Hmmm . . . didn’t see this in any pictures in the brochures . . . Help
Q. I fired up my stove last night and now my stove glass is all black. What is the best way to clean this?
A. The best answer is to not rent a sandblaster and attempt to sandblast this clean. Instead, burn at hotter temps and make sure you’re burning seasoned wood. Usually blackened glass is the result of one of three things: 1) You are burning unseasoned wood, 2) You are not burning the stove hot enough or 3) A split or round has rested against the glass during the burning process. The short term answer is many-fold. You can spend your money on fancy chemicals and cleaning agents, but being a simple, country boy (i.e. cheap) you can do what I do and use a moist paper towel or rag and dip it in the ash to clean off the glass. Try it, you’ll like it. Cheap and easy.
Best advice: Burn hot, burn seasoned and try the wet paper towels if needed . . . really . . . try it. Low-tech I know, but it really does work.
Q. I can’t get a fire started in my woodstove. What am I doing wrong?
A. There is no wrong way to start a fire in the woodstove . . . well check that . . . attempting to start a fire in your woodstove by using a 5-gallon can of gasoline would be a wrong (and unsafe) way . . . and don’t laugh, folks have actually tried using gasoline to start a fire. There are two, maybe three, basic ways (although many folks have their own spin on these start up techniques.)
The teepee: This type of fire is often used when lighting an outdoor camp fire and is rarely used in lighting a woodstove. As a variation you can have a larger teepee made up of small to medium splits over a smaller teepee made up of the kindling and newspaper.
1) Crumple up newspaper and place in the firebox.
2) Lay kindling in a teepee shape around the newspaper.
3) Light the newspaper on fire.
4) As the fire burns add more and progressively larger wood to the fire, maintaining a rough teepee shape.
The log cabin: This is perhaps how most of us learned to start a fire in a woodstove.
1) Crumple up newspaper and place in the firebox.
2) Lay some small kindling around the crumpled newspaper in a rough, square.
3) On top of this wood add more kindling or slightly larger splits so that it starts to look like a miniature log cabin with gaps between each layer of wood.
4) Continue to add additional layers of wood with the wood getting progressively larger.
5) Light the newspaper on fire.
6) As the fire burns add more and progressively larger wood to the fire.
Top down: This method works really well for some folks . . . other folks resist using this method, thinking it is just too crazy to work and too new-fangled. In my case I found the first few times it didn’t work so well, but now it’s the easiest and fastest way for me to get a fire going in the woodstove . . . plus it establishes the draft quickly and you don’t have to babysit the fire and continually add larger splits or worry about the whole mess of wood collapsing on itself and suffocating the fire like you do with the other two methods.
1) Place three large to medium sized splits in the firebox.
2) Place some kindling on top of the splits, leaving plenty of air gaps.
3) Ball up newspaper or make paper newspaper “bows” and place on top.
4) Light the newspaper . . . if everything works the newspaper should ignite the kindling which will then ignite the wood underneath and you shouldn’t have to fiddle around with adding more wood for a bit.
In all cases the air control should be open all the way and in many cases it helps to keep the door ajar (about an inch or so) to allow the fire to get going by establishing a good draft. Problems in getting the wood to catch on fire often involve wood/kindling that is not seasoned enough and in some cases problems with the draft either from a plugged chimney, too short of a chimney or too large of a chimney. I also find it helps to have stove top and flue thermometers . . . thermometers allow me to know when I can start to close down the air.
Best advice: Try different methods and see what works for you . . . also many folks have success using commercially available fire starters such as SuperCedars.