kblack on sun 5 dec 99
Since retirement from public school, I have been a "listener" on the list ,
hoping to get some pointers for starting out with my new potters wheel that
I bought at our State Art Teacher "Convention. The Brent CXC is great, but
my old kiln is pretty sick. My Skutt (1970's vintage) keeps blowing it's
top electrical control, so I am anticipating purchasing a new kiln. One
store advises to buy their Econo Kiln and the other store extols the
virtues of the Skutt kiln. Both are comparable in price. Also which is
more reliable, the electronic control or the manual control? At least I
can bisque fire for a while in the bottom section of the old kiln by piling
the greenware on top of each other. What a time of year to have a
break-down...the kiln, not me. Can anyone help me make a decision?
Kathy B
Ken Russell on mon 6 dec 99
Kathy,
>>Can anyone help me make a decision?
I don't know if this helps but I'm extremely prejudiced toward Skutts. I
HATE L&L's more than what's his name hates Gerstley Borate. Their Dyna
Squeeze element holders (they melt over the elements and must be broken in
order to replace elements) and cheap wires (constantly burning off the
posts) in their controller boxes are mainly the reasons why. I have 4 KM
1227's and one "L From Hell" 230. My Skutts are great. The controllers are
fantastic and Skutt stands behind their stuff. They've fixed one controller
for free, sent a relay that went bad for free and give pretty good advise on
playing around with the controllers themselves.
I know I sound like a commercial but I've used Skutts HARD for 5 years and
love 'em. One extra tidbit and humble opinion: If you don't line your
kilns with ITC 100 coating, you're stupid. Nice ad for ITC, huh? Do the
shelves and posts while you're at it. ITC is hyper cheap in the long run.
Ken Russell
The Arlington Pottery
Vince Pitelka on tue 7 dec 99
>I don't know if this helps but I'm extremely prejudiced toward Skutts. I
>HATE L&L's more than what's his name hates Gerstley Borate. Their Dyna
>Squeeze element holders (they melt over the elements and must be broken in
>order to replace elements) and cheap wires (constantly burning off the
>posts) in their controller boxes are mainly the reasons why. I have 4 KM
>1227's and one "L From Hell" 230. My Skutts are great. The controllers are
>fantastic and Skutt stands behind their stuff. They've fixed one controller
>for free, sent a relay that went bad for free and give pretty good advise on
>playing around with the controllers themselves.
I agree with Ken about Skutts, and disagree completely with him about L&Ls.
I have maintained L&L kilns in several different academic studios where the
kilns were used extremely heavily, and in that environment they are my first
choice, particularly for low-fire. The L&L element holders are extremely
refractory, and NEVER melt over the elements, and I have never had any
problem replacing the elements. As someone else pointed out, the L&L
element holders simply do a wonderful job of holding the element in place
with no pins or staples. Recently we had to replace all the jump wires to
the elements in our Skutt, as in the past I have occasionally had to do the
same in L&L kilns. I can't say that any part of an L&L kiln has required
any more maintenance than a Skutt, and I do believe that the L&L element
holder is a vastly superior system. However, the element holder is hard,
non-insulating refractory, and is imbedded quite deply in the IFB wall,
leaving less insulation between the element and the outside jacket. It is
for that reason that I do not believe in using the standard L&L kilns for
high-fire. They simply do not have enough insulation.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Home - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
Vince Pitelka on fri 10 dec 99
I received a message from Chris at Euclids, and in his extensive experience
maintaining kilns he has seen the element holders in L&L kilns occasionally
slump when the kiln is overfired. I wanted to mention this so that people
can take that into consideration when shopping for a new kiln. I still
really like the L&L kilns, but we never high-fire them at all. Even one
time when an L&L overfired seriously and turned a load of terracotta into
lava, none of the element holders warped, and we were able to salvage the
middle and top sections of the kiln. It appears that if you fire a
standard L&L at it's maximum range (which I believe is cone 8), and then the
kiln overfires, the element holders may warp. And I understand from Chris
that replacement element holders are quite expensive. I can only speak from
my own experience, and in fifteen years of firing and fixing L&L kilns I
have never had to replace an element holder. Occasionally removing old
elements has been a bit touchy, but I still like the element holders.
Best wishes -
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Home - vpitelka@DeKalb.net
615/597-5376
Work - wpitelka@tntech.edu
615/597-6801 ext. 111, fax 615/597-6803
Appalachian Center for Crafts
Tennessee Technological University
1560 Craft Center Drive, Smithville TN 37166
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