How often do you clean the stove glass?

No prob Harvestman... I forgot to specify but that pic was in fact with a load of Ecobricks, you can see the charred bricks through the one section of clear glass - that straight horizontal line that is visible is the edge of one of the bricks.

 

Here are the results of a couple test runs of my Fireview stove. Both runs used Silver Maple chunks and the stove was perhaps 2/3 full. The first run was using a .25 air setting and the second run was at an air setting of 0. In both cases, I did not experience any of the black soot buildup on the glass. I hope to do a few more test runs in the future using a full load of red or white oak to see if the results are the same.

I was surprised by these runs because in both of them, there were periods of "black screen" but at some point both had rolling flames from the top of the stove that lasted over an hour in duration. STT got up to between 600 and 650 for both runs. While I still prefer my normal flame show, I will give this very low burning stuff a little more chance ... perhaps I'll get to like it more. I didn't know I could run the stove at zero as well as it is running, but perhaps this is due to having a 28 foot chimney (and I ran with key damper fully open).

 

I'm not sure if i'd call 600-650 stt a low burn! It seems the Fireview does not idle nearly as low as the IS. I think with a load like you describe in the IS if you ran it at 0 it'd probably go out. I've run loads down to 0 in my IS but they are usually the loads of mostly ecobrick. Ash packed in there absolutely full might be able to run a low burn at 0 but usually a couple notches up for a low burn. Maybe something higher btu like good dry locust or oak or hickory but I've never been able to test anything really good in the IS. And when I talk low burn I'm thinking 350-400 stovetop. 600-650 would be a high burn for me, I don't normally even go that high, but different stoves so not a direct comparison of course.

 

I guess the only thing left for me to do is burn at air setting zero and shut down the key damper; I hesitate to do this as the Fireview on occasion will back-puff ... and I hate the slightest smell of smoke in the house (a problem with my old hearthstone, but not the Fireview).

Agreed. Would love to be able to try out an IS or BK but that just won't happen in my current home.

Oh, I eventually get there after a couple hours and then it stays in that range for quite a while.

 

If the Fireview is working out well I wouldn't even bother thinking about switching it up! Those are pretty stoves

 

Well the glass never completely blackens. At worst it is 50% coated, the remainder is clear enough to watch the fire during warm up. Also important is that the bk only uses single pane glass unlike the double pane glass of the Woodstock. So yes, very low burn rates and single pane glass add up to 50% glass blockage.

 

I clean mine every morning before reload. I hate dirty glass


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I just cleaned mine again. Seems I'm doing it about once a month. How low I burn, and how dry the wood is I burn has a lot to do with how bad the glass gets

 

I clean the glass when it is cool enough to clean. I like a clean glass. It seems that just wiping it does not remove that much so I wait for the glass to be cool enough to spray it with a foaming glass cleaner.

 

I clean it when it is dirty! LOL
Makes for better heat transfer too.

Wet newspaper dipped in ashes does a really great job!

 

Good to see everyone else's thoughts on this. I think I'm discovering the shed floor crud is a bigger cause of dirty glass than anything in my situation. It's been 25 days since cleaning, and the glass has a slight haze with some black right near the bottom.

 

I'll give it a quick wipe down with wet paper towels once a week, and that takes care of the worst of it. If it's warm enough around here and the stove goes cold, I'll use this stuff I found at Menard's. it works really well.

 

I use a foaming glass cleaner I picked up at Big Lots (Use to be a close out store in its early days but not any more). I find that even the larger buildups will come off after a few repeated soakings; which is why the foaming cleaners are better, it stays in place to dissolve the coating. I use paper towels for the scrubbing.

 

I used to clean it every time I shut down to clean ashes out. This year I think I've done it twice. It's such a faint haze, why bother. Little tiny one inch shadow on each side you really don't notice.
It does look nice when it is clean though.

 

Kinda like a car windshield!

 

Tried the ash + wet microfiber towel method yesterday on the insert. Magic ! Thanks for that. Another great learning from FHC.
Happy burning and stay warm.
Greetings from Munich, Germany.

 

I never clean the glass on ether the Hampton or the Buck. They are both always clean enough that I can see the fire. The Buck is an 80's vintage stove but the glass stays as clean as my Hampton. Chief

 

Danke MFG


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