Suitable for heating a wide variety of different living spaces, wood burning stoves are incredibly popular.
One of the most efficient ways to heat a property, a wood burning stove is capable of heating just a room or an entire home, while helping to keep your energy bills low. Functional and aesthetically pleasing, a wood burning stove also provides an attractive focal point in any living area.
But how do you clean your wood burning stove? During the winter months, when the majority of homeowners use their stove regularly, it’s easy for wood burning stoves to become dirty and in need of some TLC.
If you’re looking to clean your stove, we’ve put together our top tips on how to clean a wood burning stove to keep it looking as good as new.
Wood burning stove cleaning tips and tricks
Cleaning the surface
When it comes to cleaning your stove’s exterior surface and surrounding area, you can’t go far wrong with a soft brush, damp cloth and a vacuum cleaner. These tools are ideal for removing any soot and dirt and is best undertaken when your stove is unlit and cool.
How to clean glass on a wood burning stove
It is always important to burn well seasoned, dry logs on your stove but occasionally soot will accumulate on the glass of your wood stove, especially if you’ve been using firewood with a moisture content over 20%. The good news is, it can be easily removed by dipping a damp cloth into the soft ashes from the stove and simply wiping away the soot from the glass. You will also find there are a number of different wood burning stove cleaners on the market that you can use to clean the glass effectively. At Charnwood we offer our Schott dry wiper which works very well.
Also explore our Wood-Burning Stove FAQs.
Empty your ash pan
When your wood burning stove is not in use it is worth emptying out the ash pan as well as the firebox completely . However, when it’s time to use your stove again during cooler evenings and colder months, it is useful to remember that lighting your fire on a bed of ash is much more effective.
Inspect the door and flue seals
When cleaning your wood burning stove, take the opportunity to inspect the rope seals on the doors and flue. It’s not uncommon for the seals to succumb to everyday wear and tear, so it’s important that these are checked frequently and changed if necessary.
A fresh spray of paint
Finally, if your stove is looking tired and unloved, don’t be afraid to get out the stove paint can.
The vast majority of Charnwood stoves are painted with heat resistant paint, however they can become scratched and pick up dust and dirt over time. Before painting your stove, you should make sure that the surface is dry, clean and free from any grease. Before spraying your stove we would recommend masking off the glass and handles and gently rubbing down any areas to be retouched with a Scotchbrite pad. You can purchase Charnwood high temperature stove paint from your local Charnwood stockist or on our spares shop. We offer a choice of eight colours and even full paint kits if you choose to ever change the colour of your stove completely.
Follow these tips and your wood burning stove should be good as new in no time at all.
To find out more about cleaning your wood burning stove, get in touch.