Finally, clean insert glass...

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I finally figured out how to keep my glass spic and span while burning, having the VC Monty. I would often get a haze at the right side gasket, I decided to do a top down start up last night, I was skeptical about doing it until I realized that it worked perfectly and I didn't even have a bit of dust on my glass. The top down startup, kept all the smoke from passing nearest the right side of the door, hence no haze, also if you want no build up while burning, keep the ends of the splits away from the glass as much as possible.
So when people blame the gasket or a leaky door, I now know it is not, it is the burning technique that is being used to cause coloring of the glass. I hope this helps someone somewhere......

 

[Sons924]

i have to learn the top down start.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I just did the opposite of how I normally started a fire, I rested the bigger splits on the floor, topped with med size splits, topped with small splits, topped with kindling and fire starter. The fire starter was about1-3 inches from baffles, this way the smoke never touched the glass and stayed completely clean throughout the burning process.... Now I need to learn how to get the very front of my firebrick to burn clean, it is always black in the front....

 

[Sons924]

i will try that tonight. my front firebicks were blackened also until friday night. I kept the air wide open for a long long time. After all the break in fires and smaller fires on the not so cold nights i wanted to really heat every thing up to clean out the liner. the bricks went back to factory white.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I usually burn on high, I'm gonna try to keep the wood all the way back in the box and see if that helps any....

 

[Sons924]

how do you know you won't overfire the stove? i was thinking that the whole time, it's really annoying not being able to read a temperature.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I have an ir thermometer, I take the temps on the fire brick, and that cast iron spot in the middle, just behind the glass door, it is usually 350-450. Pick one up at lowes for 30$, you need one that will go at least 600 degrees...

 

[Sons924]

ok will do.

 

[HotCoals]

I have an ir thermometer, I take the temps on the fire brick, and that cast iron spot in the middle, just behind the glass door, it is usually 350-450. Pick one up at lowes for 30$, you need one that will go at least 600 degrees...

If you are taking the temps through the glass you are just getting the glass temp.
You could double that temp for the inside temp and be somewhat close.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

If you are taking the temps through the glass you are just getting the glass temp.
You could double that temp for the inside temp and be somewhat close.

No, I was taking wall temps, not glass temps.......

 

[Sprinter]

I rested the bigger splits on the floor, topped with med size splits, topped with small splits, topped with kindling and fire starter. The fire starter was about1-3 inches from baffles, this way the smoke never touched the glass and stayed completely clean throughout the burning process....

That's pretty much how I do it routinely now, except I put the SuperCedars under the kindling. This technique will also get the flue temps up quicker and the secondaries burning quicker as well.

 

[Firedancer]

Just a little side note...I cleaned my glass with a damp paper towel dipped in ash. Amazingly simple and perfectly clean. (Glass was a tad warm as I still had some embers burning in stove. Not too warm to touch tho)

Was so surprised how well that worked.

 

[Sprinter]

Just a little side note...I cleaned my glass with a damp paper towel dipped in ash. Amazingly simple and perfectly clean. (Glass was a tad warm as I still had some embers burning in stove. Not too warm to touch tho)

Was so surprised how well that worked.

It works. And I did that all last year. But be careful, a lot of ash has hard minerals in it that can scratch. Even to the point of forming clinkers. Despite my thriftiness, I'm using a commercial non ammonia cleaner now just for that reason.

 

[glennm]

I have the Monty and my firebrick stays white. I burn hot, usually over 500 measured on the door frame top in thee center.

 

[ddahlgren]

I think if you burn wood that has less than 20% MC on the inside and burn it at a rate to maintain 450 to 500 internal flue temp your glass will be just fine. I know mine will clean itself if I do something stupid to get it smoky. With my stove and assume with others if I do not start pulling air away from the fire once the stack gets to 550 I am just burning wood and not making any heat as the stove temperature does not go up to the normal 400 to 500 degrees and the bricks never get hot enough to burn clean.