How do I keep PH glass clean?

[Charles1981]

Isn't the grey haze on glass considered fly ash and kind of normal? And the black haze smoke/creosote deposition from letting wood smoulder or burning wet?

I have to clean the glass on my stove about once a week but due to the grey fly ash that just wipes off with a moist paper towel. The black stuff i get rarely if the wood touches the glass usually and i have to scrub with wet newspaper and ash.

I guess i figured the grey fly ash to be kind of a normal thing?

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Every modern wood stove uses primary air for the glass airwash. The more primary air, the cleaner the glass. Clamp it all the way down and the glass be gonna get hazy with dry wood and nasty with wet wood.

bingo! BB gets the cupie doll. airwash systems in modern stoves have to pull from primary air. reducing primary air can diminish airwash air velocity and the air barrier does not extend all the way across the glass (especially if its a large glass) for the most part with tube reburn stoves the glass can fog up when primary is set way down at the end of the fire after the secondaries have extinguished. the secondaries usually keep the firebox hot enough to burn off the soot, note also when the fire is dying the flue is cooling a bit , a lower delta means lower stack velocity and lower velocity in the airwash

 

[Brick (ware)House]

With this cold weather and a tall flue, I would expect you can burn with the air almost totally closed without any issue of backpuffing. I'd dial the air down as the fire builds, and once totally closed, would then just crack it open....1/14 of an inch or so...just to play safe re backpuffing. If you see robust secondaries even with the air just cracked open, then I would close the air all the way and watch the fire for a few minutes. If it keeps burning, doesn't go black, then you are probably fine with the air all the way closed.

You are right on. I have never had anything close to a back puff and have the air totally closed all the time unless reloading or burning down coals. Even a touch open and the fire will build. The only time I have been able to get a dark box without secondary flames is when I load on very few coals and close it down straight away. If there are coals raked along the front of the firebox 3 or 4 inches tall the new load is flaming before I can get the door shut. I will say that it is easy to start a fire in my stove though! A couple of scraps of paper and a couple of thumb sized sticks with a few forearm sized pieces is all it takes.

This is why I have been careful to babysit the stove to learn tendencies and why I got nervous when it started up past 550 with lots of wood. I feel like I need more control over the stove as I am now burning elm but will have oak, locust and hedge in future years. I want to be able to burn hot but put the brakes on when necessary so I think a pipe damper is going to be required. Another option would be to block the front air intake that I have read about in a few posts but I cant seem to locate it!

 

[stoveguy2esw]

Another option would be to block the front air intake that I have read about in a few posts but I cant seem to locate it!

we hide those for a reason decisions to alter airflow in that manner should be discussed with your dealer and usually should only be gone to when conventional methods are not an option.

 

[Brick (ware)House]

we hide those for a reason decisions to alter airflow in that manner should be discussed with your dealer and usually should only be gone to when conventional methods are not an option.

10-4. I really like the way the stove burns and the air settings/proportions seem to be well engineered. Seems best to leave anything that could upset the stove's balance alone and just put in a secondary damper as an extra point of control.

 

[toddnic]

This is a picture of my stove this morning just after a reload. I haven't cleaned the glass for at least a month since I have been burning 24/7. As you can see, the glass is fairly clean with just a little ash sticking to it. I am trying to burn as dry of wood as possible.

 

[Boiler74]

Brick, my andirons got red during break in fires. You didn't overfire it. I had to really work to do the last hot break in fire, and like you I watched very closely with an IR gun. As directed by the paint manufacturer (sheet provided with the stove), we were to get to stove to about 600 degrees for 45-60 minutes. That's stove body temps. I can only imagine how hot it is inside that stove to get the body that hot. My andirons got good and red too. You're fine.

I get hazy glass too. You have to remember that one person's idea of clean is different than another's. So the different experiences you will get here will vary. As will so many different variables between stoves. Wood, dryness, draft, air control, and house pressures all are different. And your conditions will change from day to day too. On cold days the draft will increase but so will the house stack effect. So don't always judge your experience against another PH owner. I personally don't mind hazy glass, just don't want black. So I'll clean once in a while but I'm not obsessive about it. I want heat and for a long time, so I cut the air down to get long burns. That cuts the air wash and contributes to hazy or dark gloss. I live with it.

If you feel like you can't get to a dark firebox during a CAT burn take a look at the primary air fins in the back of the stove. They are the ones on the outside (the middle on is secondary). Are the corners a bit rounded? Woodstock had a batch of over ground air fins. That lets too much primary air into the firebox and doesn't allow that low end control. So if the corners are rounded you might need replacements. I had to replace mine because of this.