How to Clean a Wood Stove
A wood stove can effectively heat your home during cold seasons, giving warmth 24/7. It’s a helpful installation, but one that requires proper cleaning and maintenance. Cleaning wood stove assures you that it’s safe and efficient all the time. It’s easy to clean a wood stove with these steps.
What You’ll Need:
Wood stove
Small brush
Small shovel
Chimney brush
Vacuum
Lidded metal container
Sandpaper
Ladder
Procedure:
Inspect your stove and find out where the catalytic combustor is. In most units, this can be found between the stove pipe and the fire. Once you found it, inspect if there’s plenty of ash in it that accumulated because of the burnt wood. You need to remove all these ash.
wood stove
Take out the combustor and use the small brush to clean out the ash in it. You might need to read the manual, since certain models have specific instructions about removing the combustor. For ashes that can’t be removed by the brush, use a vacuum. As much as possible, clean this combustor every two months.
Ready your metal container. It should be big enough to hold all the ashes from the wood burning stove. With the small fireplace shovel, take out the ash from the stove and put it in a metal container. Then, put this container on the ground outdoors. Let it stay covered for two days, until the ashes have gone out. Dispose afterwards.
For a wood burning stove that hasn’t been used recently, use a vacuum to clean it out completely, after the ashes have been removed. This will be safe, since the stove is cool.
Get a fine sandpaper, then sand the glass window’s inside surface lightly. This removes any residue and dirt that built up on the glass.
Climb up the pipe using a ladder, and inspect the stove pipe’s exterior condition. If you find debris around the pipe, remove it. Also check that there are no branches and trees near the pipe.
With the help of a chimney brush, scrape the sides of the stove pipe. Carefully insert it in the pipe, then brush in an up and down motion, to loosen and remove creosote buildup. Use a flashlight, so you can see if the creosote is gone.
Go back to the stove unit, and cleanup the creosote and soot that fell in it. The vacuum and stove shovel will work well for this. Put back the damper.
Some Tips:
Always have a fire extinguisher at your side while cleaning.
Ask a professional chimney sweeper to clean the flue. This can be quite tricky, if you’re not familiar with it.
Never keep combustible materials near the stove.
Seasoned dry wood is best for burning, since it stops excessive creosote from building up.
A well-maintained wood stove is essential to a warm home. Follow these tips, so your wood stove will stay in good shape all the time.