After a season of burning, what do you do to clean your stove?

[rosencra38]

I'm not talking about the chimney here. I'm talking about the ash marks (Guess that's what you would call it) that are on the surfaces of the stove. I don't want to use water and take a chance of rusting or leaving spots on the stove.

Also, where can someone get replacement bricks for a Quadrafire stove? I've got two that are cracked.

 

[begreen]

After cleaning the glass with Windex I take the still damp paper towel and use that to wipe down the stove. If the ash marks don't come up, I give it a light spray of windex on that area and rewipe with a clean towel.

 

[grommal]

I clean the windows first, usually just with a damp paper towel. As long as my final burn was a small, hot fire, this usually does the trick. I'd use Windex or other glass cleaner if I had to.

How to clean the stove exterior depends on the finish. With flat black stoves, I've found that paper towels can leave little particles of the towel behind. I usually just brush the stove exterior with a stiff brush and then vacuum it. This usually takes care of it. If it needs more, then I'll go for the Windex or equivalent, but I tend to use a cloth instead, because of the paper towel "lint" issue. (Maybe it's just the crappy brand of paper towels that I buy?) After years of burning, a flat black stove becomes flat dark gray. Then, it's a simple matter of a quick spray with stove paint.

I've never had an enamel-finish stove, but I'd imagine that the wet paper towel method would work just fine on that smoother surface.

 

[lorskimac]

I get the same lint problem but less on the matt stove and more on the slate surround, even with a cloth. I'm going to try chamois leather instead.

 

[joshlaugh]

I use vinegar and water to clean the enamel, soapstone, and glass off. Although I am seeing a stain on the soapstone from our humidifying pot that I am not sure how to get off...

 

[mayhem]

Vinegar on a paper towel to clean the glass, it works remarkably well. Follow it up with some windex and you're there.

Clean out the ashpan and I just wipe the exterior down with a Clorox Cleanup or other general purpose clenaing wipe to take care of dust buildup, ash marks and pretty much anything else.

I might also take out the secondary manifold blanket and give it a gentle shake outdoors and maybe rinse it off and let it dry in the sun to get all the buitup ash out of it, but I may just let it sit...I didn't realize last year (first year witht he stove) how fragile it is and tried to vacuum it out. It traps about 8-10 lb of ash over the course of a winter, so I'm inclined to think it shoul dbe either cleaned or replaced regularly...might be worng and it should just be left alone.

 

[Highbeam]

My best stove cleanup jobs were done with a new sponge. A tile sponge to be exact. I would frequently rinse the sponge in fresh water to avoid simply spreading the ash paste around which results in a gray stove. It only took two years for some of the black paint on my cast iron bits to show some wear. It hasn't greyed much though.

 

[summit]

cleaning ashy surfaces is easilly done w/ ash itself. dampen a rag w/ water, then dip it in some of the coarse ash in the rear of the stove. scrub it into the spot. the result is an ashy mess... but here is the key; take a clean damp rag and wipe up the mess you just made! ash is coarse enough to agitate that surface stuff, but because it retains the moisture (and transfers it to the built up ash and soot) it leaves the resulting mess easilly wiped up with a damp cloth. works especially well on stove glass. for rust spots ( or any other spot, even on the glass ) follow up w/ triple 0 steel wool, and a clean cloth.