Evenheat Kiln Not Firing

[LonesomeDove]

Hey folks. New to the forum as a poster but have been coming here for the last couple years as a spectator.

 

I have an old Evenheat 4320 kiln with a Kiln-sitter K10 on the front of it. It's got 4 switches to fire the 4 elements and that's it. No timer.

 

It's got very new elements in it with approximately 30 firings on them. It fires hot and quick with my glaze firing typically lasting about 6.5-7 hours.

 

Alas, my problem... During my last glaze firing, at about hour 5, I checked in on the kiln to see what was happening and noticed the light on the front panel had went off, although the sitter hadn't dropped to trigger the shut-off. I assumed it had blown the breaker, which is something it had never done before, but the breaker was fine.

 

So I'm curious what it could be.

 

Here's a few other bits of information:

 

-when I flick each switch on I usually listen to hear the element engage as in the past I've noticed that although the switch has been flipped the element didn't turn on. Normally a quick flip back and then on again fixes that and I hear the element come on and hum.

-currently, if I connect the power back up to the kiln and engage the kiln-sitter I can see the indicator light glowing ever so slightly. It's virtually impossible to notice it in daylight but if I try it in the dark I can see a faint amount of light coming from it. Very, very faint. As soon as I switch any of the elements on though it goes out.

-initially I assumed that maybe I had a bad switch that wasn't allowing electricity to hit any of the elements but then why wouldn't the light come on as it's wired directly off the module/button on the front and I think it should illuminate as long as the button is depressed?

-the main panel in my house looks fine, no blown breakers.

-could it possibly be the button that's shot? is there something inside it mechanically that could fail?

-i've attached a couple pictures from the inside of the electrical box so you can see if anything looks amiss.

 

Thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance!

Jonas

 

[LonesomeDove]

More research is making me think it's maybe the switch block?

 

If power hits that first before going anywhere else and my light or elements aren't working then that might be the issue?

[LonesomeDove]

Update:

I noticed there is a fuse box between my main panel and my kiln. I opened it up and noticed two glass fuses. Tested one with my multimeter and one is shot.

[KBart]

Where is that fuse?  Can you post a photo.  My 3 top switches do not work, maybe that is my problem.

[Soren]

56 minutes ago, KBart said:

Where is that fuse?

I am pretty sure from the above posts that LonesomeDove found the fuses between the kiln and the main power panel, therefore not on part of the kiln.  I do not think the old kilns are built with fuses.  For my kilns, I rely on a breaker-controlled power supply for safety rather than fuses.

[neilestrick]

4 hours ago, Soren said:

I am pretty sure from the above posts that LonesomeDove found the fuses between the kiln and the main power panel, therefore not on part of the kiln.  I do not think the old kilns are built with fuses.  For my kilns, I rely on a breaker-controlled power supply for safety rather than fuses.

Digital kilns have a fuse for the controller. Kilns that pull more than 48 amps (larger than 60 amp breaker) are required to have branch fuses for the elements, too.