(This is basically a commercial, though I am not being paid for it.)
The natural life can be wonderful. But sometimes it can suck. The glass on our wood stove door gets seriously gunked up with creosote, and that stuff is a real pain in the elbow grease to get clean. About every two weeks I roll up my sleeves, clean the ashes out of the stove, then set to on the dense, incredibly tough brown-to-black stains on the glass left by burning wood. It can take half an hour or more to scrub that stuff off and have clean glass again. And if I let it go longer, it can take an hour.
If you’ve had trouble with creosote on your wood stove glass, this post is for you.
I’ve tried all sorts of concoctions, and I’ve tried soaking it, too. Nothing made it easy. Until today!
I was digging in the cabinets remembering that I’d picked up a few new cleaners over the summer for some other tough jobs and thought I’d try one called “Krud Kutter.” (Who thinks up these names?) It comes in a spray bottle, and I used paper towels to make a wet poultice of the stuff that hung stuck to the glass over the creosote deposits. Then I did something else for about twenty minutes and came back ready to be beaten into submission yet again.
Enjoying a blaze through clean stove glass
But, lo! No! As I wiped the paper towel poultices off, the creosote just wiped off with it. Amazing! Shazam! I cleaned the rest off as easily as wiping down a countertop. Oh, man. I did a little dance of victory. Rose said I was channeling my inner 1950s housewife. I didn’t care. This stuff is awesome.
What’s the secret? I still don’t know. It contains “A proprietary blend of biodegradable surfactants, detergents, and emulsifiers, in a water based solution. No petroleum solvents, bleach or ammonia.” But it’s part of my arsenal henceforth.
A picture worth several words
Now, if only someone could clue me into something that works as good on the lime (or whatever mineral) deposits caused by water in the toilets. Then you’d really see a happy dance…
A great addendum from our anonymous poster above:
My previous endeavors to clean my toilet using muriatic acid detailed in the anonymous post a couple years ago worked well, but it’s complicated and a bit of hardship to make that much effort to clean one’s toilet. Why not clean it every week? Well, that toilet is the auxiliary toilet for guests and doesn’t get used every week and cleaning doesn’t seem warranted until… it’s too late.
Enter KABOOM BowlBlaster. It’s dressed like a superhero in purple with chartreuse trim. ‘Goes in purple, Turns green when clean,’ says the label. I found it the local Smith’s grocery store. It’s in one of those squeeze bottles that squirts up, ideal for getting beneath the rim.
I drove home eager with anticipation to give this purple and chartreuse superhero a try. The toilet in question hadn’t been used in so long the water was a bit low, and the bowl sides where the calcified deposits formed were dry. I tipped the bottle and gave it a squeeze. The thick purple liquid hit the calcium deposits and reacted with a pleasing fizz. I coated the bowl above the waterline as best as I could and used the brush dry to spread it on the dry porcelain. Plenty of the cleaner ended up in the water as well, and it sort of slid to the bottom of the bowl.
I put away my groceries and came back and had a look. The water in the bowl was green, so it should’ve been clean. I gave the bowl a scrub up to beneath the rim and was impressed. The surfaces were all clean and smooth except for the thickest calcium deposits streaking from the rim down to the water. I applied it a second time just to these areas and left it again while I introduced this superhero to the main toilet.
Overall I’m pleased. I’m thinking that one could carefully wet some toilet paper with the stuff and (using gloves) place it on the vertical walls of the bowl like an elongated spitball, which would allow this superhero to defy gravity and soak longer.
Got some Krud Kutter through Amazon. Just finished the oven and fire place doors. AMAZING!
Thank you!
Just used some again today. It IS amazing! Now if I can just find a toilet mineral deposit cutter short of Anonymous’s muriatic acid…
I’m excited to try Krud Kutter! Thanks for the tip, Betty!
We use Krud Kutter and a razor scraper to clean the glass on oven doors. That seems to be the quickest solution. Try CLR (Calcium, Lime, Rust) on the toilet. Just let it soak a bit.
For bathrooms, we use Lav Glo. I found it from a guy who re-enamels bath tubs and needs them really clean first. I think it has sulfuric acid in it, and it’s not fun to breathe. But it sure cleans soap scum. It’s not sold locally so I had to order a case. I still have a few bottles.
A regular reader sent this by email and agreed that I could post it after anonymizing it:
I’d post this to your blog, but the whole world doesn’t need to know about my housekeeping trials.
My guest toilet had so little use that it was dry…. It has had a ten-year history of such neglect that the bowl was pretty crusty with calcium deposits. I’ve also had a leaky seal in the tank from time to time, which caused it to trickle water into the bowl, causing calcium deposits along the path of those trickles. I put a pair of goggles on, plus gloves, put a racquet ball inside another glove and tied it off so it was sealed inside. I put that ball/glove combo in the bottom of the toilet to plug it, then got to work with pure muriatic acid. Nasty stuff, but the minute I poured it on the dry sides of the bowl, it had an amazing fizzy reaction, and the deposits were on their way. I kept on ‘basting’ the sides of the bowl with an old measuring cup to keep it working. After 5 minutes of that, it was clear I needed some ventilation. My lungs, which had enjoyed nearly two weeks of [very clean] air in [a really nice area during] the prior 3 weeks, were screaming obscenities, and my eyes were watering. I got a fan, opened the bathroom window, put the fan in the doorway, and put it on high. That was the ticket.
Once the bowl was good, my next goal was to get under the rim. I did that by pouring the acid down the standpipe in the tank, which caused it to run out to the rim of the bowl and down the distribution holes, at least those that were open. I went in with an awl and opened up the others, and continued to pour acid recycled from the bowl down the standpipe. When that was coming out on all sides, I decided it was good enough. Finally, the tank. Calcium deposits had formed at the water level on the sides of the tank, and made their way onto the surface of the water, forming shelves. Plus, there were deposits other places. I broke those deposits off and threw away the chunks, then fished out as many other deposits as I could, and finally transferred all the acid from the bowl to the tank. Slowly. Lots of fizzing. I left it for an hour or so and came back to a much refreshed toilet. I pulled out the ball that was plugging the bowl, and flushed. The pivot of the float arm broke. Dammit! Off to the hardware store to get that squared away. Overall, it was a successful endeavor. Something more frequent maintenance could’ve avoided, but since I don’t use it, I don’t remember to clean it very often.
Can’t wait to try your recommendation or the one posted from Anonymous below!