Cress E23 Not Shutting Off

[lincron]

I have a used (10 yr old) Cress E23.  I've been having problems for awhile and have consulted with tech at Cress for the following.

 

Initial Problem: Kiln not getting up to temp in reasonable time. Bisque fire fine, Glaze (^5) would not get hot enough even after 10 hours on med fast. However all ware was obviously over-fired - I assume from extended time even at under cone temp.

 

Fixes recommended and completed:  Replace elements, replace thermocouple.

 

First firing after these fixes was bisque, used pre-programmed ^04, speed slow - all good. (10 hours)

 

Second firing, glaze, used pre-programmed ^5 med-fast.  Kiln shut off at temp.  I was working and did not hear it click off, but I'm pretty sure it fired to temp, because I checked it after 15 min. and the temp was very close to ^5.  I looked inside the peep to see cones, noticed that every other element was still orange.  I assumed that this was part of the cooling process, not all elements turning off at the same time.  I left it for 5 hours. When I came back out, the temp was still at 1600, and half the elements were still orange.  Obviously all the glaze ran off my test tiles, thank goodness I had protected my kiln shelves!  

 

If anyone has experienced this problem I would love to know how to fix it.

I want to test it again using a self programmed ^5 (John Britt's E1) to see if it will shut down in user-program mode.

I will post results from that next.

 

Appreciate any info you can share.

 

Linda

[neilestrick]

So every other element was orange, like just one in each ring?

 

Does your kiln have zone control, or just one thermocouple?

 

Did the controller say CPLT (complete) at the end of the firing?

 

Unless you put in a cooling cycle, the elements should not still be on. If the glazes ran, then either the glazes are too fluid or the kiln over-fired. Slow cooling does not cause all that much additional melt.

 

My first guess is that you wired it wrong. I looked at the wiring diagram, and it's fairly goofy as far as kiln wiring goes, so it wouldn't be hard to to it wrong. It looks like maybe they're using the safety output on the controller to run a main relay? Go through the wiring diagram and see if you got it right. The other possibility is that you have a dead relay. From the wiring diagram it looks like if one was dead then that would account for an every-other-one glowing situation, although that wouldn't account fir it glowing after the firing is done.

[lincron]

Thanks Neil, we are in the process right now of replacing the relays.  Pretty sure we did the wiring correctly.  Hopefully that will fix it.

Appreciate your reply.

[Chris Throws Pots]

Linda,

Did the kiln ever shut off on its own? Or did you have to kill the breaker? I'm with Neil that it sounds like there there are issues with the relays, and glad to hear you're replacing these. I once had relays die in the "complete circuit" position. So rather than preventing any electricity from getting to the elements, they were constantly delivering power, even though the kiln's controller was showing IDLE. It was a pretty scary situation and the only way I could shut off power to the elements was to turn the kiln off at the breaker.

Good Luck!

Chris

[perkolator]

Bad relays stuck in closed position.

 

You got lucky you were there to observe and stop before any other issues could happen.  A friend told me a horror story of a kiln that never shut off -- he fired a load in his outdoor carport kiln area and then had to leave home for a long time and trusted his equipment to do its thing like it "should".  Came home at night when the kiln should have been off hours before, but saw glowing coming from underneath.....kiln sitter got stuck and the timer also failed somehow allowing the kiln to keep firing - melted all his glaze off the pots enough to eat through the floor of the kiln, hence seeing glowing from underneath!