PowerSwitch

OK, just how do I get the brown/black crap off without hurting the glass?

We have given up - we don't bother cleaning the glass anymore. Let the fire do it when it is roaring!

I dont bother either to be honest, but you could always try a product like this:-
http://www.fluesystems.com/sundries/inf ... leaner.htm

Dampen a cloth/piece of paper towel, dip it into the wood ash and scrub the glass with the wood ash, remoistening as necessary. Polish off which a dry cloth/towel.

Don't waste your money when ash if free.

Run the stove hotter. They only tar up when run too cold.

Tar on the glass comes off when they're hot, but if you want to do it by hand, ash, water and newspaper. Or one of those scrapers that you get paint off glass.

I tried all sorts of things. Scraping it off with one of those strippers with a plastic handle containing a Stanley knife blade, when it was very hot, kind of worked, but tended to soften the plastic. I think Kenneals wood ash solution worked best.

My stove was pretty big, and running it hot all the time would have cost a fortune in wood, and it often wouldn't burn really hot anyway, because the flue didn't draw well in some weather conditions.

That's why I dream of a passive solar house .

Vortex wrote:OK, just how do I get the brown/black crap off without hurting the glass?

Spray on foaming oven cleaner. The sort that burns your lungs & makes you choke if you accidentally inhale it. Use when the doors are warm, not red hot. rub off vigorously with a scourer, green scottex or something like that, then sponge down with warm water, wipe dry. - NB DON"T use the silvered metal type of scourer or you'll scratch the glass.

If heavily gunked up might take two or three repeats. Allow foam to work for up to half an hour before scouring.

PS
Rubber gloves advised unless you want to lose the skin off the ends of your fingers.

skeptik wrote:

Vortex wrote:OK, just how do I get the brown/black crap off without hurting the glass?

Spray on foaming oven cleaner. The sort that burns your lungs & makes you choke if you accidentally inhale it. Use when the doors are warm, not red hot. rub off vigorously with a scourer, green scottex or something like that, then sponge down with warm water, wipe dry. - NB DON"T use the silvered metal type of scourer or you'll scratch the glass.

If heavily gunked up might take two or three repeats. Allow foam to work for up to half an hour before scouring.

PS
Rubber gloves advised unless you want to lose the skin off the ends of your fingers.

Are you sure? I read somewhere that that stuff was caustic and didn't agree with the door seals.

contadino wrote:
Are you sure? I read somewhere that that stuff was caustic and didn't agree with the door seals.

Works for me. I have a Deville wood burner with a large glass door. Yes it is caustic and Im not spraying the door seal, just the glass. I suppose you could always run some tape over the seal if worried. Rinse well. Caveat Emptor!

Updated: Tried the ash trick - works well. Thanks for that!

Also tried alcohol - isopropyl I think - but this had no effect.

We find that the only real answer is to burn the fire hot every few days. That cleans the glass. It's a stove designed to keep the window clean by virtue of the way the air flows.

Vortex wrote:Updated: Tried the ash trick - works well. Thanks for that!

Also tried alcohol - isopropyl I think - but this had no effect.

You're supposed to put it on a cloth and rub the door with it, not drink it (sorry couldn't resist...)

RenewableCandy wrote:You're supposed to put it on a cloth and rub the door with it, not drink it (sorry couldn't resist...)

But if you drink enough you won't be bothered if the stove glass is clean

Ash and water is your only man.

We never run ours hot enough to burn off the crud: which probably means the stove is overkill for the cottage.

We find that burning the stove hot only gets some of the gunk off because we get the odd vortex in the airflow in the stove which means that some parts get cleaned while other build up and fire on.