William & Susan Schran User on wed 21 dec 05
On 12/21/05 11:31 AM, "Paula" wrote:
> I'm looking to buy one for a home studio and was wondering if anyone
> had any opinions on either the L&L or the Olympic brands. I'm looking
> at the L&L Easy Fire Digital e23t or e23s, or the Olympic 2323. Any
> ideas and advice are most appreciated
Well, here I go, sticking my neck out to see how many whacks I get.
This is my Opinion, but based on years of firing/repairing a number of
brands of kilns.
Full disclosure - I am a devote supporter of L&L products
Go with L&L, forget the Olympic!
L&L has element holders that eliminate the need for element pins. This makes
it much easier and less destructive to the kiln when replacing elements. The
element pigtails and wire leads wrap around a bolt and are held in place
with washer & nut, again very easy to work on.
The Olympic has grooves in the firebrick that are held in place with pins.
Changing elements usually means chipping/breaking bricks when pulling out
elements. Element pigtails and wire leads are crimped together which means
cutting the wire lead and having a heavy duty crimping tool for replacement.
We had an Axner Super kiln at school for a few years. This is an Olympic
kiln. The kiln was one piece, not sections, which made it very difficult to
replace the floor element. About every 6 months a wire would corrode and
break loose from the pigtail. I slowly replaced all those connections with
split bolt connectors. I found Axner to be very responsive to
questions/issues with the kiln, but not so Olympic - not helpful at all!
Earlier this year we finally got rid of this kiln and replaced it with
another L&L. We now have 6 L&L's of various sizes, both manual and
programmable. The oldest kiln is from the 1970's! The youngest is less than
a year old, and I gotta tell you, the quality of L&L's just keeps getting
better and better.
When I get back to school for spring semester, I'll be ordering a e23s for
our crystalline firings. We are now using J18X-3 programmable with heavy
duty elements. We've done more than 40 crystalline firings in this kiln and
the firing time has not varied by more than 10 minutes in all these firings.
Hey, go on L&L's web site, call or email Stephen Lewicki (president) and
tell him I said to call to ask why you should by an L&L. He will answer all
of your questions so you can understand. They'll send you a free CD about
firing their kilns.
Last thing - L&L stands behind their products and are very helpful.
FYI - http://www.clay-king.com is running a great deal on the L&L models you
listed.
Feel free to email me privately with any questions.
-- William "Bill" Schran
Fredericksburg, Virginia
wschran@cox.net
wschran@nvcc.edu
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