Electric Mid&Hi Fired Ceramics
Potters & Sculptors - Making Rock from Mud
I have a skutt model181kiln that needs new elements to achieve cone 6 temps. Having never done this myself any tips or suggestions
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Comment by Norm Stuart on September 18, 2014 at 2:58am
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At the risk of starting on the obvious end of element replacement, I'd tuck a strip of paper or index card next to each heating element and fire the kiln with the lid open for a few minutes until the papers begin to burn.
Almost certainly specific heating elements are not producing heat because they, or the power relay controlling them, are broken.
We need to do this "paper test" periodically because our kiln will achieve the programmed heating ramps with three of the heating elements burnt-out, but the heating will be uneven within the kiln. By the time our kiln ERRs out, there are a number of elements which have been out for a while.
If all of the heating elements are very old there may be some merit to replacing them all at the same time, but after trying both ways I prefer replacing only broken elements and while using a torch to put sagging elements back into place.
We had a problem for a while and discovered some studio members could not prevent themselves from moving elements back into their channel without sufficient heat from a gas torch, greatly shortening the element life.
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If you just want to spout off, it is best accomplished as a blog posting. If you want to get more guidance and ideas from other members, ask a question as a new discussion topic. In the upper right corner of the lists for both types of posting, you will find an "+Add " button. Clicking it will open an editor where you create your posting. 4/16/2014
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