Cleaning the enamel of a Jotul 118?

I was lucky enough to find a Jotul 118 and this will be my first season using it as a sole source of heat. The green enamel finish is beautiful. I would like to keep it looking good so it holds up for years to come. Do I need to use some sort of polish and buffer to do so?

Thanks for that! There does seem to be some whitish residue spots in places and I was just curious if there was something above and beyond a clean wet rag to get rid of those blemish areas. I can be a bit OCD though.
[
quote="begreen, post: 1592924, member: 5"]No, a clean damp rag is sufficient for most cleaning.[/quote]

It's for a small two level studio space which is right around 700 square feet. I'm still dialing in a consistent stack temperatures that doesn't turn the downstairs into a sauna or the upstairs into the cool dip afterwards.

I still haven't filled it up for an overnight, but after this milder stretch I'll fill it closer to capacity.

I am loving it though! Great aesthetics aside, I love the front to back cigar burn and it heats the place up quite quickly. Just taking me a bit fine tuning start ups because I'm not used to such a narrow box. I'm used to having more space to stack tinder, kindling, smalls and mids etc..

quote="My Oslo heats my home, post: 1592936, member: 14619"]Aside from your cleaning question, how many sq ft are heating with the Black Bear? I have always been a fan of that stoves style, and I like the look, but the stove size and the heat it produced was not enough to soley heat my home. Burn times were also not enough to make it worth it. How well does it work for you?[/quote]

xman23 said:

My Oslo, green enamel has a quarter size dull finish spot on the top. I assume it was from a water spill when we had a cast iron trivet and water pot. I've seen many water spills that just bubble away, but something caused this spot. The finish is real hard, glass like.
There's not much you can do, but I have used lemon pledge for years when it's cold or just warming up to clean up the dust. That stove shines, smells great and covers up the dull spot. It came back a day later, dam I thought I fixed it the first time.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that! It is such a beauty of a stove that I have to remind myself it's not a museum piece. It's nice though, its a great example of form and function not outweighing one another.

PA. Woodsman said:

I usually just wipe my stove down with a wet paper towel and dry it with a clean paper towel. Good luck and enjoy your stove!

Click to expand...

Great suggestions from everyone! Very much appreciated! I think I will look into the ceramic glass cleaner/cook top cleaner option as I have already tried the basics with paper towel and the spots are still there. I'm thinking, that like with an automotive finish where they have to wet sand (very mild abrasive compound), the same may apply in this application.

I will seek sage council from my neighbor who is an auto restorer and let you all know the outcome. Thank you for reminding me about trying it on a more out of the way area just in case!

Cheers all!

Nick Mystic said:

I had one small spot on our Majolica Brown Porcelain F600 stove that wouldn't come off using the vinegar/water spray I use on the glass, so I tried a little bit of toothpaste on a paper towel and that seemed to work pretty well. It took a couple of attempts to completely remove it, but after a couple of minutes of rubbing it was gone.

Click to expand...

Toothpaste! Who would have thought! It makes prefect sense though and it will leave the stove feeling minty fresh

Last week I picked up something that I haven't used in quite some time. I got a chain sharpening kit for my Dremel and give it a whirl on a chain that was on its way out. It works like a charm!

The reason I brought up the Dremel, is that after get some of your suggestions, I recalled that I had used it and its standard polishing compound of something similar to the stoves enamel finish. I wiped everything down with a clean rag, found an area out of the way for a test patch and I was blown away.

There was some baked in white streaks and now I think I know what the culprit may have been. I think it may have been some water spillage from the pot I having sitting atop the stove. The water was originally ported from the main house and the water in the house is treated with a salt water system. It also could have been some dried up soap residue that wasn't thoroughly rubbed out before firing the stove up.

I'm happy that I went around the stove polishing because the secondary top portion that is above the baffle and connected to the flue has some issues around the seam. As I was polishing some finer flecks of ash came out of the seam area. I'm guessing I might want to fill it with some of that compound that cures with the heat?

I'd love to know what I should do with it. In the meanwhile I will do some research via: a 118 manual.

Cheers and I'm so happy I stumbled across this very helpful and welcoming community.

It must be something with people who take the time and put in the sweat equity to heat their home, hearth and hearts with wood.