Kiln ventilation and smoke

[Luisich1234]

Hello,

Help! we just installed a refurbished Skutt kiln and the envirovent into our new studio. We had test fired the kiln once and everything seemed fine, but As we were bisque firing we noticed that outside of our studio seemed very smoky from the ventilation, is this normal?

we fear that neighbors might complain about the smoke or the smell. Any suggestions are much appreciated 

[hitchmss]

Smoke is totally normal; an EXCESSIVE, like campfire amount of smoke, may be a little more atypical.

The first phase of a firing is where you drive off physical mositure, and this stage occurs coincidentally with the second stage, up to about 1100 degrees and it is the burn off phase. The temperatures above 212* F are beginning to burn off more water, and any organic materials left in your clay. The amount of smoke, is directly related to how "dirty" your clay body is. Certain clay bodies will smoke more than others; depends on what clays make up the body.

Likewise, if you are burning off any newspaper, or other materials in your firing, you should expect smoke.

If your neighbors complain, depending on your location, zoning, local ordinances, etc, it could be an issue. You can try to fire at night, when hopefully they will be inside, with windows closed, and no one to bother, or if they are gone during the day, try to time firings for then; once your above quartz inversion you should have no noticeable smoke/fumes.

In an outdoor setting, your neighbors have very little to worry about in regards to toxicity; if these fumes were being trapped in the studio per say, there are concerns.

Aside from timing the firings so as to not disturb your neighbors, there's not much you could do to eliminate the smoke (different clay body may lessen the amount of smoke). There are "scrubbers" which can almost eliminate smoke/fumes from a chimney stack, but potters typically cant afford this kind of equipment.

It might be prudent for you, to without disclosing your location/studio, inquire as to what the local ordinances are regarding kilns on your type of property. If your neighbors do come to you with complaints, it would be better for you to know the law without having them call to inquire. If they are upset, and you arent in the legal right to do so where you are, maybe try to appeal to your neighbors with nice pots from firings, small meals, playing in the studio, etc.

[neilestrick]

If your vent is going straight out the wall down low, you'll smell it. You may want to extend a duct up to the roof line so the fumes will blow away up high.

[Bill Kielb]

Hopefully this is not visible smoke since most of the air you are discharging is room air and very little kiln air. If this is a smell issue then relocation as Neil suggested is practical. Always good to check the installation though to insure that the collector is correct and lets  a bunch of room air into the exhaust stream.

we did a sort of redesign of one of the popular vent arrangements and measured the operating characteristics of a good one as the basis of the replacement. Surprising the small amount of kiln air that was actually being discharged.

We did a brief video, a bit boring but we thought we would share our results and reasoning  to replace the damaged unit The commercial units seem to perform well, in our case we wanted to match their performance and also pickup as much volatile wax smell as practical. The video does illustrate the  need for room air so it may be worth a quick viewing.