There are two ways to clean your glass. The first way is to clean the glass with the glass still attached to the door. I recommend using a cleaner specifically designed for removing the brown and black stains (carbon) from the glass. Cleaners such as Glass Plus do not do a good job when it comes to carbon. There are several brands available, and the cleaner I have had great success comes in the form of an aqua colored paste. Typically the cleaner will come in a 12 oz. Bottle, and say Fireplace Glass Door Cleaner or Woodstove Glass Cleaner. You must clean the glass while it’s cool for best results. All you’ll need is a few paper towels, or cloths.

Leaving the Glass in the Door
1. Open the door(s), and if possible, remove the door for easier access to the glass. If access is easy while the door is still attached, then leave it on.
2. Apply an amount of cleaner about the size of a 50-cent piece onto the paper towel.
3. Rub the paste onto the glass in an elliptical pattern. Be sure to clean the edges and corners.
4. Allow the cleaner to dry for a few seconds, and then rub off the paste and carbon with a clean cloth.
5. If carbon still remains in a few spots, repeat steps 2-4.

Removing the Glass to Clean

If you need to remove the glass to clean, and/or you feel you need to replace the glass gasket, then you follow the steps outlined below.

1. first, loosen the clips that hold your glass in place. Since the design of these clips will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, you’ll need to consult your manual.
2. Next, remove the glass and place it on a soft surface, like an old towel.
3. Clean the glass in the same manner as steps 2-4 listed above.
4. Review the gasket in the door. Does it appear to be okay, or is it frayed, or severely decompressed?
5. If the gasket needs replacing, consult your manual for proper gasket sizing, length, and procedure. Inn most cases, you’ll need to remove the gasket with a thin bladed screwdriver and thoroughly clean the gasket groove before adding new gasket material.
6. If the glass clips are screws, check the threads for signs of wear. Squirt a little WD40 into the drilled and tapped holes, and also onto the clip screw threads themselves. Allow the excess to drip off.
7. Place the glass back into place, and secure with the original clips.
8. See your instruction manual for details as they may suggest a specific pattern for tightening the screws or clips.
9. When tightening the screws, be sure to not over tighten as the glass will expand when heated and could crack from the pressure. You must allow some room for glass expansion. Just snug the screws—-the glass will not go anywhere.

If you are seeing a grayish coating on the glass, that’s due to the ashes from the wood swirling around the firebox from either the reloading process, or opening the doors or ash pan door below which will cause a rush of air to enter the firebox. This stirs up these ashes. Be sure to wipe the glass clean of these ashes at least one a week or they will etch and stain the glass permanently. Wood ash is very caustic.

A wood burning stove or heating fireplace bathes the room with a rich, soothing warmth that no other energy source can equal. The fire’s radiance gives a welcome embrace as you come in from the cold. With its all-natural ingredients, a real wood fire is a hearty tonic for winter chill.

Burning wood for warmth is still satisfying. True, it takes a little extra effort, but like tending a garden or home cooking a meal, you are always rewarded.

Solar power from the sun, wind power, and wood energy are renewable resources, meaning they can be used forever without depleting the earth. Using renewable energy is like living off the interest earned by the earth’s assets, and never touching its savings.

In contrast, fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal are not renewable and their consumption is the leading cause of global warming. Burning fossil fuels sends carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, on a one-way trip. It pumps million-year-old carbon from inside the earth into the atmosphere, where the concentration of carbon dioxide is increasing. Burning oil, gas and coal is like spending the earth’s savings, and scientists say it is changing the global climate. Wood fuel is different. As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air in a process powered by the sun. Indeed, about half the weight of dry wood is this absorbed carbon. A tree destroyed in a forest fire or one that falls and decays in the forest gives up its carbon once again to the air as carbon dioxide. So continues the earth’s carbon/carbon dioxide cycle.

When trees are used for energy, a part of the forest’s annual growth is diverted from the natural decay and forest fire cycle into our homes to heat them.  Well-managed forests can be a renewable, sustainable source of energy that helps us reduce greenhouse gas emissions by displacing the use of oil, gas and coal.

