posted 1 month ago
Well every stove is different and I have not seen your stove or know anything about where you live or air temperatures etc ….however if you read many of the build threads on this forum, you will soon pick up on a theme! When the builders stove is first fired up, many folk are disappointed only to be delighted two weeks later when the stove had dried out!
Refractory materials are like sponges and pick up moisture and hold on to it, they dont have to appear wet to contain moisture.
As long as the bricks hold moisture they wont saturate with heat and you wont get full performance until the whole stove is dry.
That does not mean you cant lite it, in fact it means you must lite it often with small fires.
The most efficient method is very well documented and tested on brick pizza ovens, small regular fires with cooling down period between the fires is what works the fastest.