Lots of summer moisture in stove

When I shut it down this early spring, I gave my Harman inset a nice cleaning, including running 28' of brush up the vent pipe. I've been walking by the stove every day since but today I finally looked inside to poke around and was surprised how damp it was inside. I took the side baffle covers off and had trouble twisting the nuts that holds them on as they had started to rust. So I put a container of dessicant in the chamber and a little squirt of silicone on the screws. I now know other threads have discussed moisture, but if you're a first year user like me and haven't seen them or paid attention to them -- watch out for moisture!

Same thing happened to me in my first year. Since then after my spring cleaning I disconnect the OAK & vent from the stove (I simply slide the stove forward a bit). I place baggies with rubber bands over the 2 pipes & place a large desiccant container in the stove and in the hopper along with a lot of wadded newspaper. Works good for me.

Gotta plug'em up..... Place moisture absorber inside ...... And put some Pam on the firebox walls....

(I even paint the entire firebox every Spring/ anything to protect your investment)

I went in the stove department and grabbed a piece of pipe and then headed to plumbing and a employee asked what I was looking for and I said a cap to cover the pipe and he started to direct me back to stoves. I finally explained I want to seal it for summer and why and we found some rubber plumbing caps with hose clamps that slid right over the pipe and a few turns on the clamp and it is sealed from outside. I used plastic bags and electrical tape and covered it last year and also used desicant and painted the interior and my stove still looked horrible compared to this year without doing anything other than capping the pipe.

Leave some ash in there absorb's the moisture, where's your stove in the basement??, get a dehumidifier or run A/C

first new season after a summer of inactivity for me and after reading this post realized I better check the inside of my firebox and, sure enough, there is some surface rust mostly on the burn pot components. Great ideas what to do next season when I shut down for the summer but, as far as starting up will a quick wire brush and re-lube for the burn pot agitator be enough?

i empty my ash bucket,and leave the ash clinging to the fire pot and side walls.....when i get ready to burn in the fall, i give the stove a complete cleaning, right down to using the leaf blower, and all is good! i should also say that i too, unhook my vent pipe and plug the stove in the spring.....why let outside air get into your stove if you dont have to?

yeah humid outside air traveling through the stove while the a/c is going lowers efficiency and causes condensation in the stove and horrible rust issues. I tried a monster thing of damp rid and it didn't even make it two months so I covered the outside pipe and put in another and it still had plenty of life when burn time was on.

first summer for me as well. i got caught out too.
i did the pam treatment and plugged the vent and oak thoroughly.
but i had the "bright" idea to leave the door ajar so the gasket wasn't under compression all summer. and i didn't take the advice on the desiccant .
got condensation and some rust. had to hit it with a wire wheel and sprayed it down with wd 40.
with the coating of pam, it would just have been too difficult to paint.
just one more reason i can hardly wait till it's cool enough to fire it up again.
not too long now by the feel of the night air.

next year- paint and desiccant.

ignore the general consensus of this board at your own risk.

Folks here we have a case of the first summer blues caused by the finding of rust in the works.

A little prevention is worth it's weight in metal when it comes to metal devices through which air can flow, sort of like running that last clean but oiled patch down the barrel of your favorite boom stick.

This is the first year I left the ash in the stove and did not do a complete clean after my final burn. Just looked inside the stove and no rust! Will do a deep clean before my first burn of the fall. I think this maybe the way to go from now on!

ive just placed an open box of baking soda in the hopper (empty, pellets will absorb moisture like a dessicant but can crumble in high humidity environments which could make your first attempted fire of the season your first auger jam of the season) and the burn pot though im hooked to a chimney that still pulls a bit even in summer here in Va we get humidity but i get very little surface rust i suspect due to the drafting flue keeping air moving.

not a fan of just leaving ash to absorb moisture, aside from being harder to clean preseason i would suspect ash laying on the steel would trap moisture against the cooked out bare steel and actually promote pitting. clean the stove out walls and all maybe paint or pam the exposed steel , add a dessicant and if you are in a vent kit maybe stopper the pipe and the OAK if used , leave yourself a reminder in the hopper or on the glass to unstopper the pipes prior to the first fire of the following season.

Checked my stove last night, Also got some minor surface rust. Cleaned, sprayed with Pam and put in a jug of damp rid. Did not Block exhaust pipe!

You can fill your burn pot with rice too

If you accidently start the stove you will make fried rice!

lol at the fried rice...
also a first summer blues guy here..
never cleaned never blocked oak or anything..
just checked no rust... all looks good here..left ashes in ash pan...just emptied out pellets from hopper...
stove upstairs running ac all summer...

The dessicant (or rice for that matter) can not really do you much good. They only reduce humidity to about 50 rel%....the ash from last year with its carbon content and high surface area should do the same trick. If it is just some surface rust...who cares, your car brakes rust too and no one cares ? Putting silicone on the screws is interesting, next time you light up the stove they might light up too ?

I had no issues in two seasons now...all cast iron stove, no problem so far.

I used some high-temp anti-seize on the screws in mine, and a few months later, it was nowhere to be seen when I removed the screws. I suppose it may have kept the threads from rusting, as they were rusted the first time I took them out, but not the second, although the anti-seize was gone.

50% RH is much better than condensing.