Woodstove winterization?
 

As a ritual of the cottage fall closing, my father would always clean the woodstove and coat the parts with WD-40. My questions: does anyone else take this protective step? What's the value? Is there a better cleaner/preventer to use, as the first burn in the spring makes quite a smell?

We never have treated the stove any different at close up than if we planned to be back the next day. Never had an issue.

When you say "preventer" preventer from what? Seems like an odd use of WD to me but let me first state I do not own a stove either - just sayin. Call any shop that sells them and get their take. Problem is they may have some "snake oil" that will work better for 29.95.

The WD-40 or "StoveBlack" should prevent any rusting - especially in a humid environment.

Frankly, I'm not sure. Rust prevention seems the most logical, but of course the non-use period of the winter is the least humid season we have. It'll get used in late spring and early fall, as the only source of home heating, but we never did anything to it for the humid (but brief) summer. Thus my question if there's a real benefit.

What worked well for me was most any vegetable oil, canola, etc, etc.
That way there are no toxic fumes when you fire off the stove on those chilly mornings in Spring to worry about...


Terry
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Woodstove maintenance
 

I'll tell you what WD-40 is good for. I recently had to have Energy Savers come in to service my propane stove. I could not get the pilot lit with the clicker (pise something) or to stay on when I lit it with a match. I thought it was the burner unit or at least the thermocouple and clicker. Dale from ES came in and sprayed my burner with WD-40. It was clogged from rust. Used the WD-40 tube to spray into the burner holes. Worked great. Only smelled for short time after.

Kudos to Dale and Energy Savers who could have easily told me it was the burner unit and got a lot more cash for their trouble, I wouldn't have know any better.

I learned the same way that the pilots clog up after sitting unlit. It is best to let them run year round. A can of canned air works great, no need to spray WD-40 on and deal with the smell. The amount of propane you will burn from the pilot is probably less than the replacement parts and repair bills you will encounter by shutting it down.

WD would be better sprayed on the nozzle at closing to prevent rust while idle for long periods.

For closing, yes. The previous poster was trying to get their stove running. Canned air works fine for that to clean it out.