Dirty Glass

[jatoxico]

Did not want to hijack similar thread since that seems to be different situation.

My question is how to avoid dirty glass as fires burns down. I've been cruising at 450-500 sometimes hotter.

When I let the stove run real hard (650) its a great burn but sooner or later its going to cool some and the glass dirties up some in the corners and along the bottom.

Is this normal? I don't want to run that hard all the time since I don't need that much heat right now and running that hot eats wood I'll want later in the season.

I'm also concered I'm not getting accurate readings w/ the thermo. The other day I let the stove get as hot as I've ever done. The box and glass was super clean but I was afraid I was overfiring. No glowing parts but it is an insert and can't see all parts. I have an IR and temp near flue stack was 500 but stove top thermo (Rutland) was 700+.

Is the Rutland accurate when laid flat or is it trapping heat and reading too hot. Hard to shoot with exactly same place w/ IR due to angle.

 

[Swedishchef]

I can not speak about experiences with your stove. I am certain tons of people have a 550 and will give their ideas.

I have an Osburn 2300. I clean my glass about 3 times a year. I think the biggest problem with stoves that get dirty glass is that the wood is too wet. Perhaps I am wrong and others will chime in...

Andrew

 

[jatoxico]

Only 3 times Chef? You must be cookin'! I've done it that many times already.

Just to be clear, no pun intended, it's not like the whole glass is blacked out. Just hazy in a few spots with some heavier deposits along the edge just aboce the gasket and some on the sides.

Tends to form as fire goes down and on reload as stove is heating back up. Trying not to load on top of heavy coal bed now as that gets too "exciting" for me.

Maybe I'll have to run more wide open for longer on reload to crank the temp up but I was preferring bring it up slow then run 400-500 nice and steady to get some extended burn time.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Only 3 times Chef? You must be cookin'! I've done it that many times already.

Just to be clear, no pun intended, it's not like the whole glass is blacked out. Just hazy in a few spots with some heavier deposits along the edge just aboce the gasket and some on the sides.

Tends to form as fire goes down and on reload as stove is heating back up. Trying not to load on top of heavy coal bed now as that gets too "exciting" for me.

Maybe I'll have to run more wide open for longer on reload to crank the temp up but I was preferring bring it up slow then run 400-500 nice and steady to get some extended burn time.

Every stove is a little different, but, I have found if you are using dry wood that the stove glass does not blacken on the back end of the burn. I believe it has been mentioned that the elements needs to create creosote are not present during this period of the burn cycle.

 

[pen]

I have this problem only if I leave the air completely closed. If I leave my air control just an 1/8 to 1/4 inch open, the burn time really isn't affected and the glass stays clear. On my stove, shutting down the air all the way shuts off the air wash for the glass.

pen

 

[jatoxico]

Well you guys have schooled me on the virtues of good wood. I have my meter and I'm confident the wood is good. Building top down fires with sucess that do well so I must be letting temps fall too much and choking too early on the reloads. Maybe it will be different when outside temps really fall and I need hotter fires to be comfy.

Either that or I'm being too picky.

 

[nate379]

With my stove/setup it's not possible to not have dirty glass.

The glass would stay clean if I ran the stove hard, but I would be wasting wood not to mention it would be crazy hot in the house.

No it's not my wood, it's birch and cottonwood that was split in 2009 and is very dry.

 

[BrowningBAR]

With my stove/setup it's not possible to not have dirty glass.

The glass would stay clean if I ran the stove hard, but I would be wasting wood not to mention it would be crazy hot in the house.

I know for sure it's not my wood. What I am burning now was cut/split and stacked in 2008.

I like the pink door. It matches your avatar. :lol:

 

[nate379]

Must have reflected off my OSHA orange sweatshirt.

 

[BKInsert]

With my stove/setup it's not possible to not have dirty glass.

The glass would stay clean if I ran the stove hard, but I would be wasting wood not to mention it would be crazy hot in the house.

No it's not my wood, it's birch and cottonwood that was split in 2009 and is very dry.

Mine is the same as yours. What settings do you use on yours to "burn" off the creosote?

 

[Jaugust124]

Jatoxico,
I only have 1 season under my belt, so I am by no means an expert. My stove has stove glass is dirty in exactly the same places as yours. It seems like in the fall when its not too cold out, the glass tends to dirty up a bit. I noticed it last year and I've had a bit already this year. As a matter of fact, I have had to run it at 1/2 - 3/4 open (for the most part) I think that's just the way it is in the shoulder season. I could be wrong.
As the season went on for me last year, the glass stayed cleaner longer. At first I was cleaning it every few days and after awhile it became much less so. Mine cruises in that same 450-500 range, occasionally up to about 650. I would bet that as it gets colder you will find that the glass is cleaner. I think I read on here somewhere that the 550 glass does get a little in the lower corners. I don't think you have anything to worry about. You mentioned that your wood is good, so that covers a big part of it. Good luck!

