Woodstove Glass Cleaner

[Mackay]

I've tried lots of different alternative things for cleaning the glass of my stove... maybe its got to do with the variety of wood we burn, I don't know

So I developed my own and Im giving you the recipe.

Get a 16 ounce pet number 2 spray bottle

also have a spray bottle of vinegar by your side

fill your #2 bottle with water

add 1 teaspoon sodium hydroxide (NaOH)... danger.. this can burn.

use a funnel to get it into your bottle as you don't want it to spill

You don't want the sodium hydroxide to get wet and get on your hands as it is lye, the same lye used for making soaps.

If you spill the sodium hydroxide and it is wet it will burn. Spray it with vinegar if you get it on your hands to stop the alkali burn.

Thats it and your resulting product will not burn your hands... but if you leave it on paint or something it may corrode it after a while.

 

[Denim Deb]

Wonder if you can just use the ashes from the wood stove instead? (I need to wash my wood stove window, so maybe I'll try that.)

 

[Mackay]

Id rather not get into that mess with wood ashes. I've better things to do with my time.. there are many things that work but this works the best with less time and mess.. cheaper than vinegar or any other soap too.

I paid almost $6 for a bottle of the same, now I will pay pennies and use all I want.

 

[Denim Deb]

Well, I got 2 paper towels, and moistened both of them. The one, I used to just grab some ashes from the stove. And proceeded to smear them over the window, then turned the towel, and wiped them off the best I could w/that towel, then used the other one. It worked! That's the cleanest the window has been in quite some time! There was always that little bit I couldn't get off.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

My dad used to just scrape it off the black stuff with a razor blade or a plastic car window ice scraper, then we'd wash with vinegar and newspaper.

 

[Wildsky]

I just use dish soap and a scrubby - takes a bit of work but it comes off and nice and clean.

What we need is something to put on the clean glass to prevent that black crud from sticking!

 

[Mackay]

I just adjusted the recipe to 1 tsp. as I had some stuck on really bady and it would not get it off where the product I am copying did...

I'm adding this lye slowly till I find just the right amount that does the work without buring the skin..

I've done the ashes thing... no thanks. and essentially that is a lye treatment too, no?

 

[freemotion]

Yup. I bet your recipe would work great for those spills in the oven, too....

 

[big brown horse]

I use a magic eraser on my wood stove windows and it cleans them like they were brand new.

 

[Mackay]

Whats a magic eraser.

Im looking for something thats almost free.
I had to up the amount of lye to 1.5 teaspoons. Works great now.

I must have clean glass everymorning and dam if Im gonna sit there and scrape and scurb when Im half asleep and freezing my buns off. Must get done in less than one minute