Steps For Caring For Your Wood Stove

Wood stoves are an easy way to reconnect your family with simpler times. Sitting around a roaring fire in a wood stove brings warmth, comfort and family camaraderie. After making years of memories around your favorite small wood stove, you may want to pass the nostalgia down to your children.

That's where maintenance and care come in. Wood stoves are made to last for decades. Though, as with anything, you have to take care of it to ensure it lasts as long as possible. In this article, we will discuss a few steps to help you ensure your wood stove will last for years to come.

looking at a wood stove

First, you need to read your owner's manual. Every stove will come with a manual created by the manufacturer. The instructions will be specific to your stove and written by the people who made it. Before general use or any kind of maintenance, it is best to read the manual. Yes, it's tedious, we get that. But it's way better than ruining your brand new stove or cutting its life span in half because you skipped simple instructions.

reading the owner's manual

Another word of caution, the manual should tell you what kind of wood and how much wood will be best to load in your wood stove. Make sure that you do not overload the firebox or leave the door to your stove open for too long. Leaving the door open will draw in more oxygen and cause the fire to grow faster than it can handle.

Putting in too much wood will do the same thing. When you "overfire" a wood stove it will begin to turn red & warp. Once it is warped, you have basically killed it and it's no longer safe to use. So, please, be kind and let your stove live a long happy life.

open wood stove

While this should go without saying, we will say it anyway. Please, for the love of all things good and holy, do not burn trash in your stove. Just don't do it. Trash can be laced with all sorts of chemicals and release harmful fumes into the firebox.

Some of those fumes may never come out of the firebox once released and absorbed into the walls. So, only burn wood that is dried and seasoned properly. Seasoned wood will also create less creosote, which leaves you less mess to clean up and deal with in your flue later.

small wood stove

For now, these are all the tips we will give you to maintain and care for your wood stove. If you have more questions about wood stoves, feel free to call us at 800.203.1642 or check out our library of articles here.