords" of moderately seasoned wood. Wood that was from two or three year old logs that the operator split as he sold the wood.
Anyhow, this insert will blacken the glass on the edges real bad. I get my stove up to about 500-600F with the cat on, but as the fire dies down and the temp drops it will smoke the glass. It's supposed to have "airwashed" glass. Unfortunantely, I have not found this to be the case.
My Uncle, who heats with wood and lives at 9600' in the Rockies doesn't have this problem with his freestanding Vermont Castings Stove that he's had since '92. I think that this is a problem endemic to "Buck" type stove inserts. I run my air vents wide open but the draw in my stove ain't all that great. I have to leave the door of my insert cracked open to get my fire going enough to engage the cat and then it will take off. I close the door and engage the cat pretty much simultaneously.
Any advice from longtime Buck Insert users is appreciated. It takes me one minute to scape the creosote off my glass and sometimes it will pretty much burn off by itself when the fire hits about 600F.
 
All this talk about glass cleaning and this weekend my stove glass has stayed as clean as the windows on the house. I've got a theory its got something to do with barometric pressure and OAT vs stove temps. It was nice and cold this weekend with falling baro. Plus I had a mostly blue fire going.
The whole baro thing is whether your chimney wants to suck or blow. During the summer I remove the stove pipefrom the chimney to catch the birds and I have a clear plastic bag at the bottom of the chimney pipe. Some days the bag is blown out tight and some days its sucked in like a vacuum. Basically house pressure vs outside air pressure. Now I figure same thing plays out in the winter even when I'm burning. Heating the chimney obviously keeps gases going out but on some days its fighting the air thats actually trying to get in thus draft isn't as good as days where it wants out regarless of heat. These past few days with falling baro and a good dry fire the gases get out quickly. No smoke stays in the stove long enough to darken the glass.
whuuuuuwee! Is your brain fried yet! heheheh
 
I Depends on the Glass

The glass itself has much to do with it. Some wood stove or fireplace glass is easy to clean. However, it is impossible to clean others. High heat can bake the surface of some heat-proof glass to such an exent that no cleaning or scraping by anything can make it completely transparent. :angry:
 
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