Wood Stove 101: How to Clean Wood Stove Glass

Tuesday, December 12th, 2017 How To | Blogs & Information, Wood Stove 101 Comments
clean wood stove glass
dirty wood stove glass

Tired of dirty, sooty wood stove glass?

You want to see your fire, but your wood stove glass keeps getting dirty. How do you keep the glass in wood stoves from getting dirty? You can learn how to clean wood stove glass here.

With regular use, all wood stoves will accumulate a brownish black soot film or white hazy deposits. While this haze probably isn’t harming your wood stove, it certainly hurts the appearance of your fire. Fortunately, we have a few tips and tricks on how to clean wood stove glass that will clear up your dirty wood stove glass in no time.

Dirty Wood Stove Glass – How to prevent it

Your clean wood stove glass will always eventually dirty, but there are a few things you can do to slow the process.

  • Always burn seasoned, non-resinous hardwoods: Resinous wood or wet wood produce oils and other compounds that are more likely to accumulate on your wood stove’s glass. Learn more about what wood to burn in your wood stoves here.
  • Avoid long smoldering fires: Modern EPA certified stoves are capable of burning for hours and hours on their lowest setting but these smoldering fires produce large amounts of smoke inside the firebox (before later burning that smoke away). This smoke will deposit and leave a sooty residue on your glass. To avoid this, if you only need a small amount of heat, build a simple flash fire, which quickly heats up and quickly dies out.

How to clean wood stove glass

If your wood stove glass does get dirty, don’t worry. Cleaning wood burner glass is actually very easy.

  • cleaning wood stove glass

    Sometimes a little water or ash is all it takes to get rid of that soot.

    Hot fire: Cleaning wood burner glass can be as easy as burning a few high temperature fires in your wood burning stove. Try using high-temperature fire before attempting to clean the glass with other methods. This will make cleaning the glass even easier after the stove has cooled. Be sure to burn seasoned, non-resinous hardwoods.

  • Wet rag: When the wood stove is cool, you can use a wet rag or paper towel to wipe off the lighter haze.
  • Newspaper and ash:
    wood stove glass cleaner

    The best wood stove glass cleaner is available on our website. Order some for your wood stove today!

    For more stubborn stains, take a damp piece of crumpled newspaper and dip it in some of the ash from your stove. Simply scrub gently to remove the soot build up.

  • Wood stove glass cleaner: If the soot just won’t come off your glass, we recommend using a wood stove glass cleaner. Our personal favorite is Rutland’s Conditioning Glass Cleaner, which is available directly on our website. Simply apply to a rag, and wipe the dirt away.

Ditch your old stove for one of our modern, beautiful, and easy to use wood stoves!

How NOT to clean wood stove glass

While dirty wood stove glass can be frustrating, there are a few things you should never do when cleaning wood burner glass.

  • DO NOT clean while it is hot: Warmer glass is easier to clean than colder glass, but you should always wait until your wood stove glass is cool enough to touch before cleaning wood burner glass. If not, you risk causing personal injury or shattering the glass.
  • DO NOT spray hot glass with water: Spraying your hot glass with water can cause thermal shock, which will crack or shatter the glass.
  • DO NOT use razor blades or steel wool: Abrasive cleaners like razor blades, steel wool, or even sand paper will take the soot off of your wood stove glass immediately, but it comes at a cost. These methods of cleaning wood burner glass will leave scratches that cause the glass to more rapidly accumulate soot the next time and can lead to glass failure in wood stoves.

Catalyst before and after just a few minutes of cleaning

With these tips and tricks on how to clean wood stove glass, along with building the perfect fire, you’ll be back to enjoying your beautiful fire in no time!

Like this? Be sure to share us on Facebook with the button below. If you have any questions about how to properly clean wood burning stoves, feel free to reach out us!

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