Cleaning cast iron wood burning stove

[myrtlep]

Not specific to boat living but the stove comes with the liveaboard I am renovating and I'm sure many of you have experience of removing rust / cleaning stoves . Both boats and wood burners are new to me.

The searches I've done, it comes down to :

• manual cleaning with wire wool until all rust removed
• use air nozzle or damp cloth to ensure all particles removed from surface
• once stove dry, apply appropriate stove paint
• apply second coat once first coat dry

The glass door also needs a good clean, plus new gasket/stove rope: the clips/bolts fixing the glass to the door are also rusty , so I need to clean / replace those.

I'm not living on the boat at present and would prefer to clean it in situ as I don't have transport / workspace for this.

Any recommendations for cleaning stoves in situ / without dismantling flue?

Thanks!

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

The very best way to clean it is to have it blasted, but second is wire brushing. Start with a new one and don't press hard because all that achieves is permanently bending the bristles which makes them far less useful. Wire wool's ok, but not much use in corners or details in the casting.

 

[myrtlep]

The very best way to clean it is to have it blasted, but second is wire brushing. Start with a new one and don't press hard because all that achieves is permanently bending the bristles which makes them far less useful. Wire wool's ok, but not much use in corners or details in the casting.

Thanks for the tip, I'll give that a go and see how far I get.

 

[PilotWolf]

Newspaper is good for cleaning the glass.

W

 

[jamie N]

This won't be of much use perhaps, but the best way of getting it up to the way you want it to be is to remove ir, and take it to a welder/blacksmith, and have it remade in stainless.
Once this is done, the heat can be enjoyed without the deteriorating effort.

 

[cherod]

This won't be of much use perhaps, but the best way of getting it up to the way you want it to be is to remove ir, and take it to a welder/blacksmith, and have it remade in stainless.
Once this is done, the heat can be enjoyed without the deteriorating effort.

yes , but that is going to cost pretty.
as said , sand blast , but fine sand or it will look like an orange . obv not the glass .

 

[sarabande]

Jamie, stainless discolours and builds up creosote just like enamel or plain steel. Ask anyone with a double walled flue chimney to a wood burner.

For the OP... cleaning a stove is much much easier if you give it a good hot burn with really dry wood first. That bakes the soft wood tar into crisp carbon.

 

[edsailing]

Jamie, stainless discolours and builds up creosote just like enamel or plain steel. Ask anyone with a double walled flue chimney to a wood burner.

For the OP... cleaning a stove is much much easier if you give it a good hot burn with really dry wood first. That bakes the soft wood tar into crisp carbon.

I've had wood burners for over 30 years now and, having tried many things, the most effective glass cleaner is kitchen surface cleaner sprayed on the glass, gently rubbed with one of those green backed kitchen sponges, then wiped down with kitchen towel - all products from Lidl, of course!

 

[sarabande]

Easier and cheaper is to dab a damp cloth into the fine wood ash and use that to clean glass. The Mohs hardness scale for wood ash is much lower than commercial kitchen abrasives.

 

[Davy_S]

Easier and cheaper is to dab a damp cloth into the fine wood ash and use that to clean glass. The Mohs hardness scale for wood ash is much lower than commercial kitchen abrasives.

That is exactly how we cleaned ours, we ended up swapping the cast stove, we bought a steel plate one with firebricks in, it was much warmer than the cast one, i think it came from Bulgaria, it was called a Pritty, they sell lots of different models online.
Home - PRITY

 

[Stemar]

Easier and cheaper is to dab a damp cloth into the fine wood ash and use that to clean glass. The Mohs hardness scale for wood ash is much lower than commercial kitchen abrasives.

Noted for my log burner. Thanks

 

[LittleSister]

My variation on Sarabande's technique is to use wetted kitchen towels. A run of three kitchen towels (it's a smallish stove and window) are thoroughly wetted and squeezed so that it's as wet as can be without dribbling when squashed - ideally you want to be cleaning the glass with a sort of 'cream' of water and ash. Dip the wet paper towels into the fine ash and off you go.
Once it is cleaned off as best as possible with that use a single clean dry paper towel to 'polish' it off. This dry paper towel then goes in the fireplace to burn when lit, The first soggy, ashy lump of kitchen towel goes in the compost bin.