Stove Door Glass Cleaning Remedy

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blueflame75

New Member
Oct 1, 2009
50
Upstate NY
I have tried a few different products (aerosol cleaners, dawn, ash) to clean my stove door glass over the last 2 or 3 months, retail cleaners are becoming to expensive. So, the other night in basement i happened to see i had some Simple Green and decided to try it. I sprayed my glass and let it sit for about 5 minutes, no dilution. Then I took a nice new razor blade and literally cleaned the glass in less than 10 minutes as the pictures show. I then wipe it a few times and then clean it again with some Windex to make it clear as new. I have tried this little trick a few times now and it seems to work quite well, and it's cheap.
 

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Good "tip & trick"
Thanks

Mine stays clean in the middle & cleans up 90% when i run it on high for a couple hours.
But the right & left lower corners dirty back pretty quick when on anything but high.
 
My glass never gets that bad. It looks to me like your burning green wood or at to low of temps.
 
I agree with Jack, I have the F1100, next size smaller than yours. Usually there is only a grey haze
that wipes off easily with a damp paper towel. Sometimes I may get a dark spot if a log roles up against the glass but this comes off with a ash on a damp paper towel.
Probably need dryer wood and/ or to burn hotter.
 
burrrrrrr blueflame...how can you let the stove go cold in weather like this? Next time in the morning when the stove is the coolest use a wet paper towel to clean off the glass...make sure you're wearing leather gloves. If you have well water use bottled water or you could permanently haze the glass...that's what someone here told me to do and it works. One minute=DONE!
 
Yeah, you are obviously shutting down your primary air too quickly. The only time my glass gets anywhere near close to your glass is when I put in a full load before bed and am too tired to give it a good 20 minutes or so of full air to get it going.
 
This particular example that i gave i was burning some trash wood so the glass dirtied (is that a word:) up more than usual. Under my normal burning conditions i am left only a thin film or haze. my Simple Green trick was for heavy cleaning. I should have mentioned that earlier in my first thread.

What temperature do you all like to burn at?
 
Doesn't a razor blade tend to leave scratches on the "glass", since it's not technically glass but ceramic? I also read that etching the glass weakens it since glass and ceramic is scored in order to cut it.
 
What temperature do you all like to burn at? Someone's usually home here so we're always burning for heat...hardly ever for longevity.

So 500°+ ...we're raking coals forward and reloading at 450°. Most of the time all we have in there is 3 splits in different burn stages...at night a few more but still we're burning wide open throttle. When you get older it's harder to rack up more than 3 hrs at a time anyway so reloadings no problemo.
 
Clean it easily with wet/damp newspaper on the cold glass. Use some
ash for the stubborn spots.

Causes: stove design, operating tempertures or wood
moisture content. Sometimes, a bit of all!
 
I like the Rutland stuff. It won't clean when the glass is tha bad but a quick hot burn will clean off everything but the corners and then I just rub with a paper towel + buff. Every Feb Home Depot puts fireplace stuff on sale for almost 75% off. I got a bunch of chimney rods (good for other stuff too), brush, firestarter and some glass cleaner last year for peanuts. One bottle has lasted me a year and a half, but honestly I don't get too picky about cleaning the glass unless company's coming over. I figure if the glass is getting too dirty its a good indication what the rest of my system is suffering.

I also got a firewood ring for $10 which is one of my favorite things.
 
I converted to cold ashes as a glass cleaner once I read about it here. Works like a charm. ;-)
 
perplexed said:
I converted to cold ashes as a glass cleaner once I read about it here. Works like a charm. ;-)

Yes cold ashes, as hot ones are a little hard to hold! LOL
Just stick the wet newspaper in them.

Almost instantly cleans stove glass. Glad you like it too!
 
With glass that dirty I'd be more worried about creosote in the flue.
Trash wood or not;
Don't be tight, burn it right.
 