 

[nate379]

My normal setting is the knob straight up and down.

I am told that anything less than ~#1 means the air is shut all the way down though.

To get the door clean a good hot fire running the stove at #2-#2.5 for an hour or so will work. About the only time I'm able to do that and not melt the paint off the walls is if I'm not around to feed the stove for a couple days and the house goes cold.


The first year I was burning (last year) I thought I was doing something wrong. The salesman talked up the air wash and all that... stove so efficient it would darn near clean the chimney for you and never dirty up the glass.

I realized that is more "ideal world" and with my house being well insulated the stove doesn't need to put out much heat to keep the place at 75*


I am finding this year to be even WORSE for dirtying the glass. I made a mistake of making the house more efficient, therefore need even less output on the stove!

The house is about 1400 sq ft and I think even 1/2 the stove could heat the place just fine.

I put wood in the stove around 9PM last night. It's 2PM right now and still 73* in the house. I woke up and actually opened a window in my bedroom because it was too warm. Temp outside right now is 30*

 

[BKInsert]

My normal setting is the knob straight up and down.

I am told that anything less than ~#1 means the air is shut all the way down though.

To get the door clean a good hot fire running the stove at #2-#2.5 for an hour or so will work. About the only time I'm able to do that and not melt the paint off the walls is if I'm not around to feed the stove for a couple days and the house goes cold.


The first year I was burning (last year) I thought I was doing something wrong. The salesman talked up the air wash and all that... stove so efficient it would darn near clean the chimney for you and never dirty up the glass.

I realized that is more "ideal world" and with my house being well insulated the stove doesn't need to put out much heat to keep the place at 75*


I am finding this year to be even WORSE for dirtying the glass. I made a mistake of making the house more efficient, therefore need even less output on the stove!

The house is about 1400 sq ft and I think even 1/2 the stove could heat the place just fine.

I put wood in the stove around 9PM last night. It's 2PM right now and still 73* in the house. I woke up and actually opened a window in my bedroom because it was too warm. Temp outside right now is 30*

Nice! The thermostat settings on mine are different than yours, I have "HI" and "Low" (half a circle) and a few dots in between.

Do you engage the cat to clean the glass? I find that the only way to get a roaring fire is when the door is slightly open, I can not get it hot enough with the cat engaged and thermostat on "HI". The room would be in the 80's (overwellming...) but the stove would not "overfire" hot with door closed, cat engaged and thermostat on HI. But to be honest I only run it for ~25 minutes this way, this is after I get the fire going good with door open for 20 minutes or so. With the same chimney/liner setup I was able to get my QuadarFire 3100i to overfire with door closed and air intake fully open.

 

[Todd]

Did not want to hijack similar thread since that seems to be different situation.

My question is how to avoid dirty glass as fires burns down. I've been cruising at 450-500 sometimes hotter.

When I let the stove run real hard (650) its a great burn but sooner or later its going to cool some and the glass dirties up some in the corners and along the bottom.

Is this normal? I don't want to run that hard all the time since I don't need that much heat right now and running that hot eats wood I'll want later in the season.

I'm also concered I'm not getting accurate readings w/ the thermo. The other day I let the stove get as hot as I've ever done. The box and glass was super clean but I was afraid I was overfiring. No glowing parts but it is an insert and can't see all parts. I have an IR and temp near flue stack was 500 but stove top thermo (Rutland) was 700+.

Is the Rutland accurate when laid flat or is it trapping heat and reading too hot. Hard to shoot with exactly same place w/ IR due to angle.

Could just be a little lack of draft, maybe it will clear up in the colder weather. I don't know what your over fire temps are but have been told to keep cast iron under 700 stove top because the internal temps are pretty much double and cast doesn't like temps over 1400.

 

[jatoxico]

Jatoxico,
I only have 1 season under my belt, so I am by no means an expert. My stove has stove glass is dirty in exactly the same places as yours. It seems like in the fall when its not too cold out, the glass tends to dirty up a bit. I noticed it last year and I've had a bit already this year. As a matter of fact, I have had to run it at 1/2 - 3/4 open (for the most part) I think that's just the way it is in the shoulder season. I could be wrong.
As the season went on for me last year, the glass stayed cleaner longer. At first I was cleaning it every few days and after awhile it became much less so. Mine cruises in that same 450-500 range, occasionally up to about 650. I would bet that as it gets colder you will find that the glass is cleaner. I think I read on here somewhere that the 550 glass does get a little in the lower corners. I don't think you have anything to worry about. You mentioned that your wood is good, so that covers a big part of it. Good luck!

Thanks Jaugust, Good to hear from someone w/ same insert. That's my situation, not black just some haze and dust. The air wash is definitely working as I can see the sparks and smoke when present circulate over the glass. Maybe my best move would be to run one hot fire and let it go out rather than try to add small amounts of wood in an effort to run cooler longer.

