We hardly ever have the fire running at full power, which means that although the wood still burns down completely, it doesn't burn quite as cleanly as it can. When we shut the fire down, we get slightly more smoke, and the glass on the door gets dirty. A period of really hot running soon burns this off, but most of the dirtying of the glass happens after we shut the fire down for overnight, and rarely do we reload the fire next morning.
To keep out fire looking sparkly new, I clean the glass with a produit especially designed for the task. Unfortunately, I think I might have been using it too liberally, and it has run down the glass and dissolved the glue on the seal.
The glass cleaner I have been using
The seal I replaced can been seen just below
the clip holding the glass onto the door.
The seal I replaced can been seen just below
the clip holding the glass onto the door.
On Wednesday we bought a kit for replacing door seals, and yesterday morning I replaced the seal that had fallen off. The fact that only the seal the glass cleaner runs down onto had fallen off and all the rest are still in good condition is what first led me to think I had been overusing the cleaner.Fireplace door seal replacement kit
The only logical conclusion I can reach from all this is (of course) that I am trying to keep the house too clean, and must be more relaxed about it!!*Simon
*Susan snorted (rather unkindly, I thought) when reading this sentence.
5 comments:
Aha, so, Sherlock Holmes, there is the culprit. We clean ours every day because we like it to look clean so we can see the flames. Of course, it only gets used for a few weeks each year (sadly) but I will be mindful of your experience next time we are chez nous - which is only 5 weeks away - hooray !!
Simon I don't like that special for the purpose cleaner. As you say it runs down the glass too easily. I use the foam in a can oven cleaner from leader price etc. The foam stays put for a minute whilst it removes the black then simply wipe away. Green alternative, a dampened cloth dipped in the old ash removed most of the black most of the time and is free.
Ash, hm, interesting. You know I said before we also enjoy a wonderful wood stove but certainly don't have any grime on the glass, well you have helped me solve our issue of fast burning fires...duh, we must be burning them hot, thus the quick burn and clean glass. And I hope I don't sound patronizing by saying (from the last comment you made about cleaning too much and Susan's response) y'all are too cute. That the Southern girl in me coming out.
Anon: Thanks for that - I think I will just clean less, but also take the doort off (very easy) and lay it down when I clean rather than doing while it's still hung.
At the moment oiur fire is burning fast - because the new seal is thicker than the old one. I think the lesson may be to replace all seals at the same time.
We clean our combustion heater glass with vinegar and newspaper.
When the glass is cold, spray on the vinegar (normal white vinegar), then rub with a bit of newspaper or paper towel. Voila.
Avoids those nasty chemicals (well that is what we think, back here in Australia)
Anon. Lili
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