Hit 500 hours on my new forge and the difference is real
I got a Whisper Mama last fall and just passed 500 hours of use. The first hundred hours were a struggle with uneven heat, but around hour 300, the firebrick really settled in. Now at 500, the heat is so even I can hold a welding heat on a 2-inch bar without hot spots. Has anyone else noticed a specific hour mark where their forge just clicked into place?
That's interesting, but my experience was totally different. My forge ran perfectly from the first fire, and the firebrick never really changed. I wonder if the early uneven heat you had was just a setup or burner tuning issue, not the brick breaking in.
Honestly, I wonder if it's less about the hours and more about the actual heating cycles. My old forge seemed to "break in" after a certain number of full heat-up and cool-down cycles, not just total run time. Letting it sit at temp for a long time might not do the same thing as bringing it up and down a bunch of times. Maybe that's why experiences vary so much.
Was it really frustrating at the start? I had the same kind of break-in period with my old forge, and it drove me nuts for a while. It's a huge relief when it finally settles down and just works right.