How to clean a cast iron stove? As you all know, most people who own a wood-burning stove at home have ones made from thick cast iron. Why? This material is widely known to be effective at handling extreme temperatures like fire and providing heat indoors. Unfortunately, though, it also needs to be cleaned very often. So, how to clean a cast-iron stove?
Usually, cast iron stoves get dirty after a one-time usage since it uses wood to start a fire. In that case, burning wood turns into ashes, making it messy to clean up if ever needed. Regardless, let us dive deeper and know more about the topic as we continue this article. You might also learn some essential terms.
Steps To Clean A Cast Iron Stove
How to clean a cast iron stove? Since cleaning a cast iron stove may be new to some people, you must look at doing these things. You can also use this as a guide to accomplish the cleaning process to carry out much easier:
Step #1. Cleaning the interiors of the cast iron stove
Before anything else, we’ll need to make some preparations since cleaning a cast iron stove is messy. To accomplish that, you’ll have to take a mat or newspaper; you’ll use that to protect the floor if the ashes fall since it is tough to reach on some corners and areas. Also, open the air dampener.
Now that the area is all set and ready for the job, we shall start the process. First, open the door of your stove so that all the heat trapped inside gets lost. In that way, we can do things without having to worry furthermore. Wear a mask when doing this since ashes might cause an allergic reaction to some people.
You’ll first want to open your iron stove’s door to expose the ashes. Using a metal ash shovel, scoop all the ashes left inside to the burning of the woods. It’ll be a lot since wood produces ashes when burned at high temperatures, just like in stoves. Make sure to ready your metal bucket to be used as storage for it.
When scooping out all the ashes, make sure to slowly take it out of the stove so that cleaning it will be much easier. However, it is okay to fall within the area since it is protected by covers that can be used later as a funnel for the ashes. Make sure to clean the insides as starting a fire the next time will be much easier.
It would help if you covered the ashes inside the bin well as they’ll be kept for forty-eight hours since there might be live coals still hidden within the ashes. Keep it tight, especially if there are people in your household who are sensitive to dust. Ashes can be one reason to trigger their allergic reaction. Throw the contents later.
Step #2. Cleaning the exteriors
Since cast iron stoves might get exposed to rust, dirt, or anything in particular that makes them dirty, you should always clean them up whenever you have the time to do so. And with that, you’ll need a wire brush or steel wool with you. That is so that all the grime or rust build-up starts falling off. You might want to learn more about cast iron wood stoves.
Once you got rid of most of the areas where grime or rust has built up outside, there might be still left to clean up for you, and a simple wire brush cannot take it off.
Now to remove that, you’ll want to have sandpaper with you. This is so you can remove all of the remaining dirt that has been left hanging for days. It was sanding the entire surface properly since there might be coarse areas left due to its oldness. Also, this will remove any marks or scratches that the wire brush has recently made since sandpapers are known to be fine enough to smoothen out rough areas. As a finisher, wipe down the entire area with vinegar to eliminate dirt.
Step #3. Cleaning the glass pane
Glasses tend to dirty a lot due to the ashes or different dirt around their surface area, leading them to rust as time passes. Again, though, we can avoid this from happening with the help of water, vinegar, and soap. Mix them all, and now you have a solution for eliminating dirt from glasses. Put this in a spray bottle to start.
Also, don’t forget to clean the chimney and its cap since ashes might build up at the top of the chimney, causing it to malfunction at times. I know you don’t want that to happen, so open the chimney cap and clean it thoroughly using a stiff brush.
It’s A Wrap!
Now, you have an idea of how to clean a cast iron stove. It is essential to know about this since rust build-up may wither your device in no time. Also, this makes starting fire easier the next time around if ever you need it to heat your room or yourself. Now, you might get a hang of the articles, read this one and learn how long does it take a fridge to get cold or why your fridge is freezing food.