I'm sorry for such a stupid question, but after googling for half an hour I know two things
- There are at least a zillion pages, blog-posts and articles about how to keep your fireplace window clean or how to clean it.
- There is not a single page which explains what I'm looking for and which doesn't make claims without supporting them with scientific facts.
Therefore, here the short form of my question: Assuming I have a fireplace with a window, which looks like this after a while:
Further assume I'm able to keep all other factors constant (like type of wood, temperature of the fire etc.), is there something I can apply/do to the cleaned window to prevent the building of soot for a longer time?
The reason I'm asking is this article I stumbled over, which claims that normal corn-starch can be used to fill the pores of the glass. This left me with more questions
- does each glass (especially my one) have pores with a size that starch particles can fit in? I read somewhere that starch has a diameter between 2-170 µm depending on the type.
- I'm making a fire where I burn wood! Why wouldn't the starch simply burn and create itself the soot?
- As we know for a while now making a surface really smooth doesn't mean it keeps clean. With a size of 10-20 µm of the lotus papillae, it seems to fall in the same range as starch.
And for the diligent, here two more sub-questions:
- How does soot building work? I mean, why does the soot stick so hard at the window? After all it's just little particles flowing around and landing on the window. (I know it's called burning in, but how does the heat work on a already burned particle?)
- Is there some connection to the pores (if any) in the glass in this process?
Update
After using my fireplace one winter, I'd like to make recommendation based on my experience so far. Important is that I can easily remove the window from my fireplace for cleaning. In case the window is fixed, cleaning might become a bit messy. Let me bring it down to 3 tips:
My current method is to use a cleaner for ceramic glass cooktops. This works like a charm. In case someone wants to know the specific product: it's a cleaning stone for class ceramic which is probably only available in Germany but I guess something similar can be found all around the world. This thing comes with a sponge and you just have to rub the wet sponge a few times over the cleaner to apply some. Cleaning the window with this is done in less than a minute, even if there is a lot of soot.
If you don't want to invest any money, the most simple and very effective cleaning method is to use the ash itself to scrub the window. Simply take water and a newspaper, if possible make the window itself wet or better rinse it with water. Take a sheet of newspaper, make it wet and apply ash directly from the fireplace itself. It's really surprising how easily the soot can be scrubbed away with this method.
Last tip: Heat! As already said in the accepted answer, soot is basically the deposition of incomplete combustion products from a flame. There is no doubt and I have tested this very often: a dirty window can partially be cleaned by make a hot fire with very dry wood and a lot of air. Therefore, try to fill your fire-room with the maximum possible amount of wood, open all air-valves and let it burn for a while.