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Can Someone Help With Instructions For 20Year Old Stanton Kiln


AscotLady

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I am a newbie potter and I have purchased a 20 year old, smallest Stanton T25 electric Kiln. It is working, it has a digital controller in a black box, probably not the original, and a large white box underneath that ? No idea what that is but all the wiring goes through it. We are trying to use it today with a test firing. The controller has simple settings; a temperature readout, a set switch to set the temp you want it to reach, a soak switch which holds the temp, and a switch which sets the rate the temperature climbs ie the power. It does not appear to have a time switch, so it is a sort of manual kiln, no spy holes, and a bung in the lid presumably to let any steam escape at low temperature. Top loader, with a lock mechanism which will not allow the lid to be opened when switched on. We have no idea how to control the cooling speed and have just adjusted the temperature setting every hour today. No idea what we will find when we open it tomorrow!

We have been unable to obtain an instruction book or find one online. If someone has this kiln and can give me simple instructions that would be great, or a copy of an old instruction book.

Thank you for all the great questions and answers, this site has been invaluable for me.

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Hi AscotLady,

Welcome to the forums, and a great community for potters both on the beginner side and those more advanced. I hope that you will find this a place to ask and get answers.

 

It appears you are across the pond from me, but with the miracles of the internet I have found a PDF file that includes information on you kiln. It also appears that Stanton is still in business, so you should be able to contact them direct. 

The link to the pdf is here, in case you have not gotten it yet.

 

http://www.stanton-kilns.co.uk/Downloads/General.pdf

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Thank you for the welcome and for the PDF. We have been in contact with Stantons as we thought we had an electrical fault, however they could not help us, nor supply a manual for our old model. We had seen the PDF which helped for safe installation.

The new models are very similar in construction but all the young staff were unable to help with the old model, common story these days. They cannot tell us if the controller is an original part. We managed to check all the wiring and by upgrading a fuse to Cgrade MCB plus a new relay switch from ebay got it going.

Hopefully someone out there knows how it is supposed to work, rather than what we are doing, that is guessing. We may invest in a new/old updated controller. I hope I can report tomorrow that we did something right and dont have just a mess in the bottom of the kiln!

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The Stanton T25 is not supplied with a controller (according to current info on their website), so it could be anything, what is the name/number on the controller?

 

There is info on Stantons website for obsolete controllers - it's quite possible that one of these may have been bought with the kiln.

 

Below is the webpage for the controllers they supply now, at the very bottom of the page is a link to obsolete controllers.

 

http://www.stanton-kilns.co.uk/controllers.asp

 

 

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Thank you for trying to help. There is one obsolete controller on the Stanton site, not our one. However, the test glazing was just fine, all good, and the following days a test Bisque (porcelain), also was good. Apart from a starting temperature showing at 200 C. whilst the kiln is quite cool, all seemed good. We will probably change the thermostat and controller at a later stage when I am more proficient. We are not sure why it shows 200 C and thought we might be going too high at the end, but seems not.

 

Will try and post some pictures when I can get to my computer, doesnt like the ipad for reducing the picture size.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry for delay in replying, and thank you for the input. Stantons have been intouch, they have been able to give a complete history of the kiln, it is 35 years old. Still working well, they are true workhorses and they say much tougher than the modern kilns. It is possible to put a new controller on, however the old ones did start reading from cool at 200+ C, it is not a problem once the temperature goes up from there as it records properly, we will check this with cones shortly. The chap did give us advice and agreed that the addition of a shelf on the bottom on the kiln simply fixed the problem of the damaged floor bricks (with glass) without comprimising the kiln or taking it apart.

Thanks Advanced Member with nice pot but no name in Hampshire - we cannot find a model number or any info on the controller, we intend to continue with it whilst is appears to work just fine (but needs manual input and no programmes), and will update it eventually.

Meanwhile we have build a Raku kiln in the garden - looking forward to 'playing with fire'.

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