Question About Skutt 1227, L&l E28T-3 Or Equivalent

[neilestrick]

I have a customer who is thinking about buying an L&L E28T-3, which is the same size as the Skutt 1227, 28 wide by 27 tall. He wants to use it for cone 6 work. When run on 240 volt, single phase power, these models are only rated for cone 8. Skutt is telling him that it shouldn't really ever be fired to cone 6 much at all, that they are made for low fire work, while L&L says that they tend to burn out elements faster than normal at cone 6. My experience with my customers has not show this to be true. They seem to hold up just fine.

 

So my question to all of you is: Are you using a kiln of this size, which is rated for cone 8, to do cone 6 firings? Any issues?

[Dick White]

We have 2 of these Skutt 1227s serving ^6 glaze duty in the community studio where I work. They are each fired weekly, sometimes 2X in a busy week. I need to change the elements about once a year.

[neilestrick]

We have 2 of these Skutt 1227s serving ^6 glaze duty in the community studio where I work. They are each fired weekly, sometimes 2X in a busy week. I need to change the elements about once a year.

 

Thanks Dick! That's what I wanted to hear. There are hundreds (thousands?) of these kilns out there being used, so I figured there was someone on the forum who had experience with them.

[mregecko]

For what it's worth, our community studio has an older-modeled 231, which was the predecessor to the 1027. Slightly smaller than the 1227, but still rated for ^8.

 

We fire it about once every 2 weeks at ^6 with no problems. Elements have lasted at LEAST a year, probably closer to 1.5.