Your indoor wood-burning stove brings much needed warmth during the cold months, but you need to clean and maintain it well for optimal efficiency. Ash builds up inside the firebox after each use, and the interior can quickly become coated with residue from the ash and smoke. So, how do you clean your wood-burning stove?
To clean a wood-burning stove, start by burning a high-temperature fire to reduce soot and creosote, then let the stove cool for at least 24 hours. Next, scoop the ash from the firebox and clean the interior of the stove, the chimney, and the glass door. Finish off with the exterior of the stove.
A dirty and poorly maintained stove can give off dangerous emissions and cause fires. It also doesn’t look so great. So, to ensure safety, keep your stove in good working condition, increase its lifetime, and save you money in the long run, you must clean it properly. Let’s get into the details.
How Often Should You Clean a Wood-Burning Stove?
How often you clean your wood-burning stove depends on your usage. If you put it to use every day as your primary heating source, it’s important to at least scoop out the ash daily and give the stove a more thorough cleaning every two weeks. If you use it less often, it’s okay to clean it less frequently.
During periods of heavy use, you may need to increase your cleaning frequency to once a week. The cleaner the stove is, the more efficiently it will run, and the safer it’ll be. The chimney and flue should also get a professional cleaning at least once a year.
Moreover, an annual check is important to ensure that all parts are functioning properly and that there are no potential issues. During this check, you can identify and remove creosote and blockages that may affect the efficiency of your stove.
Signs Your Stove Is Due for a Cleaning
You’ll know your wood stove is due for cleaning when you notice an accumulation of ash in the box that’s a couple of inches deep. This is also the case if you inspect the chimney and notice a buildup of creosote on the chimney walls to something like 1/8” deep.
Alternatively, if you tap the flue when it’s cold and hear debris fall, it’s time to clean the stove, chimney, and other parts. And if the glass looks blurry and sooty, you definitely need to do some cleaning.
Tools You’ll Need to Get Started
- Heavy duty gloves
- Metal ash pan or metal bucket and shovel
- Stove glass cleaning spray (on Amazon)
- Floor cover or old towel
- Microfiber cleaning towels (on Amazon)
- Stiff-bristled dust brush
- Old newspapers
- A spray bottle with water
- Ash vacuum (on Amazon) (optional)
- Vinegar solution (optional)
If you’ll be cleaning the chimney yourself, you’ll also need a chimney brush (on Amazon) that fits snugly into your stovepipe and has extension rods.
How to Clean Your Wood-Burning Stove
Cleaning your wood-burning stove isn’t as complicated as you may imagine. Here’s how to to do it safely:
Step 1: Burn a High-Temperature Fire to Reduce Soot
The crud that deposits on the glass and various parts of your wood stove usually contains materials like ash, creosote, and soot. Cleaning will be much easier if you burn enough seasoned, non-resinous wood (on Amazon) to create a high-temperature fire.
Step 2: Let the Wood Stove Cool Down Enough
To prevent the risk of injury and to allow easy cleaning, let the wood stove cool down enough. It’s best to do the cleaning at least 24 hours after the fire has died out.
Step 3: Clean the Interior of the Stove
Place some old newspaper sheets on the floor in front of your stove. While at it, open the air dampener to ensure any ash stuck to it falls into the stove. The air dampener is a small knob on the front of the stove that you can pull outward to open.
Use your shovel or metal ash pan to scoop out the ash from the stove and put it into a metal bucket. Take the ash outside and let it sit for 24 hours before disposing of it. Keep a small amount of ash in a glass bowl for later use in cleaning the glass door of your stove.
Step 4: Clean the Chimney
Cleaning the chimney is arguably the trickiest part of the job, but it’s an important task because a buildup of soot and creosote in the chimney means the smoke won’t be expelled properly.
Moreover, if creosote builds up long enough, it poses a significant danger because it can readily catch fire.
Cleaning the chimney requires some elbow grease and special tools like a chimney brush and extension rods. And in most cases, this part will require a helping hand. If you’re not sure of what you’re doing, it’s best to leave the job to a professional.
