ango0211 Posted December 11, 2017 Report Share Posted December 11, 2017 Hello, My clay studio recently had a perfectly functioning Skutt 1027 kiln display an error code 1 on a cone 6 glaze firing. In the firing directly before this, someone had exploded a few pieces in a bisque firing (cone 04, I believe). I'm wondering if the explosion could have been the reason for the error code? The kiln was vacuumed after the explosion and nothing seemed to be out of place. I should also mention that for the cone 6 firing, the peep holes were left out by mistake, but were put back in and the kiln restarted (the error code displayed before and after the missing peeps were noticed/put back in). Not sure if this could result in an error code either... Anyone else have the same issue after a bisque explosion? Thanks for any insight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dick White Posted December 11, 2017 Report Share Posted December 11, 2017 The E-1 code means the kiln is not able to generate enough heat to raise the temperature any higher. Typically this will happen when either all the elements are getting old and can't generate enough heat anymore, or one element is broken and the other good elements can't generate enough heat to compensate for the broken one. It takes less energy to raise the temperature at lower temperatures, so the E-1 error usually does not appear until later in the firing. It is possible that a shard from the bisque explosion remained lodged in the element coil despite your careful vacuuming, and that might have caused the element to overheat at that spot and break? Empty the kiln when it is cool and carefully inspect the elements for any breaks. A quick test to find a nonfunctioning element is slip a small piece of paper behind each element coil and turn the kiln on to a fast cone anything. Let it run for a few minutes and then shut it off. The slips of paper behind each element should begin to char as the element turned on. If any of the papers are not charred, that element is not functioning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ango0211 Posted December 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2017 Very useful info, Dick. Thank you! We'll take a closer look at the coils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted December 11, 2017 Report Share Posted December 11, 2017 It may or may not be the elements. Because Error -1 means that it's not heating, it could be a problem just about anywhere in the electrical system. It could indeed be the elements, but it could also be a wire connection has fried out or come loose somewhere in the system, or a relay has died, or the thermocouple is worn and not reading properly, a bad thermocouple wire, etc. The paper test is good to check for broken elements, but it could also be that the elements are worn out and not able to generate enough heat, in which case you need to test their resistance with a multi-meter. Once the resistance is off by 10% from factory original, they should be replaced. In my experience, bisque flakes sitting on the elements do not usually cause breaks. It's definitely possible, though. If you have two elements out in the same ring, then it's probably a dead relay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Posted July 20, 2019 Report Share Posted July 20, 2019 This just happened in my studio as well with my students work. The kiln reached 1845 degrees before sounding an alarm and was shut off. Is there a way to potentially save any work from a senerio such as this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted July 20, 2019 Report Share Posted July 20, 2019 @ango0211 @Kyle SAVING THE WORK I believe this is a three zone kiln, so when this happens it often is one or more failed relays. In our kilns I try and diagnose this quickly and not unload the thing. CAUTION LIVE ELECTRIC: In our studio we shut the kiln down, back probe all the elements and make sure they are good. Assuming they are good, we run the control in test mode to find the offending relay, replace it, and restart the firing. For the most part the wares come out fine as most of the heatwork is done in the last 250 degrees of the firing. CAUTION LIVE ELECTRIC: If you are not familiar with the diagnostic routine of your kiln control you can program a single segment, go as fast as you can type program to some temperature above the current kiln temp. All relays will engage and you can find the bad one easily with a clamp on ammeter. It is also possible you have a bad element, worn elements or burned wire but these are progressively less likely than the relay. Bad element. - hopefully you would have noticed the break while vacuuming but checking by back probing allows this to be checked first. If so, ya gotta unload and fix. Worn elements - your firing times will get longer so your slow bisque firings would grow to 16 or more hours. Your glaze firings would grow to ten or more hours. You likely would have noticed. Almost all kilns today need all elements to work reasonably well to make it to cone six. Burned wire - Not as likely as one of the relay crimp connectors being burned visibly actually. This is quite visible when you open it. Bad thermocouple - not likely cycle through T1,T2,T3 in your control to confirm each read a temperature. so if you do this yourself, ELECRiCAL SAFETY first and foremost because the relay test requires a live machine be tested. Your kiln tech should easily be able to do this as well, it literally takes minutes. Finishing the firing without unloading and reloading saves us a whole bunch of time and effort. This is not a decent kiln tuneup or maintenance plan though, it is designed to just get you through this firing. Don't forget to double check your firing program before restarting Simple replacement video: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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