What is this on my wood stove door - and how do I get rid of it?

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Morning, all!

Got up a few hours ago...went to look at the stove to see if I had any coals left from last night...and was greeted by a dark brown substance that looked like it had been baked on to the surface of the ceramic door. It was so thick that the flames inside the stove were completely hidden from view.

The only thing that I can think of is that maybe I didn't let the last load get hot enough before I went to bed last night, and the fire just smoldered all night and baked on to the door.

Anyway...I managed to get most of the stuff off, but not all. Anyone have any ideas on what to use to clean ceramic stove doors?

-- dan (dbuchner@fdxsupplychain.com), November 03, 1999

Answers

That brown substance is tar from the wood you're burning. Are you using oak or hickory or some other hard wood? Hard woods burn far cleaner than pine or spruce, which really should not be used because of the creosote and tar buildup they deposit in your chimney. You might also try burning it a bit hotter; don't shut it down quite so far at night.

I simply use glass cleaner on the glass on my stove door.

I

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), November 03, 1999.


That goop is called creostote. It's a by-product of burning wood that can clog up your chimney and cause a fire if you don't get it cleaned out regularly.

Your wood is probably too wet or too soft. I can't believe you didn't know what this was. Not trying to slam you here but this just blows my mind.

-- (YourKidding@right.com), November 03, 1999.


Our fire place insert stove has always done that, no matter what kind of wood we burn. (New, old, dry, damp, the best, the worst - nothing makes any difference.) It doesn't hurt anything, but we enjoy seeing the fire burn. So, we use a single edge razor blade holder (like what you use to scrape the paint off of a window pane after you paint, and scrape it off. A brand new little metal spatula with a good edge will also work and cleans a wider path than a razor blade.

Our glass will get completely blackened if we don't scrape it off every couple days.

-- homestead2 (homestead@monroecty.net), November 03, 1999.


The creosote is also building up in your stove pipe/flue. If you do not clean it periodicly it will eventually catch fire and burn at a couple of thousand degrees & burn your house down. Read about this and find a way to clean it. Hot fires help keep it from condensing. Better a small stove that runs hotter to heat your house than a large one running cooler. I ofen will intentionally cause the creosote to burn IF I KNOW FOR SURE THE LEVEL OF BUILD UP IS LOW. Do NOT ignore this.

-- goldbug (goldbug@mint.com), November 03, 1999.

Any advice on replacing the cord seal that goes around the wood stove doors, please?

"You're Kidding" - I've had the cresote (sp?) problem also and didn't know what it was either. Just scraped it off and made sure that the flue was kept clean...

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), November 03, 1999.



Goldbug, You mentioned something about "burning it out" if you know there isn't much there. Well, I know we don't have much buildup in ours because the chimney is only 2 weeks old. It's one of those tri-walled insulated deals. How do you go about "burning the creosote out"?

-- dan (dbuchner@fdxsupplychain.com), November 03, 1999.

The glass on our stove occassionally gets like that (after being damped down overnight). Get a really hot fire going and it will burn away most of it, but there is a spray on cleaner meant just for it that really works great. Check where you got the stove.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), November 03, 1999.

Did you size it, buy it and install it yourself ?? There are considerations surrounding fire box size in the stove and the smoke box size in your chimney. If these 2 ain't compatible, you are going to have buildup problems in the chimney and/or drawing problems in the stove. Sounds like this may be the case. Most new inserts have a fire box much smaller than the accompanying fireplace. The smoke box (the big area in your chimney above the fireplace that narrows at the top) was built to accomodate the fireplace size. This is why most professional installations of inserts provides a flu liner at least to the top of the smoke box, if not all the way up. Search for various Chimney Sweep sites, they usually explain a lot of this stuff pretty good.

-- BH (silentvoice@pobox.com), November 03, 1999.

Go to Walmart and look at the fireplace supplies area. They sell some stuff you can spray on your wood to help keep the build up down. They also sell a "stick" you throw in the stove or fireplace to put out a chimney fire. It's not a bad idea to have one of those around, too. I bought a chimney brush and the fiberglass rods for cleaning my chimney myself (total cost $30.). It takes about a half hour from start to finish. The only other thing you need is a shop vac to clean up the soot when you are done. I plan to clean it twice a season.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), November 03, 1999.

Deb: Any fireplace shop or store that sells fireplace equipment will have the cord and the adhesive with which to apply it. The hardest part is getting the old stuff off.

-- Vic (Rdrunner@internetwork.net), November 03, 1999.


Dan: Use oven cleaner! Spray on, leave it for twenty minutes, wipe it off, works like a charm. Then use glass cleaner to clean off the streaks. We have a pellet stove and have the same problem.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), November 03, 1999.

The way I clean mine is with the ashes. They have a little lye in them, and are slightly abrasive, so it cleans the goo right off. Gget 2 paper towels, one dry and one saturated with water. Pick up a good amount of ashes with the wet one, scrub the gunk off the window, then use the dry one to buff it clear. Works like a champ.

-- . (.@...), November 03, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

A brand new little metal spatula with a good edge will also work and cleans a wider path

In the after times, any credit card will do nicely.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), November 03, 1999.


Every morning, I spray windex and then lightly rub the cermanic window covered with creosote with a piece of steel wool. Works great. Clean off the mess with another spray of windex and newspaper from the wood box.

-- Jim (jimdev@telusplanet.net), November 03, 1999.

My stove has a catalytic converter, burns that "bad wood" very cleanly and the installer said it wouldn't need to have the flu cleaned. I will anyway...but that glass cleans off with the #0000 superfine steelwool. A bag lasts the season with each piece cleaning easily 2-4 times depending on how much buildup and with out the use of any additional cleaners, which seem to me to increase the problem.

-- Keep'n it Simple (gofishn1@cyberhighway.net), November 04, 1999.


FWIW, a friend recommends tossing a handfull of calcium chloride on a bed of hot coals. Said the creasote would turn to a powder and drop down the chimney. He said this is rock salt, but I read the label as SODIUM chloride, and haven't had the time to determine any difference.

Also, Standard Fusse corp., Easton, MD, makes a chimney fire suppressant called Chimfex. It's like a big flare that is tossed into fireplace or woodstove and gasses up the flue to deplete oxygen.

-- Lee (lchesson@bigfoot.net), November 04, 1999.


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