10832 Stufa gone shy

Easy and it will cost you less than 3 euros to sort the problem....Mastro Lindo Disincrostante (Forno e teglie). From the grocers or supermarket. Bright green plastic spray bottle.

I open the stuffa door, lay a plastic carrier bag under it to catch the drips and spray on the disincrostante. Leave for 5 mins or so and wipe off then go over with a damp cloth. It isn't harmful to hands but is messy so I wear rubber gloves. Magico!

"moved to italiauncovered.co.uk"

did some googlung

[url=http://www.fluesystems.com/sundries/indexfireplacecare.htm]Stove and Fireplace Cleaning & Maintenance Products - Buy stove glass cleaner, stove polish, marble wax, slate oil, and other stove and firepace care products online at fluesystems.com.[/url]

or

[url=http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/577194/]Fireplaces and Wood Stoves: Cleaning glass doors on wood stoves[/url]

or you could try

Glass Enclosures
Glass enclosures for the fireplace are constructed of tempered glass. Clean the glass facing the fire after every other fire to remove the residue of soot.
For baked-on soot, scrape the glass very carefully with a glass scraper to avoid scratching the surface.
To remove smoke stains, mix 1⁄2 cup vinegar with 1 gallon clear, warm water. Add 1 tablespoon clear ammonia. Either spray this solution on the glass or wipe it on with a cloth dipped in the solution. Rinse with clear, warm water, and dry with a clean cloth.

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Her who must be obeyed has tried to clean it to no avail. ]

Exactly a girl will be cleaning it so forget all that woodash...razor blade...nylon pad stuff and do what we girls (Italian girls anyway) do. Get the spray...life is hard enough.

Must admit, wet kitchen paper and some ash from the stufa always clean the glass for me.

Dexal and a kitchen towel clean every morning when cold after use, about 1.85e from Eurospin.
A

[quote=coppicer;101310][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]It has been fine for 2 years but this autumn has decided not to let us see what is happening. The glass has gone a dark brown colour.[/quote]
I use a spray cleaner in a silver bottle bought from Castorama called [I]Fuliggi Stop[/I]. It smells of acetone and rapidly dissolves the tar on the glass.

If I was you, I'd be trying to figure out why the glass is no longer staying clean as you imply it previously has done. Our stufa has air inlets around the door which mean that the smoke largely stays away from the glass. This means not much tar condenses on the glass and so it only needs to be cleaned once a week or so.

Are you burning wet wood? Have you been doing something different with the damper? Is your chimney drawing well? Or – assuming your stufa is, like ours, designed so that the airflow in the stove keeps smoke away from the glass – have the air vents become blocked?

Al

[quote=coppicer;101310][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Just when I thought I had made friends with the beastie - even given it the name 'Sam' - it now throws me another problem. It has been fine for 2 years but this autumn has decided not to let us see what is happening. The glass has gone a dark brown colour. Her who must be obeyed has tried to clean it to no avail. I have nothing against secrecy but I have to know what it is doing without forever opening the door. Anyone else had similar problems or even better - knows a solution!!

I chose 'Sam' so as not to be gender specific[/FONT] :radar:[/quote]

when we started using these things ,we have both a pellet stove and a wood burning stufa my wife with foresight asked the salesperson about this problem...from his hat he produced a plastic spray thing about the size of a detergent bottle.IT WORKS MIRACULOUSLY,all you do is spray it on the inside of the glass every morning when you clean it out leave it a couple of minutes and the brown stain disolves it's sufficient to wipe with a clean rag and it returns new and transparent it is however important to do it every morning ( when it is still warm from the night before)and not to let it build up or accumulate.The brand is called "l'artistico" which is also the name of the company it is specifically designed for glass and fittings for wood burners,stufe etc it should be readily available (or i'm sure it's equivalents) from the same people who sell these stoves/builders merchants/specialist iron mongers etc rather than supermarkets....

How much does it cost Sebastiano? if my cheap supermarket brand works on a cold stufa, why buy something that is possibly more expensive?.
A

I have spent some time today following the advice you all so rapidly came up with - thanks all. Found some of that magic spray in the cupbaord under the sink that Noble recommended and it has worked fine. Also followed Alan's advice and checked around the door and given that a quick spring (or should that be autumn) clean. Sam is now happily sharing everything with us again. :jiggy:

My Italian neighbour told me to use ordinary detergent (Ithink!). Seems to work ok.

After thinking we had solved the problem with the glass on our stufa on our last visit, we returned last week to find that our stufa was not going to keep us very warm. As well as the smoking / browning of the glass problem, a large amount of tar had appeared oozing from the bottom of the chimney. Despite all our best efforts and two heavy doses of chimney cleaner, nothing would coax it into life. As soon as we closed the door, it extinguished any signs of flame. We called in an expert German/ Italian builder who spoke wonderful English and he identified the problem as soon as he arrived at the top of the drive. The Italian builder who had installed the stufa for us had used the standard pipe for the chimney and put a very small-holed cap in the top. The long length of the chimney (about 8 metres) was too much. Add to this the very wet autumn, we had suffered very heavy condensation in the chimney which had disolved the soot and thus the tar at the bottom of the chimney. When the chimney was fitted, no access was installed for cleaing and it was fixed so that you cannot slide sections up to provide access.

We are advised that the only long term solution is to have a brick built chimney into which a short pipe from the stufa will go - going to cost around €1000 but cannot be done until mid January so our New Year visit has had to be cancelled. The other thing that we have discovered while preparing the kitchen for the builders is that the smoking has discoloured the walls so after the building - redecoration!! So much for a break in February - but still at least we will be warm doing it - we hope.

So Alan was right - the browning of the glass was a symptom of a deeper problem.
Looking on the brighter side - it has saved the wood pile!!

Is the standard pipe single walled stainless? You can get double walled which might help get better draw up the tube?

the chimney being made of a circular tube should in fact not be a problem i would say... circular as regards flow being unrestricted is always best... the top part that you have been told is too small is maybe a problem.....

before making a huge mess and spending lots of money... i would attempt a couple of things... most stoves that you buy these days always recommend circular stainless steel chimneys are fitted...even have the size and importantly how far above the roof line they should arrive to allow a free air circulation... so what was originally fitted is not wrong to my mind anyway in essence...

inspection traps... well get a metal cutting disc and saw through the pipe where you want both that to be and also access for the sweep... fit the new short piece of pipe after following the bit below

this leads to another observation...if the stove has been burning slow ... it will definitely need a sweep... chemicals will add to the problem as if the gunk is going nowhere then it will fall into the lowest point of your chimney stove connection and that's most probably along with the moisture where your main problem lies..

the other point with stoves is that they have very long routes in general nowadays for allowing smoke and heat to escape into the chimney ... its really essential even in a well running stove to go through the maintenance manual and work out exactly what you have to take apart and clean... often doing this more than recommended because when they sell you the things they like to pretend that they need virtually no maintenance at all... to my mind monthly as regards the stove and yearly as regards the sweep...

moisture is normal ... especially if you are not using it constantly... but in a clean running chimey should not be a major problem...there are solutions wher you put in darins at the lowest part... but it depends on how the tube is fitted and sited if you can do this

even if you choose to do the brick build it will be exactly the same... sweep and maintenance...

however logically you have the better system... if you look at any large smoking unit from car exhaust to power station chimney stack you will find very few that are square... and if your builder is giving you best advice it will be to line his brick built chimney with a round inserted stainless steel tube... all the way up...

hopefully if you have a go at the above it will save you a few euro and a lot of mess and time lost if it works... it really will not take much just to cut it open and look anyway... and the new sections can be bought from any fire store or diy place