End of season cleaning question

[Melissa220]

This being my first burning season, I plan on having my stove professionally cleaned and try to watch how they do it - while staying out of the way!

My question is, how many of you use water in the firebox to completely clean the ash off everything?

 

[heat seeker]

Water + steel/cast iron = rust.
No water used here.
Just brushing and vacuuming should get things clean enough. Some use oil or WD40 to inhibit rust over the summer.

 

[Melissa220]

Figured that. thanx. Think I will go find a stiff bristle brush as I have been using a paint brush to clean all year. While it seems to work fins on the firebox sides, the heat exchangers get more of a build up.

 

[vinny11950]

like Heat Seeker says, brush and vacuum. inspect carefully the inside of the firebox. i do the leaf blower trick while i brush inside (make sure to disconnect the vacuum switch tube before doing this as it might break the switch). i also brush the exhaust pipe. i look for rust spots and touch them up before the humid summer makes it worse. then i spray the fire box with pam cooking oil to protect the metal inside the firebox. i also plug up the exhaust pipe and fresh air pipe so humid air does not get in. finally i put some Damprid to keep things dry inside. put a note inside the firebox reminding you the exhaust pipe is plugged.

there are plenty of threads with better instructions and pictures that will explain the process. just do a search for cleaning or year end cleaning.

good luck.

 

[Melissa220]

like Heat Seeker says, brush and vacuum. inspect carefully the inside of the firebox. i do the leaf blower trick while i brush inside (make sure to disconnect the vacuum switch tube before doing this as it might break the switch). i also brush the exhaust pipe. i look for rust spots and touch them up before the humid summer makes it worse. then i spray the fire box with pam cooking oil to protect the metal inside the firebox. i also plug up the exhaust pipe and fresh air pipe so humid air does not get in. finally i put some Damprid to keep things dry inside. put a note inside the firebox reminding you the exhaust pipe is plugged.

there are plenty of threads with better instructions and pictures that will explain the process. just do a search for cleaning or year end cleaning.

good luck.

Good suggestions. Thanks, Vinny. I have already put a plastic bag over the end of the exhaust pipe. I do not have an OAK.

 

[smwilliamson]

Yeah...water and ash don't mix so well. I have on occasion run parts of the stove through my dishwasher but I reckon it was more laziness on my part

 

[heat seeker]

I have used water in the sink to clean the parts of my burn pot, which saves a lot of hard scraping. I do immediately blow the parts off to dry them quickly, and they go right back into the stove and fired up. So their contact with moisture is minimal. No problems so far...