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Setting Up A Kiln


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Setting up an Evenheat programmable 25x23" electric kiln in a basement room that is 15x20'. Questions:

1. Is it safe to vent to the garage, avoiding drilling through the foundation, and propping open a door to the outside?

2. Are fire retardant boards on the walls in the corner good enough or do we have to put plasterboard on the reat of the walls?

3. Will a fire alarm go off is we fire to Cone 6 and, if so, how far from the kiln should it go?

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That's not a particularly small kiln and you are venting harmful gases and they really ought to be vented to the outside. Is there a way to run the vent through the garage but end up outside without the whole door propping routine? At least if the kiln was in the garage it would be crystal clear what was going on, the way you outlined it just sounds like it would be so easy for someone to be working in the garage on something and have no idea that harmful gasses are being piped in.

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Putting the cement board around the kiln will be good enough.

 

Home smoke alarms usually detect smoke, not heat. But if you've got a more advance system that does sense heat, I would check its settings to see what temperature it will sound the alarm at. If it is near the kiln you may need a fan to keep the heat dissipated at the alarm.

 

I would not vent into the garage. As other have mentioned, consider venting through a basement window, or continuing the duct run through the garage and to the exterior. I'm not sure about that vent in particular, but I know the L&L vent can handle a run of 60 feet with up to four 90 degree bends.

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You may not need to go through the garage, there is usually a foot or so of space between the top of foundations and the first floor flooring. Your hot water vent, air conditioning lines, electrical drop, and outside spigots will pass to or from the outside through this space. My dryer exhaust also exits the house this way. If your house is set up this way you can reduce the work and install a vent to the exterior straight from the basement.

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Dani;

Get a pro to punch a hole through your wall above the foundation. You will get condensation and freezing from the vent, so the higher you place it on the wall, the better.

I have two layers of drywall on the walls behind my kiln. That should be enough.

You are venting sulfur dioxide, so you probably don't want that in your garage.

TJR.

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Building code will not allow you to vent it to the garage.  The garage has to sealed from the house.  If you vent it to the garage, the garage fumes will leak back into the house when the vent is not in use.  This sets you up for possible carbon monoxide poisoning from garage fumes if the car is allowed to idle in the garage.  Carbon monoxide is heavier than air so the fumes would hug the ground and flow down the vent into the basement. So as mentioned by all, vent it to the outside.

 

Jed

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I have both of my kilns in my Garage, I have down draft venting on both, exhausting to the outside. I also had an overhead fan vent installed in the garage, also exhausting outside. Even with all this, when I'm doing a glaze firing my garage gets pretty stinky with kiln fumes, no doubt all toxic. My point is that a kiln puts out A LOT of very toxic fumes, even with venting. In my opinion you need to vent directly outside, and you may want to install an additional air exchange vent in the basement to make sure none of the nasties get into your living space.

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I have both of my kilns in my Garage, I have down draft venting on both, exhausting to the outside. I also had an overhead fan vent installed in the garage, also exhausting outside. Even with all this, when I'm doing a glaze firing my garage gets pretty stinky with kiln fumes, no doubt all toxic. My point is that a kiln puts out A LOT of very toxic fumes, even with venting. In my opinion you need to vent directly outside, and you may want to install an additional air exchange vent in the basement to make sure none of the nasties get into your living space.

 

You should get very little to no smell off the kiln if your vents are working properly. That said, around 500F degrees wax resist burns off, and sometimes it's more than the vent can handle. But after that you shouldn't have enough fumes to cause any issues. Check to make sure your vent is drawing properly but holding a smoldering match next to the vent hole and seeing if the smoke is drawn in. Also make sure the kiln lid isn't lifting up a bunch as the kiln gets hot, which will spoil the draft of the vent.

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