neilestrick

https://hotkilns.com/support/pottery-kiln-knowledgebase/i-have-two-section-kilns-and-got-fail-tc-3-message

@Retxy Just a notice
I have had trouble with some of these, I am not a fan of Amazon for wire - any type insulation.  Regular professional wire suppliers are generally equal price or even more economical with a dependable specification. Here is one https://prowireandcable.com/12-awg-1-conductor-65-strands-mg-mica-glass/
The Amazon link has a few negative reviews that I have seen before and are worrisome. This wire has been around for 50 plus years and has a very straightforward minimum specification. Hard to tell the full assured specs from Amazon. I always go with something from a local reputable wire supplier - maybe just me though.
The element leads are likely 14 Gauge (prox. no more than 15 amps per element lead) the existing, where long enough, can simply be cut back an inch or so to clean wire and a new crimp installed. Please use real crimpers and crimp all terminals tight though.
If you are unsure of the gauge, 12 gauge element leads are more than capable for this kiln and you could replace just the wires that aren’t long enough for the cut back and new terminal fix. Usually most can be trimmed and recrimped with 1 or 2 leads that are just too short. Often I’ll order 10-20’ and it’s enough for several kilns. In this way, it’s mostly a terminal replacement, cleanup, and new hardware project.
wire brush, fine sandpaper very likely gets the buss bars very clean. Where they physically connect is important, the rest not so much. A wire wheel on a drill can work wonders for hard to reach surfaces.

Yes. And the 1 hour preheat actually takes about 3 hours  because it takes about 2 hours to get to the preheat temperature before it starts the preheat time.
Try a cone offset of about -15 degrees for starters. You're not over by much.

You can just run the empty glaze as the first firing. Medium-Slow with a 1 hour preheat.

L&L just recently changed their recommended first firing schedule from cone 5 to cone 04. Either will work fine.
Probably because they still have a bunch of cone 5's to use up. Use them when you do your first glaze firing.  I'll talk to them about getting some 04's instead.
Personally, I would do an empty glaze firing (just shelves) with the 5's because if your glaze firing is running hot or cold you can ruin a lot of work.

Yes, you need copper. Aluminum is not recommended for kiln circuits.

Both methods are doing the same thing, But firing a cone lower works for the vast majority of users that have this problem, so it's what I recommend. Changing the cone offset is much harder to dial in. For example, my large kiln fires to about cone 7 1/2 when I program it to cone 6. By those numbers it means I should change the offset to match cone 4 1/2 to get cone 6, which would be around 2144F.  In reality, cone 6 happens when I program it to 2190, which is actually closer to cone 5 1/2. The problem is that the degree of inaccuracy is not linear or consistent across all temps. On kilns where it is a problem, it seems to get worse the hotter you go, which makes sense because that's true with all thermocouples. So in your case if you program it to cone 5 it'll probably be close to where it needs to be for cone 6. If it comes out cooler than you need, then add a hold. 20 minutes of hold gets you from cone 5 to cone 6. So if it's only getting to cone 5 1/2 then you add a 10 minute hold to get to 6. Based on the results of the cones we can quite often get cone 6 dialed in with just one firing set to cone 5. You can then add or subtract hold time as needed as elements and thermocouples age.

Lots of corrosion in there. Are the sparks coming from the switch or from a wiring connection? The bars between the elements are called bus bars, but they are used on very few kilns- mostly just Duncan and the Skutt PK models. They're just stainless steel plates. I would just sand them down to remove any surface crud and they'll be good to go. You can replace any of the nuts and bolts with stainless steel parts from the hardware store. I would rewire it as long as you're at it since there is a lot of discoloration in the wire casing which indicates overheating. Use #12 SRML wire. All terminals where the wires connect to the elements must be high temp terminals. Not a bad idea to use them for the ends that connect to the switches, too. If the switches are bad, the best option is to replace them with infinite switches. I like Robert Shaw switches, any 240V 15 amp switch kit will work. Your box does not appear to have the timer switches at the bottom, so that simplifies things.

Brent did get back to me. They sent a video and instructions. I tried attaching the paper instructions but the file was to large. But, here is the youtube format. 
 

Definitely agree with @neilestrick. Getting this to perform and down to a safe temperature is part of a good install IMO. Definitely no higher than 140 for equipment longevity and safety. Scalding chart below to give you an idea of contact time. I try and get them to function well in the 120 - 130 range which means fairly open collection box for me to pull in lots of room air.
Scalding chart below - may help

Ideally, the timer should be set for about 1/2 hour longer than the firing will actually take. That way if there's a problem with the cone it will shut it down before it over fires very much. The only way to know for sure where to set the timer is to do a firing with the timer set too long and see how long it takes. Set it for 10 hours, do the firing, see where the timer stops, then math it out. Make sure you use the same settings and/or turn-up schedule every time you fire. You'll also need to test for a glaze firing, too, as that will probably take longer. Test with the kiln full, as that will affect firing times in a manual kiln. It's an imperfect system, but it was the best we had for many decades.

Perfect, thanks Neil!

Quite often the kiln will run hot at cone 5/6 but not at low fire temps. If you do a thermocouple offset then your bisque firing will be affected as well, and it may not need it.
The temp starts to drop almost immediately when the elements shut off. There is not enough run-on to matter. If you program a slow cooling rate from the peak temp it will over-fire. In my kilns a slow cool of 175/hr from the peak will impart at least a 1/2 cone of heatwork. Best to drop about 100 degrees at full ramp then begin the slow cooling. If you're cooling for glaze effects, you can drop down to 1900F before beginning the cooling cycle. I have 3 kilns of different sizes (10cu/ft, 4 cu/ft, 1 cu/ft) so I do a quick drop of 100F, hold 30 minutes for pinholes to smooth out, then drop 175/hr to 1500F. This gives me the same results from all 3 kilns since they cool at dramatically different rates. Without it the baby would cool down to room temp in 6 hours, whereas the big on would take 3-4 times that long. The big on can barely cool 175/hr at the low end of the cycle if it's full.

