Emily Pearlman on tue 3 may 05
Hi all:
Does anyone out there really understand how the Bartlett Kiln
controllers work?
My studio has 5 cone art kilns that are 1 year old. They have been
firing fine until a couple of weeks ago. Then we got a fail message on
two of the kilns and since we did not know a thing about them we called
in our kiln guru who said we needed new thermacoples. They were all
changed. Since then we have been having troubles. One kiln fired
beautifully on the bottom (5-6 inches high}, but over fired the top.
Another kiln was just the opposite. The top part was great, but the
bottom was over fired, (running of glazes, dunting, stuff that never
happened the whole past year with the same glazes, clay, and firing
schedules and same type of pots.). We've called several people who we
thought were knowledgeable, but they did not know either. We are using
the same clay, glazes type of pots as in our old manual fired kilns
where we did not have this kind of problem. (We had others, but that
was usually our fault).
Oh yes, the witness cones , when used, were where they were supposed to
be.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Emily
http://www.eppottery.com
Arnold Howard on wed 4 may 05
Emily, it sounds like your kilns are 3-zone. (The way to tell is to look
into the firing chamber. There is one thermocouple for each zone.)
Each thermocouple in a 2- or 3-zone system must be wired to the correct
relay. Otherwise the kiln will fire very unevenly, if at all. There is
probably an element test you can perform under Options to determine if the
thermocouples are wired correctly. (I don't have instructions for the latest
Bartlett controllers.)
Sincerely,
Arnold Howard
Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA
arnoldhoward@att.net / www.paragonweb.com
From: "Emily Pearlman"
> Does anyone out there really understand how the Bartlett Kiln
> controllers work?
> My studio has 5 cone art kilns that are 1 year old. They have been
> firing fine until a couple of weeks ago. Then we got a fail message on
> two of the kilns and since we did not know a thing about them we called
> in our kiln guru who said we needed new thermacoples. They were all
> changed. Since then we have been having troubles. One kiln fired
> beautifully on the bottom (5-6 inches high}, but over fired the top.
> Another kiln was just the opposite. The top part was great, but the
> bottom was over fired, (running of glazes, dunting, stuff that never
> happened the whole past year with the same glazes, clay, and firing
> schedules and same type of pots.).
Gary Harvey on wed 4 may 05
I assume that you have computer controllers on your kilns. I know this may
not help, but I had a problem with a computer once that would beep then
stop working it was caused by a bad grounding shaft. I can't think of what
they are called but the one that grounds the buildings electrical supply.
This causes all kinds of problems with computers and since you are having
problems with all of them check this out. Good luck. G Harvey, Palestine
TX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Emily Pearlman"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 10:25 PM
Subject: Kiln controller problems
> Hi all:
>
> Does anyone out there really understand how the Bartlett Kiln
> controllers work?
>
> My studio has 5 cone art kilns that are 1 year old. They have been
> firing fine until a couple of weeks ago. Then we got a fail message on
> two of the kilns and since we did not know a thing about them we called
> in our kiln guru who said we needed new thermacoples. They were all
> changed. Since then we have been having troubles. One kiln fired
> beautifully on the bottom (5-6 inches high}, but over fired the top.
> Another kiln was just the opposite. The top part was great, but the
> bottom was over fired, (running of glazes, dunting, stuff that never
> happened the whole past year with the same glazes, clay, and firing
> schedules and same type of pots.). We've called several people who we
> thought were knowledgeable, but they did not know either. We are using
> the same clay, glazes type of pots as in our old manual fired kilns
> where we did not have this kind of problem. (We had others, but that
> was usually our fault).
>
> Oh yes, the witness cones , when used, were where they were supposed to
> be.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks
>
> Emily
>
> http://www.eppottery.com
>
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Jim Willett on thu 5 may 05
Emily,
A couple of points on your kiln problems. If you have the three zone kilns
then you might have had a thermocouple fail but the odds are not all three
at once. I would have recommended changing only the bad one. You can step
through the three thermocouples seperately and see which has failed by
pushing button 1, 2, or 3. Now that all three have been changed you have a
different problem. All thermocouples have a margin of error. If
thermocouple 1 is 20 degrees "cool" reading at the top end and
thermocouple 3 is 20 degrees "hot" at the top end you could see 40 degrees
or more between indicated and actual temperatures. The Bartlett
controllers allow you to set an offset to calibrate the thermocouple. If
you have the documentation which came with the kiln there is a detailed
explanation of how to set tc offset. Also, and this is very important,
hopefully your "kiln guru" did not skimp when buying replacement
thermocouples. You should always go with the heavy guage Type K models
identical to the ones which were installed in the kiln originally. We
tried a cheapy light guage replacement once in an emergency and never got
the same temperature twice. You did not say what the error code was.
Uneven firing in the Cone Arts can also be caused by a floor element not
functioning properly. Also, and this seems possibly like a silly question,
but have you contacted Shimpo in Chicago? They are in our experience very
nice people who will attempt to help you solve your problems.(For your
information we have three Cone Arts, an old 7, a four year old 10, and a
one year old 16 oval, the two bigger ones with the Bartlett controllers
and we like them.)If you want to discuss this more you can phone our toll
free number 1-866-378-0240. I'd be happy to try and help.
Jim Willett
Out of the Fire Studio
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
http://www.outofthefirestudio.com
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