Some may view a wood stove or fireplace as old fashioned, but that image is out of date. Things have changed a lot. Innovative research has transformed the trusty old wood heater from a clunky black box into a marvel of modern heating technology. Yet none of the charm and beauty of the natural fire has been lost.

An advanced technology stove or fireplace properly vented won’t pollute your indoor air and you’ll see minimal smoke coming from your chimney (depending on the moisture content in the wood). It can deliver up to 75 percent seasonal efficiency while emitting 90 percent less smoke than the old “airtight”. This means you’ll need about 1/3 less wood for the same amount of heat.

The new technologies raise the temperature of the fire, making it more beautiful than ever and keeping the fire viewing glass crystal clear. Now you can enjoy the pleasures of a real wood fire and cast your vote in favor of the environment at the same time.

When all else fails, you can count on a real wood fire. Without heat, an emergency becomes a disaster, but with a reliable wood heater and a few candles, you’ll turn it into a family adventure. When storms rage and the power lines go down, your family will be warm and cozy and safe around the real wood fire.

Some other advantages of wood heating are not so obvious, freedom from dependence on large energy utilities, satisfaction of providing for one’s family directly, instead of just sending off a payment each month. Becoming ever-more skillful at kindling and tending the fire then sitting back, putting your feet up and admiring your handy work. There is more to wood burning than meets the eye.

To fire a stove properly, a thermometer is essential. The most common type is a magnetic that you would place right on the door.

Creosote build up is pretty sneaky. You may not notice it at first but it tends to feed on itself. As it builds up, it restricts the flow in the chimney and/or stove pipes. This slows the smoke on its way out, allowing more time for it to cool and for the creosote to condense and deposit itself thus further restricting the flow. You should burn your stove hot for a half an hour every other night or so. What that will do is burn out the creosote buildup in your pipes.  You should also have your pipes cleaned annually. Whether you climb up on the roof and do it yourself or hire a professional chimney sweep, is up to you. Either way, it’s best to do it in the spring. Creosote is corrosive and it pays to remove it as soon as possible. The moist summer weather can cause creosote smells in the house so, best to get it done as soon as the heating season is over. If you hire a sweep, he or she is apt to be more readily available in the spring than in the fall and might even offer a discount for off season.

Failure to follow these maintenance procedures could well result in a massive chimney fire. This is a truly frightening possibility. People who have experienced them say they are accompanied by a great roar and sparks and flames shooting out of the chimney. The best way I know of to fight them is to completely close off all air to the stove. For this to work you have to maintain your door gaskets, dampers etc. Once you have done that, call 911 and get out of the house!

There are only two ways to prevent creosote formation in chimneys. You can either keep the chimney above 250 degree F all the way out the top or, you can burn up the gases that form the creosote in the stove before they reach the chimney. Modern stoves do the latter and capture the heat produced by essentially burning the smoke. This is true of stoves with catalytic converters and non-cat stoves that burn gases by recirculation them. Either way, less smoke means less creosote. Burn the smoke and you burn the gases. No gases, no creosote.

The wood you burn has a lot to do with creosote. All firewood contains water in some degree. How much it contains is important. Wood dried outside, stacked where the wind would blow through it.  The moisture content should be 15-20% by my moisture meter. All the water contained in the wood is turned to saturated steam as the wood burns. It enters the stack as steam and water droplets at a temp. Of around 212 degree F. This is considerably cooler than the condensation point of the creosote gasses, 250 degrees. Thus, the presence of the steam cools the chimney, the gases condense and creosote is formed. This is true whether you burn hard or soft wood. The moisture content is all that matters. You can’t eliminate it but, burning seasoned wood will keep it to a minimum  

Finally, the size and placement of the chimney, the chimney liner, the size of the flue, the length of the stove pipe and the size of the stove all factor into the creosote equation In summary, newer stoves and properly lined and insulated chimneys have done a lot to reduce the chances of excess creosote buildup, but there is no substitute for experience and education concerning this potentially dangerous substance.

