Log Burner

[James2]

Hi,

I need to clean the glass on the door of my wood burner, I was told that using `Cif` and elbow grease is not recommended as I could weaken the glass!!

Is there a special cleaner for the job?

If so what`s it called and where do I buy it?

                Any ideas.........Ray

[Clair]

a few tips here: http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1155724/ShowPost.aspx

[Nell]

All supermarkets and diy type stores stock special cleaners for this job. in the supermarket it is either by the firelighters or the cleaning fluids. Normally called something like "Nettoyant vitres - inserts et fours"

[Higgy]

I am sure this has been covered but anyway - Spit and some ashes from the fire mixed on a cloth

and rubbed on the offending glass will do the trick. From grannies old book. Lol.

[Limousin Lass]

Wet the glass and leave for a couple of minutes then dip a piece of dampened scrunched up newspaper or kitchen paper in the wood ash and clean glass, clean off with a dry piece of kitchen roll.

Using the above method every day or so the glass on our wood burner stays loveley and clean.

[James2]

Hi,

Thanks for all your advice on cleaning my log burner, I`ll certainly try all remedies next time I am down at my cottage in Saint Privat des Pres, thats near Riberac. Flight booked to Bergerac on 27th Feb and looking forward to getting back to France.

                        Regards    Ray[:)]

[New Start]

Hi - I hope you can help me.  I have for the first time tried cleaning the window of my stove (a new Godin Carvin) with water and ashes.  Previously I was using a couple of different sprays.  Yes, it does work, but even after having started with a totally clean window yesterday morning, the stains were really heavy.  It took me about an hour, and I still left a few small marks. I am burning a mixture of oak and hornbeam, which is apparently two years old.  The tar seems to build up mainly overnight, when I leave it almost closed, and quite full of wood.  Should the window be completely cold before cleaning, or is luke-warm better?

I am lucky at the moment as I work from home, but can't imagine having to scrub for a good hour every day before going out to work - surely I am doing something wrong. Any help appreciated, as I love the stove, and it is my only form of heating, but the cleaning is driving me mad.

Thanks in advance

[Clair]

New Start, see the replies to that same question on the other thread where you also asked:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/2/1479481/ShowPost.aspx#1479481

[New Start]

HI Clair

I had read those replies, which I why I am wondering why it seems to work for others and I am still finding it takes so long - do people really spend upto an hour a day cleaning the window of their stove? Maybe I am using my stove wrongly, or there is a way of using it to cut down on the tar deposits

Thanks everso for any further advice

[clarksinfrance]

New Start - The tar (condensates) builds up overnight for you (and many others) for the following reason. "Shutting down" your woodburner to try to keep it going overnight is exactly the wrong thing to do. This reduces the airflow, which reduces the burn, which reduces the temperature inside the fire. The flue needs heat (a lot of heat) to make the air rise up the flue. This doesn't happen when you try to keep your fire in overnight, so hence the glass, box and flue cool down, this leads to condensates adhering to the glass, burner and flue. Much better to allow your fire to burn normally and to burn out. To save time cleaning the glass, get some glass cleaner, others have posted here, what it is called and where to get it. You spray it on a cold glass (some doors can be lifted off the fire for this task) leave it a couple of minutes, and wipe it off with paper tissue (you can buy massive rolls in the bricos, looks like elephants toilet rolls).

This passage taken from BFCMA guide - Solid Fuel burners:

All chimneys operate on the principle of having a natural up draught created by

maintaining warm flue gases of between 150oC to 500oC. It is therefore very

important to use the appliance correctly and maintain a bright, warm fire so that

under normal operating conditions the flue gas temperatures created are kept

between 150oC and 500oC.

Burning solid fuel slowly with insufficient air supply, particularly on stoves or closed

appliances must be avoided. Low flue gas temperatures will cause condensation

and greatly increases the risk of producing excessive tar and corrosive soot

deposits. This is a common problem, particularly when burning wet wood or coal and

must be avoided. If soot and condensate deposits are allowed to accumulate in a

flue, the deposits can ignite causing a chimney fire which is likely to cause damage to

the chimney and appliance. These deposits can also be very corrosive and if they are

not regularly removed can cause corrosion of metal parts of both the chimney and

appliances.

See here:

http://www.feta.co.uk/bfcma/downloads/2008/q1/bfcmayellowguideforsolidfuel.pdf

Hope it helps

[Babbles]

I no longer clean the glass on our woodburner, mucky cow you might be thinking but no, if you let the fire go out at night when you light it in the morning with plenty of heat it burns any deposits off the glass which only reappear if the fire is shut down to the lowest level which as clarksinfrance says is not good as the same thing is happening in the flue which can cause fires, which did happen to us (no damage just got a bit panicky[:'(] we also found that when we kept the fire in at night we used smokeless coal (it is a multi fuel) which stayed in but we started to get quite smelly fumes. so we think letting it go out at night the best option.