Knox Steinbrecher on mon 10 aug 98
I have a computer control on my kiln and it recently flashed "PF" indicating a
power failure of 2 or more minutes. The temperature gauge was climbing and
there was nothing in the instruction booklet to tell me if I should DO
anything other than watch the kiln. The temp was around 925 f so I was
reluctant to mess with in---inversion etc.
When the firing was finished there was a new code "ERR4" whose explanation
didn't make a whole lot of sense to me but I read about it anyway.
When I opened the kiln, it was obvious that it had come close, but not
achieved full temp. I re-fired and all went well. I was lucky.
Should I have stopped the firing when I first saw the PF inidicated? Were the
two codes related as in one causing the other or was I lucky enough to have
two events for the price of one? If I had shut down the kiln, could I have re-
started right away or does one wait until cooling? My instruction booklet
seems rather incomplete in this department. Help.
Knox in Marietta Ga
Earl Brunner on tue 11 aug 98
you should be able to shut down and reprogram right away and not loose the
heat already gained. I've done it before, when the kiln was doing something
screwy. (usually my fault, as a programing error). I just switched it over
from ramp to cone firing and it finished off fine.
Caryl W. on tue 11 aug 98
>----------------------------Original
message----------------------------
>I have a computer control on my kiln and it recently flashed "PF"
indicating a
>power failure of 2 or more minutes. The temperature gauge was climbing
and
>there was nothing in the instruction booklet to tell me if I should DO
>anything other than watch the kiln. The temp was around 925 f so I was
>reluctant to mess with in---inversion etc.
>
>When the firing was finished there was a new code "ERR4" whose
explanation
>didn't make a whole lot of sense to me but I read about it anyway.
>
I have the Skutt Kilnmaster wall mount, and have experienced some of
what you did. I had a power failure(unfortunately a very common
experience here with all the large cedars and at times very gusty
winds).The Kilnmaster told me at what temperature the kiln had shut down
at and when I pressed Enter it then told me at what temperature the kiln
was presently at. I believe quartz inversion is at around 580 C, and the
kiln was quite a bit higher then that so I merely restarted and kept
going. There was no problem with the results. I also use at least one
witness cone at the bottom in each firing so I can tell if its reached
cone temperature or not and I've restarted at that point as well to make
sure I get the desired cone .I use the Ramp/Hold settings which do give
me a little more flexibility for doing that sort of thing.I've had Error
messages, but not #4. The error message I had was #1, and it sort of
means the same thing. In my case the kiln was not getting hotter fast
enough-it has to gain a certain amount of temperature rise in a certain
period of time or it shuts itself down;I was at full throttle during the
dinner demand time and there just wasn't enough juice in the system(what
with all the lights,cooking,etc.)So I wasn't getting the 220V that I
needed, so I wasn't getting enough juice to raise the temperature.In
your case it sounds like you were ramping down, and it wasn't meeting
the kilns basic temperature drop,so it gave you an Error message.The
Skutt manual says the cause for this is a stuck relay, so that its not
allowing the elements to turn off long enough to drop in temperature the
basic amount needed before the kilns safety feature kicks in.
Its hard to say whether the PF and the other were related. Has it
happened since? I would contact the manufacturer to question this if it
ever happens again.
Caryl
(In beautiful White Rock,B.C. where firing an electric kiln during
winter storms sort of feels like gambling in Vegas)
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
| |
|