The default is off, so in a custom program it'll just shut off at the end of the firing. If for some reason you need it to stay on you can add a last step of 9999 to whatever temp you want.

I usually fire my kilns at night so I don't really see what's happening with actual temps in the kiln, but today I started it up in the morning and was in the studio in the evening and got to see exactly what was happening during the cooling cycle. I do a slightly-slow cooling cycle to even out the results in my 3 kilns because they all cool at drastically different rates due to their sizes. I do a drop from the peak down to 2000F, then cool at 175F/hr down to 1500F. This gives me identical results from all 3 of my kilns. This firing I'm talking about here is in my 10 cubic foot L&L EQ2827-3, which has 3 zones, and was packed very tight in the middle. I was surprised at just how much slower the middle cools compared to the top and bottom. This photo shows how it's going part way through the initial drop from peak temp to 2000F:

As you can see, the middle and the top are nowhere close to each other. In a normal firing segment, a 73 degree difference would stop the firing with an error code. So why isn't it doing that here? It's because the cooling rate is set at 9999, or full speed. Any time you use 9999, whether it's climbing or dropping, the controller lets the kiln do its thing and doesn't care if the sections aren't even. Firing up or down at 9999 is the fastest, but you sacrifice evenness. As the temp continues to drop, we see this:

Here you can see that the top section (TC1) has started firing again. The set point for this segment was 2000F, at which point it should start cooling at 175F/hr, yet the top section passed that by about 20 degrees before the relay kicked on and the controller stopped the drop. Why did it let it get so far below the set point? Because it's averaging the 3 zones. Once the average of the 3 zones hits the set point it will start to fire each section again as needed to match the set point.
I get a lot of questions from customers about error codes and cooling cycles. The biggest problem is that the kiln can't always keep up with the programmed cooling rate. There are a number of firing schedules out there on the internet that people are trying that use a rate of 600F/hr or more for the fast drop portion of the cooling cycle, and many kilns simply cannot cool that fast, especially the middle section. When you have a specific rate programmed, the controller will send out an error code if the kiln can't keep up with that rate. So if you want a really fast drop you should use 9999F/hr, not a specific rate. For most people doing slow cooling with cone 6 work it won't matter if the sections are not totally even during the drop. If you do need more precision, like if you're firing crystalline work and it's important that you don't overshoot any target temps, then you'll want to put in a slower drop rate that the kiln can actually keep up with, and the controller will keep the sections even and not overshoot set points.

In my opinion, the degree to which the vent can help to even out the sections is greatly exaggerated by the vent manufacturers. In my example above, the vent was on the whole time. I don't think it'll matter either way. How fast a drop it can handle is totally dependent on the size of the kiln and the mass of the load. Some people do drops of 500F/hr with no problem, but for others it's a problem. Also, the faster it's set the less likely the controller is able to keep up with it. There is a minimum rate at which the relays can cycle, and it takes time for the elements to heat up, so a really fast drop is difficult for the controller to maintain. If you have solid state relays then it'll be more likely to handle it, because those can cycle very quickly. I generally recommend a rate of 300F/hr or slower. Start with that, then check out the firing log afterwards and see how well it's keeping up with that. If it's good then you can start increasing the ramp rate with each firing until it can't handle it. In a smaller kiln you can get away with faster ramps.

@hlipper Transformer voltage will often be above 12V
If you have 24 volts (ish) between the AC1 and AC2 terminals on the control board then the problem is with the controller.

Running 230 volt elements on 240 volt service is not going to affect the firings in any way. The controller will cycle the elements as needed to maintain the proper rate of climb. The lifespan of the elements should not be affected enough to matter.
I've worked on a number of old kilns that only have one type of element available. The serial plates say 220 or 230, and the manufacturers say they'll work fine on any voltage. Basically, they run a little slow on 208 volts and a little fast on 240 volts.

Running 230 volt elements on 240 volt service is not going to affect the firings in any way. The controller will cycle the elements as needed to maintain the proper rate of climb. The lifespan of the elements should not be affected enough to matter.
I've worked on a number of old kilns that only have one type of element available. The serial plates say 220 or 230, and the manufacturers say they'll work fine on any voltage. Basically, they run a little slow on 208 volts and a little fast on 240 volts.

RESOLVED! Paragon sent me the OEM config instructions which allowed me to reset the setting to it's default and now the SFTY is set to 1316C/2400F. Cone 6 awaits!

The L&L manual for Easy Fire kilns is very thorough. If you print it it's going to take a lot of paper, and finding info in can take a while due to its size. L&L's website has a ton of great information, so for specific info or questions about your kiln it's easier to just use the search function on their website.

The L&L manual for Easy Fire kilns is very thorough. If you print it it's going to take a lot of paper, and finding info in can take a while due to its size. L&L's website has a ton of great information, so for specific info or questions about your kiln it's easier to just use the search function on their website.

I asked for actual voltage, which they said is 230V. I was assuming they measured it.

9999 is for us stupids still using Fahrenheit, while 5555 is for the smart ones using Centigrade.

No need to put anything else in the kiln. That'll just use more power. With a single zone kiln like yours, put the bulk of the work in the center (vertically) of the kiln where the thermocouple is located, and put everything else as close to the center as you can. In a multi-zone kiln you want to spread the work out fairly evenly.