The first order of business is to determine if your fireplace is prefab or masonry. You can identify which type of fireplace you have by looking up with a flashlight toward the damper area from inside the home – wear safety glasses to avoid dust and particles! A factory-built fireplace will have a round damper and a round pipe, usually 7-11” in internal diameter. The damper plate on a masonry fireplace is usually rectangular and approx. 6” x 24”. You may also be able to ID your fireplace by looking at the exterior of your home. A masonry fireplace will should have an orange clay liner, which is often visible at the chimney top – from outside the home. Another hint is to look at the outdoor enclosure around your fireplace and chimney. If it is covered with siding like the rest of the home, you almost definitely have a prefab. If, on the other hand, the exterior is solid brick which extends down to the ground, it is probably a masonry chimney. Another hint is the presence of large visible louvers and black metal facing on the front of the fireplace opening – this usually means a prefab. If in doubt, give us a call and we can inspect it for you.  Either way you look at it a masonry fireplace or pre-fab box is very inefficient and needs to be addressed.  We have many options to assist with turning that fireplace into an efficient wood burning or gas burning fireplace that will give you the looks as well as heat.

1. First, clean the groove by stripping out the existing gasket material. If you are lucky, it will peel off easily. If not, see Step #2.
2. OK, if that didn’t work well. So, put on your mask and goggles, grab your screwdriver and ball peen, and start tapping away at the gasket and glue in the same manner you would use a wood chisel.
3. After completing this fun task, check the groove. It should be uniform in shape. If you are dealing with a cast iron door, sometimes the glue has the same grayish color as the casting and blends in. Run your finger along the groove. If you feel a bump or irregularity, then you have some remaining glue. Chip it away.
4. Now, take your shop vacuum out and clean away all of the debris before you begin to install new gasket.
5. Before you apply the glue, take the gasket and lay it into the groove. Leave a little extra hanging out, and cut the gasket. This will make the installing part a little easier.
6. Now, apply the glue to the groove, and don’t be cheap with the material!
7. After that’s done, run your finger through the goop and be sure to spread the glue evenly through the groove, taking special care to get the sides of the groove covered with glue.
8. Now, if the doors gasket runs in a circle, in other words there are no open ends, start placing the gasket into the glue-laden groove in the middle somewhere on the door. Do not start in the corner as the gasket may come out prematurely when started in a corner. A little bit of masking tape on the ends of the gasket helps prevent the gasket end from fraying.
9. As you place the gasket down, do not stretch the gasket as it will decrease the diameter of the gasket. Take a clean gasket and stretch it out. See how it gets skinnier? Now, push it closer together. See how it gets fatter? If you make the gasket skinnier, it defeats the purpose of re-gasketing. Just lay the gasket down, and give the gasket a tap down as you go along. When you get to the end, cut to size and place a little masking tape on the end to prevent fraying.
10. Allow the glue to set up, and then place the door on the stove. You may have to readjust the latching mechanism, as your new gasket is thicker than the worn out older gasket. Take your dead blow hammer and give the door a tap around the perimeter.
11. Now, open the door, slide a dollar bill between the door and stove body, and close the door. Now, try and pull the paper out. If it does not pull out easy, you have a tight seal. Do this around the perimeter of the door. You may need to adjust the latching mechanism.
12. If you’ve adjusted the mechanism, yet there’s a place on the door where the dollar bill still pulls out easily, then mark that spot with some chalk on the outside of the door. Pull the door off because you’ll need to buildup that area.

Why did this happen? Because all metal expands and contracts. Sometimes, it does not contract to the original location. That’s the purpose and reason for gaskets—-to make up this distance, maintain the seal, and give the operator control over the amount of air entering the stove.

13. While the glue is still wet, pull up on the gasket in that area. Take some smaller diameter gasket, cut it to length, place it in the groove, add a little cement on top of it, and push down the larger gasket on top of this new layer. 14. Do the dollar bill test again. If the seal is okay, congratulations! If not, you’ll need to keep building up the affected area until the seal is tight