My home is 3yrs old 1500sqft ranch and is airtight. If i burned at a constant clean burning temp(400-600 degrees) i would be run out of the house, and that's with junk wood. So occasionally i have a burn that creates soot. The next burn i will burn at max temps to clean my stove completely out per advice from my stove installer. It was 6 degrees last night and inside was and still is 76 degrees. I can't wait to get my Bio-Mass Burning Stove Tax Credit back in April. I will be using the casheola to build some type of shelter for my wood next winter. Tarping my wood pile is the pits.
 
00 steel wool...haven't tried that.
 
I have used the newspaper trick just a few times to clean the glass if we were having company over or something. For the most part mine stays pretty clean except for maybe the lower corners once in awhile. My glass only got like BlueFlamers once when I loaded up before bed, was too tired and shut the air down too far too quick. After a hot burn the next day it cleaned itself though.

As for burning temps, I have a hard time burning it really hot also unless I want to start opening windows in our house. We have not had a ton of days in the single digits with howling winds yet though either so nice to know I have the extra heating capacity still when I am going to need it.
 
Valhalla said:
Clean it easily with wet/damp newspaper on the cold glass. Use some
ash for the stubborn spots.

Causes: stove design, operating tempertures or wood
moisture content. Sometimes, a bit of all!


+1 . . . couldn't have said it any better myself.

Last year I tried all kinds of stuff before finally realizing that about the only thing better than not getting the glass all gunked up by running the stove hot enough and not using unseasoned wood was to go with the wicked cheap and easy method of using wet newspaper and ash when needed.

Folks have all kinds of tips and tricks and I have no doubt that the oven cleaner, razor blades, Simple Green, Soylent Green, Rutland Spray, Roofing Cement, etc. or what have you work . . . but I guess my feeling is that you really can't beat free newspaper from my local weekly, water from the tap and some ash . . . I mean . . . it's about as cheap as you can get . . . and more importantly it works well.

I will say however that while I generally only swipe the glass when the fire has gone down to low coals, I don't wait for the glass to go cold . . . although I am careful to not get burned and don't use freezing cold water on the sometimes warm to hot glass. Typically I use only two sheets . . . and this year not much ash.
 
That razor blade will haze that 'glass' eventually, me thinks. I rarely clean mine as a bit of grey and ash do not bother me. I know how my fire is burning without staring to see the flame/fire. I usually only clean it if we are having company - at the wife's request.
 
CTwoodburner said:
That razor blade will haze that 'glass' eventually, me thinks. I rarely clean mine as a bit of grey and ash do not bother me. I know how my fire is burning without staring to see the flame/fire. I usually only clean it if we are having company - at the wife's request.

Sharp blades can be pretty ragged at the edge. Well, most every blade looks quite ragged and dull as long as you zoom in enough. The burrs and lumps can cause micro scratches. You can buff (i.e. further sharpen) the razor on both edges by just running it at a small angle along your tightened Levi pants leg (or equiv.). Run the last several swipes on the same edge that will touch the glass. This will bias that edge to a non marring curve.

This sounded ineffective when I first heard it - but the years have proven it true!

- Bill
 
Bill_in_CV said:
CTwoodburner said:
That razor blade will haze that 'glass' eventually, me thinks. I rarely clean mine as a bit of grey and ash do not bother me. I know how my fire is burning without staring to see the flame/fire. I usually only clean it if we are having company - at the wife's request.

Sharp blades can be pretty ragged at the edge. Well, most every blade looks quite ragged and dull as long as you zoom in enough. The burrs and lumps can cause micro scratches. You can buff (i.e. further sharpen) the razor on both edges by just running it at a small angle along your tightened Levi pants leg (or equiv.). Run the last several swipes on the same edge that will touch the glass. This will bias that edge to a non marring curve.

This sounded ineffective when I first heard it - but the years have proven it true!

- Bill

Now that i've had some feed back on what possibly can happen if i use razor blades to clean my stove door glass (i'm a newbie) I will try other methods described in these posts. Thanks for all the input. I'm not one to be PC about anything so

Merry Christmas All
 
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