How often do you clean the stove glass?

Haven't had to clean the glass yet this year.

But wood I'm burning was cut in 2010....so.....it's seasoned nicely.

 

I don't worry much about the door glass. If I have company coming over I might clean it, but that is maybe once a winter lol. I guess I'm more of a hermit and all my family is out of state and I don't really know anyone in my county.

It gets coated black during a low burn, but usually letting it rip for a bit on the next load cleans it right up. Just a light grey/white ashy haze remains and while the fire is burning it's still nicely visible.

 

I like to burn it pretty hot. So about once a month or so when we get a warm spell I'll burn it down pretty good and clean the ashes and glass and cat then start over.

 

All this talk of viewing fire through clean glass has me jealous. Guess I need to give it a good cleaning as I too like to enjoy the view

 

Is there any particular reason that the Blaze King owners have black glass and your stove does not do that?

 

Have not had to clean the front glass once this season, wood is dry, burns hot keeps glass clean.

bob

 

You guys jinxed me with this thread!

I lit a fire (30-NC stove) before going to bed, and it was going real nice. I set it for the overnight burn, and all was well. When I got up this morning, the glass was totally black, like I have never seen before! The flame must have gone out early and smoldered all night.

That stuff laughed at me (audibly, really) when I gave it my usual quick swipe with a wet rag. Tried a little vinager, and that allowed some light through the center and top, but it was far from clean. Now I am subjecting it to the cleansing fires, and will try again later with a little ash on the rag.

 

Rethinking (I do that a lot), I like to see the fire......it allows me to know how the fire's doing. I sit about 15' from the stove, with a good line-of-sight, so having the glass clean, works. If there's a heavy haze (usually after an overnight fire), a good hot-ish morning fire will clean most of it.
If I really feel ambitious or just think it's time, or just because I want to, I'll clean the glass. The towels go right onto the coals. Not always a whole lot of rhyme or reason.
I still have some Rutland glass cleaner from several years ago, that I probably haven't used in over a year.

 

I've mentioned in a couple other threads that some of the Oak I have is still not quite dry, so when I'm setting up the overnight fire, I have to make sure the flame doesn't go away or I'll wake up to the same thing.
I've had the "fire" go out after setting the air way down, then need to open the air back up and have a do-ovah.
Not saying this is your issue, but you may be on the right track in thinking the fire went out sooner than expected (for whatever reason).
So far this season, the glass hasn't gotten black, just a medium brown.

 

I don't think my shed floor crud helps, or poor draft when the weather is warm. If our current weather was typical weather ,my chimney would look like a submarine periscope thing!

 

I don't think it is possible to design such a stove when it is burned at such a low air environment. While I have not owned a BK or an IS, I have read that both suffer from black glass when operated in very low slow burning situations. I am not sure if the Fireview can burn at such low levels and I have not yet tried - I suspect if I burned at a setting of 0 or .25, I might too get the buildup - I enjoy the flames too much to have even tried it yet. Perhaps I'll give it a go in the near future to see what happens.

 

And perhaps the way the wood was split!!

 

can't agree more. I know that T-Stew has burned his IS loaded with the extremely low moisture content CWF bricks and I'm pretty sure he got black build-up doing it (he can correct me if I am mistaken). I know that when I burn at .5 air with my Fireview, I get some carbon on the soapstone walls but not on the glass. I also read the IS thread where they talk of creosote buildup in the ash pan area; I've never seen anything like creosote in almost 2 years of burning the Fireview.

This belongs in the "myth" thread ... so says an owner of a horizontal only splitter.

 

Very interesting reading the replies in this thread. We have a Lopi Freedom Bay insert and have always had dirty glass issues. I can get the fire hot enough that it burns off any build up on it most nights, but when I load it up and get it ready for an overnight burn, every morning the glass is dark brown/black. Next day the hot fire cleans it again (mostly anyway) but the overnight burns always form a suet build up. I'm burning pretty good wood; ~2 year old oak & hickory. I can run a wet paper towel over it and get most to come clean, but I haven't learned how to make the insert keep itself clean yet.

 

Yes, but only on the really low burns. Usually burns pretty clean if there is some secondaries going. But the no flame and dark firebox leaves my door coated black though it seems to burn clean after the cat (no smoke). I've run plenty of Ecobricks through the stove, and my ash I'm burning was stacked in '13 and under covered porch since fall.



Hard to read but thats 1200F on the cat probe, 500F on the stovetop.

Self cleans just fine the next burn.

 

I must of cleaned it once since I started burning. When I burn hot the glass stays clean...

 

Thanks for the picture and details.

My theory is the BK and IS can burn at lower settings than the Fireview and that the black on the glass happens even with very low moisture fuel. While I will not use CWF, I will attempt a burn in the future of my Fireview at a close to zero air setting to see if I get any build-up.