Before cleaning the chimney, ensure that the flue is wide open and that you’ve shut the door to your stove. With someone stabilizing the base of the ladder, climb carefully to the roof to access the chimney.
However, you shouldn’t climb on a windy day. You also don’t want to walk or stand near the edges of the roof as you risk slipping and falling.
Remove the chimney cap and scrape off all the creosote build-up on it. Tie a suitable length of rope to the handle end of your chimney brush and the other end to the base of the chimney so you can easily pull the brush back up if it accidentally falls into the chimney.
Slide the brush into the chimney and scrape off all the creosote from its walls. Attach the extension rods and lower the brush further down to reach the flue and give it a thorough cleaning as well.
Step 5: Clean the Glass Door
Use a soft brush to scrub off loose debris from your stove’s glass door and the area surrounding it. Add a reasonable amount of dishwashing liquid into a bowl of water and make it lather.
Crumple some old newspapers into a sizable ball and dip it into the soapy water. Dip the wet newspaper ball into the bowl of wood ash you preserved in Step 3.
Gently scrub the glass with the newspaper ball in circular motions to remove lodged stains and soot. Spritz some specialized stove glass cleaning spray onto a clean microfiber towel to make it damp, then use it to wipe off the lighter haze on the glass door.
Once you’ve cleaned the inside of the glass, it’s time to give it a polishing finish. Make a solution with equal parts water and distilled vinegar, then apply it to the inside of the glass with some paper towels. This is a good way to shine up the glass without leaving chemical residue on it.
For the outside of the glass, simply use a light squirt of regular window cleaner like the Windex Original Glass Cleaner (on Amazon). Buff up the glass with a clean microfiber cloth for a nice and clean look.
Step 6: Clean the Exterior of the Stove
The easiest way to clean the exterior of your wood-burning stove is to use a special ash vacuum with a soft brush attachment. Alternatively, use a damp microfiber cloth to give it a gentle wipe.
If you notice rusty spots, use a pad of medium-grade steel wool to rub it off, then wipe the stove once more with a damp microfiber towel and dry it.
How to Remove Ash From a Wood-Burning Stove
Before you remove the ash, it’s important you wear safety gloves and a dust mask so you don’t inhale the fine particles. You can spritz the top layer of the ash with water to make the job less messy.
Grab a shovel, then carefully scoop out the ash and put it in a metal bucket. While at it, go slow because you don’t want to get the ash into the air and create a mess.
For best results, you can remove the remaining ash in the stove and on the hearth using a special ash vacuum. You can then dispose of the ash along with your household waste. You can also recycle it in a compost heap or soil patch.
However, you should only add ash to the soil during the winter, and only after conducting a pH test to determine the soil acidity. Moreover, you want to rake it in rather than layer it on the surface.
Safety Tips to Keep in Mind
These are the safety tips to keep in mind when cleaning a wood-burning stove to prevent personal injury or damage to some critical part of the stove:
- Always wear gloves when scooping ash, and put on a dust mask too.
- Let the stove cool off completely before cleaning it. There might be embers buried in the ash that stay hot long after the fire is dead.
- Put the ash in a metal container at all times; never a plastic one. Take your bucket of ash outside once you’re done cleaning, just in case there are hot embers hidden in it.
- Only clean the glass once it has cooled down enough to avoid shattering it and causing personal injury.
- At no point should you spray hot water on the glass door to remove tough stains. This can lead to thermal shock, which could lead to cracks or worse, the whole glass may shatter, and you’ll be forced to replace it.
- Never use abrasive material on the glass; doing so could make it deteriorate gradually. Remember, the glass can scratch, so using razor blades, steel wool, or sandpaper is completely out of the question. While these methods can scrape off the soot immediately, they leave scratches that make the glass accumulate soot more rapidly next time.
- If you find any noticeable damage to the rope seal around the door or cracks in the glass, repair them immediately.