Combatting Condensation on your Stove.
The damage caused by condensation is not to be undere -stimated. Your stove is a metallic product. Regardless of whether your wood burner is made from Cast Iron or Boiler Plate Steel, whether you paid R5,000 or R50,000 for it, your stove will be highly susceptible to rust if it sits with a coating of condensation on it regularly.
Here is one example we were called out to view:
This stove is a good object case to view because the colour shows up the rust. It had been painted in ‘Rustoleum Cream’ high heat paint. The stove had been installed for less than a year. There were no leaks in the flue system and the customer asked the retailer why his ‘pride and joy’ was looking so sorry!
We were asked to ‘trouble shoot’ the situation due to our expertise in stove maintenance. Having corresponded at length with the customer, it was explained to us that the stove was in a holiday home that was only used very occasionally and was left locked up for much of the year. When we visited site, the occupants confirmed that the home suffered dramatically with mould/damp during the periods it was left unattended.
It is a fact that warm air can carry more moisture than cold. When the warm air hits a cooler surface the moisture contained in it condenses and settles on the surface. With no other elements to remove this moisture, the process of corrosion is inevitable.
Generally speaking, when we are living in and around our home, the home will be well ventilated and ‘airy’. This helps to reduce the risk of condensation sitting on the stove – even in summer months.
To try and reduce the risk still further, here are a couple of tips:
- Open your air vents fully to allow a free flow of air in and around the stove.
- Leave the door ajar on the stove.
- Place disposable ‘dehumidifiers’ (available from most supermarkets) inside the stove or behind it.
- Spray the inside of the stove with ‘WD40’ or ‘Q20’ equivalent at the end of winter.
- If you own a black stove, use a stove polish to create a good seal on the metalwork for summer (click here for one distributor of stove polish in SA).
For the customer with the damaged stove, we undertook a full refurbishment and brought his stove back to ‘as new’ condition using Charnwood ‘Almond’ paint.