Thing is I thought the idea was to run a load, rake the coals forward then reload. When I reload and temp is 300 or so I get smoke and the secondaries are too cold to fire. If I load hot then wa-hoah it is amazing, but don't need that kind of heat right now and I gotta watch it don't get out of control.

The reason I'm obsessing is I'm thinking that I might be laying down deposits in the liner.

 

[jatoxico]

My normal setting is the knob straight up and down.

I am told that anything less than ~#1 means the air is shut all the way down though.

To get the door clean a good hot fire running the stove at #2-#2.5 for an hour or so will work. About the only time I'm able to do that and not melt the paint off the walls is if I'm not around to feed the stove for a couple days and the house goes cold.


The first year I was burning (last year) I thought I was doing something wrong. The salesman talked up the air wash and all that... stove so efficient it would darn near clean the chimney for you and never dirty up the glass.

I realized that is more "ideal world" and with my house being well insulated the stove doesn't need to put out much heat to keep the place at 75*


I am finding this year to be even WORSE for dirtying the glass. I made a mistake of making the house more efficient, therefore need even less output on the stove!

The house is about 1400 sq ft and I think even 1/2 the stove could heat the place just fine.

I put wood in the stove around 9PM last night. It's 2PM right now and still 73* in the house. I woke up and actually opened a window in my bedroom because it was too warm. Temp outside right now is 30*

Well I wish I could say I had your "problem" as far as insulation but I'm with you at least right now cause it is not all that cold yet so I'm running the stove pretty easy.

Under these conditions I'm getting some deposits. If I was to reload hot I would use more wood than I need to and be uncomfortably hot.

 

[pen]

Well I wish I could say I had your "problem" as far as insulation but I'm with you at least right now cause it is not all thay cold yet so I'm running the stove pretty easy.

Under these conditions I'm getting some deposits. If I was to reload hot I would use more wood than I need to and be uncomfortably hot.

Small hot fires are the key to keeping comfortable in the shoulder season temps. A small hot fire will also keep the glass clean where a large load of wood set down low will be more wasteful. Wood stoves work best when allowed to cycle between hot and cold, adjust the size of the wood loaded into the stove for your needs instead of trying to use the air control and maintain a low steady pace. 2 small hot fires a day will be better for chimney deposits, clean glass, pollution, basically everything compared to 1 low slow one.

pen

 

[jatoxico]

Well I wish I could say I had your "problem" as far as insulation but I'm with you at least right now cause it is not all thay cold yet so I'm running the stove pretty easy.

Under these conditions I'm getting some deposits. If I was to reload hot I would use more wood than I need to and be uncomfortably hot.

Small hot fires are the key to keeping comfortable in the shoulder season temps. A small hot fire will also keep the glass clean where a large load of wood set down low will be more wasteful. Wood stoves work best when allowed to cycle between hot and cold, adjust the size of the wood loaded into the stove for your needs instead of trying to use the air control and maintain a low steady pace. 2 small hot fires a day will be better for chimney deposits, clean glass, pollution, basically everything compared to 1 low slow one.

pen

OK I'll take that advice. Guess you have to resign yourself to starting a new fire twice a day. Shame though since the first 30-45 min go to reheating the stove.

BTW what temp do you reload on or is it more about the coaling left?

 

[pen]

I find that I can go up to 10-12 hours between loads this time of year even w/ about 4 pieces of wood put into the stove. I keep more ash built up in the bottom of the stove now than I do during the regular burning season, this seems to help insulate the coals and helps me extend my burn times w/out using much wood.

Remember, if you are burning low and slow and getting some smoke out of the chimney, you aren't getting all the btu's out of the wood that you could have by having a hotter fire where the secondaries make sure all that is burnt up instead of going up the pipe. In other words, my view is that the energy taken to reheat a cool stove is nominal compared to the waste of an inefficient cold fire.

I reload when the house needs more heat. If that means the stove goes out, it goes out. W/ practice, starting a new fire is no big deal. I start getting real heat out of my stove within 15 minutes of lighting it cold.

Every time wood goes into my stove the stove top comes up to at least 550. I can get 600 out of 3 pieces of wood, but it doesn't stay there very long. Just enough to burn clean, keep the stack and glass clean, and take a chill off.

pen

 

[nate379]

Boils down to preference I guess.

I'd rather had the stove running all day keep the house at ~70ish vs doing a 60-80* swing.

There really isn't a shoulder season here unless you consider any temp that isn't below 0 shoulder. There is snow on the ground and it's been in the 20s-30s for a while.

 

[pen]

Boils down to preference I guess.

I'd rather had the stove running all day keep the house at ~70ish vs doing a 60-80* swing.

There really isn't a shoulder season here unless you consider any temp that isn't below 0 shoulder. There is snow on the ground and it's been in the 20s-30s for a while.

You can do the low slow thing w/ the cat stove you have as that is what they do best. It does not work w/ secondary air units. W/out a high enough fire box temp, secondary combustion will not take place. Your cat cleans things up at much lower temps.

pen