Gay Judson on thu 4 oct 07
I think I need to replace the elements in my Skutt KM1027 kiln (with
envirovent). I expected to have a longer service life from the
elements--but I am pretty new to all this so I may have misunderstood the
life expectancy of the elements.
I got my kiln in April of 2004. I've fired the kiln 87 times--about half of
those to ^6 and the other to ^04 or ^06. For most of that time I have had
incredibly consistent firings top to bottom. But lately that is not the
case. And this last bisque firing did not reach ^05 which it was set for.
The top had ^06 flat with ^05 at 1:00, the middle had ^06 flat with no
movement in the ^05, but the bottom did not show any movement in any of the
cones. I thought it might be that I needed to replace the thermocouple.
But I ran the test on the elements (ie: turn on the kiln, lid open, and
watch for the elements to glow red). After 40 minutes the top 2 rows of
elements had only partial areas glowing red (otherwise just grey) and only
the very bottom row seemed to be well lit.
I am a bit horrified at the cost of having the elements changed--wishing I
did not really need that already! Does it sound like that is my problem?
Could it be the thermocouple instead? Thanks, Gay Judson
Arnold Howard on fri 5 oct 07
From: "Gay Judson"
And this last bisque firing did not reach ^05 which it was
set for.
> The top had ^06 flat with ^05 at 1:00, the middle had ^06
> flat with no
> movement in the ^05, but the bottom did not show any
> movement in any of the
> cones.
Gay, can the kiln still reach cone 6?
Do you ever get error messages?
Your thermocouple is probably starting to wear out. You
might try programming the kiln to cone 04 to make the 05
witness cone bend. You can also use Cone Offset to adjust
the thermocouple.
I would wait until the kiln could no longer fire to cone 6
before I replaced the elements.
Sincerely,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com
Larry Kruzan on sat 6 oct 07
Hi Gay,
Another possibility are relays, given the low number of firings. I have two
1027 one five years old and one 2 years old. I just had the elements and
relays replaced in the older one and was shocked with the condition of the
relays. Skutt has a complete upgrade for the relay set which is reported to
be much more reliable. A thermocouple going south will normally cause you
to over fire, not under fire but it is only $12 so if in doubt....... I did
not change my elements when I knew they were getting weak but would not
suggest you ignore them like I did. As they age they expand and are much
harder to get out of the grooves - I will not let them go this long again -
took way too much time to get them out and a ^6 firing has lasted a hour
longer than the newer kiln.
That extra hour cost me about as much in electricity as the elements in a
year.
Larry
-----Original Message-----
From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Gay Judson
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 8:11 PM
To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
Subject: [CLAYART] life of the elements
I think I need to replace the elements in my Skutt KM1027 kiln (with
envirovent). I expected to have a longer service life from the
elements--but I am pretty new to all this so I may have misunderstood the
life expectancy of the elements.
I got my kiln in April of 2004. I've fired the kiln 87 times--about half of
those to ^6 and the other to ^04 or ^06. For most of that time I have had
incredibly consistent firings top to bottom. But lately that is not the
case. And this last bisque firing did not reach ^05 which it was set for.
The top had ^06 flat with ^05 at 1:00, the middle had ^06 flat with no
movement in the ^05, but the bottom did not show any movement in any of the
cones. I thought it might be that I needed to replace the thermocouple.
But I ran the test on the elements (ie: turn on the kiln, lid open, and
watch for the elements to glow red). After 40 minutes the top 2 rows of
elements had only partial areas glowing red (otherwise just grey) and only
the very bottom row seemed to be well lit.
I am a bit horrified at the cost of having the elements changed--wishing I
did not really need that already! Does it sound like that is my problem?
Could it be the thermocouple instead? Thanks, Gay Judson
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Mark Issenberg on sun 7 oct 07
I just replaced the switches on my Aim kiln. I had replaced the elements a
while ago and they are in good shape.. It seemed it was taking forever to get a
load fired. Im using my electric kilns for bisque..
I took the covers off the control panels and realized one switch was bad. It
had a pin that was cooked. I called Aim and ordered 6 new switches. The lower
switches looked good but I dont know how to measure the amps running through
the switch. Its been years and I use the kilns a lot. So I dcided to just
relac them
One thing that's important when messing with the electric kilns is to make
sure the POWER is OFF at the circuit breaker box. I learned on my meter to test
for continuity and on my meter is beeps. So I knew the elements where good.
Im no electrician so I move one wire at a time from old to new. I also put
in new wires from the switches to the elements.. I spent $160 to fix the kiln
and it should be good till I think its bad again. To replace the kiln would
have been $2,000 .. Yes, the bricks inside are a mess.
Also when I was moving wires I made sure that the wires were tight on the
pins..I think that was the problem the first time. Any loose fittings can be a
problem .
I have a Aim, a Olympic and a small Skutt that needs work. Of course I have
2 Alpines .. All kilns need maintenance .. A workshop would be helpfull.
Mark
Lookout Mountain Pottery
Rising Fawn Georgia
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