Glass Cleaner

WOW! The optimism abounds.

It'd be easier just to "live with it" if the furnace weren't but one month old.

terry

I agree McKoker. I want to see the flame. We can send a man to the moon, but we cant make a piece of glass that dosent haze up ?

McKoker wrote:WOW! The optimism abounds.

It'd be easier just to "live with it" if the furnace weren't but one month old.

terry

I installed a new glass last year and it was staying clear with daily cleanings, sometimes more than one cleaning every day. It was December and my glass was still clear. I thought this is a pain in the ass but with the daily cleanings I was happy the glass was clear. In january when the weather turned very cold and the stove was running pretty hard the glass started to not come clean. When the stove was cold I checked the glass out and it was not dirt an the glass but the glass was etched and had a haze to it. So after all of my hard work, in the matter of a month the glass was hazy. So now I just live with hazy glass and only clean it once a week or so. You will get used to not seeing the flames but you still get to see the hot coals and the stove gives off a nice soft orange glow.

The moral of the story is no matter how often you clean the glass, in the end all you will get is an orange glow.

try some fine(400 grit)wet sandpaper,15 minutes of elbow grease and no more orange glow,sanded mine dry the first time,bit dusty,ran the sandpaper under the faucet the second time,not as much dust and the paper is about dry till you're finished sanding,nice clean glass and a beautiful blue flame,going to try ceramic stove top cleaner when I can find some,sanding 2 or 3 times week now for 5 minutes,doesn't seem to scratch the glass. RichB

Thanks Rick. I've tried most of the "solutions" from this thread and it's a little better...not much. We'll be firing back up tonight. Can't wait for the glow!

bustedwing wrote:,nice clean glass and a beautiful blue flame,going to try ceramic stove top cleaner when I can find some,sanding 2 or 3 times week now for 5 minutes,doesn't seem to scratch the glass

How old is the stove glass? And has it seen a month or so of hard firing? I have tried the ceramic stove top cleaner and was not impressed.

I'm with Gambler on the glass. It's useless. I put in new glass and cleaned it every day when the stove went idol with ceramic stove top cleaner. I made a plate to cover the opening to let the glass and door cool off. It still has a white haze to it. I tried some carnauba wax and still the same. I clean it every other day and it's useless. I started the stove mid october. Lucky I have a bay window model and were the glass meets it's still clear in some spots from air being sucked in.

stove has been lit continously since sept.17,some days it fires hard,some days it idles,the sandpaper gives me the best results so far,a slight damp paper towel to wipe after sanding gets rid almost all the film,good enough to look thru the glass at the fire and don't really notice any residual haze. RichB

stove was purchased new in april and installed in sept. RichB

Well I have to say the towel, water, and coal ash works great. In the spring my dad ran out of coal so he decided to burn wood in his Harman Mark II and afterwards his glass was cover in creosote. I simply took a damp cloth dipped it in coal ash and whipped the glass and perfecto clean.

For those who want to try to keep the glass cleaner,, see if you can find a fine mesh screen, like a screen-door screen.. and place a 'curtain' of the screen between the fire and the glass.. I think about 1/2" to 1" from the door would work best..

A lot of the haze is created by the hot pieces of ash flying off the fire, hitting and pitting the glass.. with a screen between the fire and the glass a lot of the pieces will hit the screen and be deflected,, not all, so this is not a perfect answer..

There was a stove with this screen as an option,, I don't remember who's stove it was.. maybe coal berner will chime in and use his encylopedia memory !

A piece of SS screen would be best, but I'd experiment with inexpensive metal door screen first to test the effectiveness of the idea.

Greg L

.

Alaska has the "Clean Glass" option which is just a removable ss screen. It also has a small 3" band of extra glass that is fastened to the top of the stock glass door on the inside. Their is about a half inch air gap between both pieces of glass. I was told by the dealer that it was his opinion that it did not make that much of a difference and he felt that it was not worth the extra money. But who knows ??

It is too much work to try and keep the glass clear because in the end it will still be hazy. I just enjoy the soft orange glow and clean the fly ash off of mine once a week as I have better things to do with my time. Like basking in the orange glow of the stove and reading the coal forum.

U235a4 wrote:Well I have to say the towel, water, and coal ash works great. In the spring my dad ran out of coal so he decided to burn wood in his Harman Mark II and afterwards his glass was cover in creosote. I simply took a damp cloth dipped it in coal ash and whipped the glass and perfecto clean.

The glass in the hand fired units seems to stay clear. I believe it is because it does not get blasted with hot fly ash like the stokers glass does.

bustedwing wrote:stove has been lit continously since sept.17,some days it fires hard,some days it idles,the sandpaper gives me the best results so far,a slight damp paper towel to wipe after sanding gets rid almost all the film,good enough to look thru the glass at the fire and don't really notice any residual haze. RichB

Next year tell me how clear your glass is.

You will still be able to see through it and you will be able to see the hot coals but the dancing blue ladies will be hidden from view.