Glass Cleaning

I've done a few searches and I must be missing something here.. Can you clean the glass while the stove is running on low? Or should the stove be unplugged, wait a minute or so, open the front door clean the glass, close the door and plug back in, in time so the coal doesn go out. Or do you know the coal is going to go out and you have to restart your fire, or do you perpously put the fire out wait for ceramic glass to cool down then clean then start a new fire? Just don't want to go through my coal mice until I get more, but I would like to clean the front glass. So let me know which is the best way.
Thanks

You can crack the glass if you use a liquid when the glass is hot. Some users take old, dry newspaper and do a daily cleaning with this. I guess you could idle the stove and then warm up some cleaner and try that. Be careful.

Me Leisure Line Pioneer came with a metal door cover that you use when cleaning the glass. What you do is open the stove door, and place the metal door cover over the opening of your stove. This lets the glass cool with the stove running, without letting the exhaust gases into your house. You let the glass cool and then clean it.

As I recall when shopping around for a stove, the Alaska Channing is a similar size to the LL Pioneer. You may be able to buy a door cover from Leisure Line and use it on your Alaska. It's a lot easier than shutting down your stove to clean the glass and starting a new fire every time.

A piece of heavy aluminum foil over the door opening will also work,, wear gloves!!, the front of the stove is HOT..

Greg L.

now you guys got me thinking... thanks for the input.

I have a LL stove and the glass is Robax glass and I believe Alaska uses the same or something close. The glass is not glass but is a ceramic glass and it is able to take being hot and having a damp cloth put on it without cracking. I use a damp paper towel to wipe my glass but you do have to be careful not to get burned with the steam that comes off of the towel. No matter how good or how often you clean the glass it will become cloudy and crazed. My new glass stayed looking good by cleaning it every two days until the really cold weather settled in and the stove had to run at much higher temps. It sort of etched the glass and short of lapping and polishing it with various grits of diamond slurry there is nothing that will make it look like new.

I saw somewhere, maybe on the robax site, that you should use ceramic stove top cleaner on the glass. I tried on a Harman mkI I'm refurbishing and it worked great.

coalkirk wrote:I saw somewhere, maybe on the robax site, that you should use ceramic stove top cleaner on the glass. I tried on a Harman mkI I'm refurbishing and it worked great.

I have used that also. But once the stove started burning very hot (650*) it seamed to etch the glass. The glass will come clean but it is still foggy due to being etched. I have given up on trying to keep it looking new, just not worth the effort. I have noticed that different brands of coal has different effects on the glass.

edit: I don't believe the hanf fired stoves are as hard on the glass as the stokers. The stokers air is forced through the coal and is aimed directly at the top of the glass where it is constantly being hit by pieces of hot ash.