Woodstove Cleaning

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tynman

New Member
Jun 19, 2008
36
Atlanta, GA
Just curious what everyone here does to clean/maintain your stove and to get it ready for the next burn. Obviously cleaning out ashes and keeping the flue clean on a regular basis, but what else? Any baffle and/or secondary tube cleaning/maintenance, etc?

Thanks!
James
 
I have an older stove, but maitenance for me includes blowing/vacuuming out the baffles to ensure there isn't any ash buildup in them. Beyond that, an occasional tear down and rebuild to reseal the joints and gasket replacement.
 
I empty the ashes every 10 days to 2 weeks, leave some hot coals to restart the new load.
Check the stack every month.
Vacuum the catalytic grate, monthly.
Fire never goes totally out.
 
Check and sweep the chimney once a month whether it needs it or not . . . namely because it is very easy to do from the ground for me.

Empty the ash pan 1-2 times a week.

Swipe the glass with a damp newspaper when I empty the ash pan.


Other than that . . . and my normal Fall/Spring first inspection and last cleaning . . . there's not much else to do other than keep water and potpourri in my steamer and sweep/mop the hearth to make it pretty looking for company.
 
My stove had lots of build-up of ash/soot/creosote near the firebricks on the sides....but it never interferes with anything and when it builds up to a certain point, it falls into the ash at the bottom. Or it burns up and goes up the chimney.

My installer was out 2 days ago to fix something and he cleaned and vacuumed out the whole thing and besides being nice to see it completely clean, I don't think it's doing anything for me :)

The only thing I can see is taking the blower off once a year and giving it a good cleaning/blow-out.
 
Every time I take the ashes out I also take the blower off and vacuum it real well. When I replace my old broken compressor I will just take the blower out to the shop and blow it off. Once a week I have to clean all the ash and haze off the glass.
 
tynman said:
Just curious what everyone here does to clean/maintain your stove and to get it ready for the next burn. Obviously cleaning out ashes and keeping the flue clean on a regular basis, but what else? Any baffle and/or secondary tube cleaning/maintenance, etc?

Thanks!
James

James, somehow I get the picture of you cleaning your stove before every load of wood. If so, you'll do better if you change your practices a bit. Cleaning ashes should involve cleaning all the ashes only at the end of the season. Leave 1-2" of ash in the stove. You do not have to clean the ashes daily either. In the coldest part of winter we probably clean ashes every 4th day. Other times we may go 2 weeks.

On the chimney check it monthly for your first 2 years of wood burning. After that you should then be burning a better quality fuel so creosote problems should stop or very nearly stop. Most folks then will clean the chimney annually or semi-annually.

Remember that wood stoves will get a bit dirty on the inside. That is just part of the process.
 
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