Marita

Understood- Thank again for your advice.

Thanks Bill- I will call my electrician and hopefully he can track down at least part of the voltage drop. Skutt said this was within an acceptable range so I had assumed it was somewhat normal. Knowing that no voltage drop is possible gives me some hope! I’m curious what the other idea you have to to fix the issue is? Do you think it would be ill advised to switch the middle elements out for top/bottom ones? Ha, grasping at anything. thanks again

Thank you both for your help- replying to everything below. Ah that makes sense about the resistance charts, thanks Neil. I just assumed since the other small kilns had different readings for different elements that they were the individual resistance, but I see some are wired in series. 50 amp breaker for sure, not sure of the gauge of the wire running from the panel but I have a good electrician I think! The main panel for this building is located in a different suite that I must request access to. I have a shut off in my unit that my lil is hard wired to. When under load I get 204v in the shut off outlet, 198v at each of the element sets. when kiln off I get 207v in the outlet. I’ve never measured at the relays, but I will the next time I’m at the studio. I have about 37 cone 6 firings on these elements and maybe 30 cone06 ones. I can definitely replace them just curious about other solutions as it seems so soon compared to other kilns I’ve serviced.

Thanks Bill, I appreciate your thoughts. Here's where I'm at with these so far. - Voltage drop- I have been trying to solve this, replacing all contacts, replacing and upping the gauge of the harness wires, replacing relays, transfer strip on the baffle board. The only thing I haven't done is replace the power cord, although I did hard wire it in a year ago. My studio is in an industrial space and our neighbours run an electric car delivery service. I have been wondering if our building is overdrawing power and this is the reason for the voltage drop- not sure what to do about this if it is the case. It could still be a bad connection I suppose, but lord have I gone crazy trying to eliminate this as a cause. - Elements are 10 and 10.1 ohms- factory is 9.7. so 4% . I called skutt and they said they should be good until 11+ - I have also suspected the vent overdrawing as an issue, and so tried to stop using it, but it still gives error-1 around 2100f (it struggles for so long that this is a nice hot cone 5, but i expect it will only get worse) I have noticed that the skutt resistance chart seems to recommend using all the same resistance elements (chart attached) for this kiln only- possibly because of it's low wide build. But when you go to purchase elements they have two options for this kiln, top/bottom and middle. Certainly my middle elements glow much less than the top/bottom ones, so this is why I'm considering just installing all top/bottom to see if this will help. I must admit I am confused as to why they have different listings for top/bottom and middle elements when it appears they shouldn't be different. Also- its possible if the middle ones were a lower number than 9.7 from the factory (totally forget what they were separate when I installed them) then they are actually more than 4% worn. resistance.pdf

Hi! I run a skutt km-1018 208v single phase kiln. I’ve had it for ten years but I bought it used (circa 2004). At my old studio the kiln had no issues. When I brought it to my new space I started getting error-1 messages, so I replaced the elements, problem solved. Now the elements have aged a bit but are still only about 1/3 of the way through their life (checked resistance) and I am again getting error-1 on every cone 6 fire- it’s close but can’t exceed 2100 f . Voltage at the element pigtails is low- 198v on each leg under load and 204v in the outlet, but skutt says it should be in operational range. I have replaced all the interior parts, and am constantly checking for carbon buildup (there is more than I’ve had before, I think due to the higher amperage I must be getting). Everything looks good currently. Wondering- if this is a low voltage issue what are my possibilities for solving? Considering buying some top and bottom elements and replacing the two interior high resistance ones with them, but would this be problematic in any way (I have a vent)? Other ideas? Any help would be appreciated.