highschoolartteacher Posted December 18, 2010 Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 I just replaced all the elements in my 1027 Skutt kiln. Loaded it and fired it. It glowed red hot, and all the elements were red, but it would not go over 1843. It held there for at least two hours, so I thought something was wrong and shut it off. My students will be frantic! What could be the problem with the kiln. We are firing to Cone 6 on the ramp/hold mode, and have been very successful up until now. Can anyone offer help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted December 18, 2010 Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 I just replaced all the elements in my 1027 Skutt kiln. Loaded it and fired it. It glowed red hot, and all the elements were red, but it would not go over 1843. It held there for at least two hours, so I thought something was wrong and shut it off. My students will be frantic! What could be the problem with the kiln. We are firing to Cone 6 on the ramp/hold mode, and have been very successful up until now. Can anyone offer help? You need to give a few more parameters here to know what your firing procedure is. First off, are you using a kiln setter? What is your firing schedule? Did you have your peepholes in? Why not let the kiln setter run with the standard amount of time and check it? Did all of the elements fire? You may have had one of them not connected. Check individual elements by turning on to high-place a small piece of paper to each one to check for heat(one at a time). Let us know this info, it may help with a solution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. X Posted December 18, 2010 Report Share Posted December 18, 2010 Since this problem occurred after you replaced the elements, it should be related TO the elements. Since you are using ramp/hold, you are not using a sitter, and you verified that they are all glowing red. I am assuming that you did everything else that you always do when you fire, since we are all creaures of habit; this might be a dangerous assumtion, but I'll bet that you have the peeps in, lid closed, or whatever you have done in the past when you achieved success. Did you get the correct elements for the voltage you are firing with? Elements for that kiln have different resistances, depending on the voltage you will use them with. Do you use a program stored in memory to fire to cone 6, or do you program each time? 1843 F is suspiciously in the neighborhood of cone 06, so it may have be inadvertently programmed to 06. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highschoolartteacher Posted December 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2010 I just replaced all the elements in my 1027 Skutt kiln. Loaded it and fired it. It glowed red hot, and all the elements were red, but it would not go over 1843. It held there for at least two hours, so I thought something was wrong and shut it off. My students will be frantic! What could be the problem with the kiln. We are firing to Cone 6 on the ramp/hold mode, and have been very successful up until now. Can anyone offer help? You need to give a few more parameters here to know what your firing procedure is. First off, are you using a kiln setter? What is your firing schedule? Did you have your peepholes in? Why not let the kiln setter run with the standard amount of time and check it? Did all of the elements fire? You may have had one of them not connected. Check individual elements by turning on to high-place a small piece of paper to each one to check for heat(one at a time). Let us know this info, it may help with a solution. I used the computerized programmer and programed it for ramp/hold to cone 6. I used my custom program as I usally did. I peeked through each peep hole to see if all the elements were red, and they were. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highschoolartteacher Posted December 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2010 Since this problem occurred after you replaced the elements, it should be related TO the elements. Since you are using ramp/hold, you are not using a sitter, and you verified that they are all glowing red. I am assuming that you did everything else that you always do when you fire, since we are all creaures of habit; this might be a dangerous assumtion, but I'll bet that you have the peeps in, lid closed, or whatever you have done in the past when you achieved success. Did you get the correct elements for the voltage you are firing with? Elements for that kiln have different resistances, depending on the voltage you will use them with. Do you use a program stored in memory to fire to cone 6, or do you program each time? 1843 F is suspiciously in the neighborhood of cone 06, so it may have be inadvertently programmed to 06. I used the ramp/hold which I custom programmed to cone 6. Lid closed, peeps closed, etc. The elements were the ones for that specific kiln. I think the top setting was for 2150 degrees. Could there be something wrong with the mechanism such as the relays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted December 19, 2010 Report Share Posted December 19, 2010 Since this problem occurred after you replaced the elements, it should be related TO the elements. Since you are using ramp/hold, you are not using a sitter, and you verified that they are all glowing red. I am assuming that you did everything else that you always do when you fire, since we are all creaures of habit; this might be a dangerous assumtion, but I'll bet that you have the peeps in, lid closed, or whatever you have done in the past when you achieved success. Did you get the correct elements for the voltage you are firing with? Elements for that kiln have different resistances, depending on the voltage you will use them with. Do you use a program stored in memory to fire to cone 6, or do you program each time? 1843 F is suspiciously in the neighborhood of cone 06, so it may have be inadvertently programmed to 06. I used the ramp/hold which I custom programmed to cone 6. Lid closed, peeps closed, etc. The elements were the ones for that specific kiln. I think the top setting was for 2150 degrees. Could there be something wrong with the mechanism such as the relays? After hearing this, double check your order numbers. Is it possible you ordered 240V elements when you needed 208V elements? This happened to me when changing a kiln from one school to another. The other kiln was 240V as the school was. My school was 208V. Juice wouldn't make temp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted December 20, 2010 Report Share Posted December 20, 2010 I agree with the last comment. There are differences in commercial institution wiring and kiln elements come in two "sizes" either for 208 or 240. Check what you installed to what the voltage is for the institution. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arnold Howard Posted December 20, 2010 Report Share Posted December 20, 2010 I just replaced all the elements in my 1027 Skutt kiln. Loaded it and fired it. It glowed red hot, and all the elements were red, but it would not go over 1843. The top and bottom elements should glow brighter than the center elements. If the center elements glow brighter, the elements are in the wrong position in the kiln. That will cause the kiln to fire unevenly and might also prevent the kiln from reaching cone 6. If you suspect that you installed elements of the wrong voltage, check the kiln's amperage and compare the reading with the amperage listed on the kiln's electrical data plate. Here is a video that shows how to take an amp reading: Please let us know how you resolve this problem. Good luck! Sincerely, Arnold Howard Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pres Posted December 20, 2010 Report Share Posted December 20, 2010 I just replaced all the elements in my 1027 Skutt kiln. Loaded it and fired it. It glowed red hot, and all the elements were red, but it would not go over 1843. The top and bottom elements should glow brighter than the center elements. If the center elements glow brighter, the elements are in the wrong position in the kiln. That will cause the kiln to fire unevenly and might also prevent the kiln from reaching cone 6. If you suspect that you installed elements of the wrong voltage, check the kiln's amperage and compare the reading with the amperage listed on the kiln's electrical data plate. Here is a video that shows how to take an amp reading: Please let us know how you resolve this problem. Good luck! Sincerely, Arnold Howard Paragon Industries, L.P., Mesquite, Texas USA ahoward@paragonweb.com / www.paragonweb.com Wow it is great to have tech people watching post like this. The extra expertise with specific equipment will always be helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terra Cottage Posted December 21, 2010 Report Share Posted December 21, 2010 I just replaced all the elements in my 1027 Skutt kiln. Loaded it and fired it. It glowed red hot, and all the elements were red, but it would not go over 1843. It held there for at least two hours, so I thought something was wrong and shut it off. My students will be frantic! What could be the problem with the kiln. We are firing to Cone 6 on the ramp/hold mode, and have been very successful up until now. Can anyone offer help? When you say it fires to red- does it not fire to yellow? Sometimes new connections that heat up can be loose at high temp when they seem just fine at low temps... If it were my kiln, I'd go back and clean the connections to the new elements and then try again... if you still get no joy, take a look at your thermocouple... good luck! Tracking down electrical problems is a often thankless task... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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