What do we use to clean the glass in our stoves.

Just wondering what others use to clean their glass windows.

Burning the hazellnut shells leaves behind a dark stain in from a day or two to ?? depending on the burn rate.

Low burn will skunk up the glass fairly fast.

I vacuum the glass first to get any loose dust off and then wipe it with a wet paper towel.
I then use an SOS pad and clean the stuborn stuff off followed by another wet towel and then a dry one.

I have tried most of the spray cleaners and they dont seem to do much to get the junk off.

Just currious.

Snowy

The Quad running on pellets can be cleaned easily with a wet towel.

The nut shells leave a somewhat sticky film that cooks onto the glass over time and it requires some serious elbo grease to get it off.


Snowy

I have used the old SOS pads forever to get the crap off the glass followed by a damp towel and then a dry one.

I have thought about really cleaning the glass then applying car wax in an attempt at keeping the crap from sticking.

Any body ever try that ???

Smokey

I have tried using the stove top cleaner (we have one of those cook tops) and the stuff just won't hack the stuff that is left by the nut shells.

The Advantage stays the cleanest of any stove I have ever burned the shells in. The LH front panel will skunk up some but the center one and the RH one stay pretty clean.

The difference from side to side may be due to the fact that my little scatter device tends to spread a little more of the shells to the center and RH side and the fire burns a little bigger over there ??????/

I stay away from harsh chemical solvents as it tends to stink up the house, then I catch HE** :bug: for making a bad smell.

I try not to let the glass get real dirty as it takes longer to get the crap off then.

Snowy

I have run the stove on high but it does not seem to do anything to the stuff on the glass at all.

I am thinking the issue may be the level of broken nut meats that are always present in this stuff.

The material on the glass reminds me of baked on "Splatter" on the oven window in the kitchen.

The stack always has a very sweet "cooking smell" too

Must be the oils cooking out of the nut meat pieces that are in this stuff. ??????????

Running on a higher setting from the gitgo after a cleaning, is always better but I can't run the stove that hot for too long or it will run us out of the house.

Setting 1 or 2 is about it. 1 is great for days when the temps are 50F outside but cloudy and with temps down near or below 40F 2 works great.

If we come in and the house is fairly cool (62F or so) I can run 3 for a short time to bring the temp up but then need to set back to 1 or 2 just to keep it comfy.


Ahhhh well, not perfect but the fuel heats good and is cheap.


Snowy

Just got an email from a friend over the other side of our area here (5 miles or so)
They have a Whitfield Advantage 2T like ours and the windows smoke up just about the same and they are using nothing but premium wood pellets.

The one thing different is that the haze from the pellets wipes off easily with a damp rag unless its been allowed to stay there for quite a while he says.

Must be the nature of the beast me thinks.

The quads seem to stay pretty clean for quite a while but, they run either full on or shut off (the 1000)

I wonder if a stove with a tall chimney drafts enough more to pull enough more air through the air wash system to keep the glass clean ???


Interesting question

Snowy

The age of the stove will not bother it at all as far as the time between cleanings.

Just keep the ash traps, exhaust fan and the pipes clean and it will be fine.

My issue is due to the fuel being burned.

The nut shells have a lot of nut meat peices that burn up but also give off a slightly oily residue in the smoke that tends to stick to the glass.

Every Biomass fuel is going to have a different set of issues to deal with.

Combustion no matter how good leaves waste products behind.

My choice to use the shells is one that is driven by the minimal cost to obtain the materials.

$50 a ton or less (depending on where I get it) against $200 + a ton for pellets.

( The last shells I got amounted to 2500 ## and was to just top off the storage for the season and cost me $35)

The issue with the shells is that it is a waste product that has to be disposed of and is of a finite quantity. Great thing is that it comes again next fall about October)

The shells give off a little more heat per pound too.

Down side

Stove needs to be cleaned more often due to fly ash buildup. (About twice as much or more)

2 days burning and the stove gets the ashes removed and the windows cleaned.

3 weeks and I vacuum the ash traps.

Takes only a small amount of time to do but must be done.

The window thing is just more esthetics than function.

I like to have a clear view of the fire.


Bottom line here is, that I put up with a little more maintenance to save a lot of $$$$ in heating costs over the season.

With the addition of the Prodigy and the change from the Earth stove to the Whitfield this comming winter (2010-2011) will see us use the shells almost 100%

In the past we used the nut shells in the Earth Stove only during really cold weather and let the Quad handle the rest of it on Pellets.

Its an economic manuever all the way.

Winters would generally cost us about $600 to heat the place.

This coming year I expect to see that number fall to about $150 or less.

Even with the Changes in the stove arrangement, all the wrangling of deals (Buying and selling) I have come out with little extra $$$$ out of the check book.

I sold my Old Earth stove and hearth pad for just about what it cost me to buy the used Whitfield Advantage 2T and the extras that I did to make the install nice.

From here on its a good cost saving measure.

I am the stove keeper around here and do the dirty work, so nobody else complains about the extra cleaning chores ;-)

Gotta do everything we can to help offset the economic downturn ya know.


Snowy

Hmmm I want to try some of this stuff.

Really would be nice to find something that would keep me from having to use the SOS pad.

Those things are nasty after the first couple times getting the crap off the window.

Wen I got the Advantage 2 T the window and basically the complete stove looked as though It had not been cleaned in years.

I used oven cleaner on the glass the first time to get the crap off. It was so thick, I doubt that any of the fire would have shown through.

ARRRRRRRRRG.

Stove belonged to an old couple in their late 70's maybe 80's and I am suspect that they were in poor health too.

Likely did not do anything to the stove other than run it..

Sad to use a piece of equipment that way.

Great to hear all the different ways folks keep the glass clean.

Snowy