AVPottery Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 I just inherited an old Duncan Kiln DA820 "Automatic Teacher Plus". I have it wired up and doing my first trials with the controls to get it firing. I have gone through the manuals and cant figure out whats wrong. None of the manuals address a kiln that is firing to fast. I have attached a picture which shows that the infinity switch is set to off (which might be the problem) and the lower switch is set to automatic. My understanding is that automatic has a 2 hour soak but it appears that even with it off, something is still firing. I reached 550f in about a half hour which in my opinion might be a little to fast and indicates something is wrong. hoping that someone out their has some experience with these kilns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted June 23, 2016 Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 One of my best friends in named Duncan if that helps. Never fired a Duncan kiln Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVPottery Posted June 23, 2016 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2016 Okay, so I am making some progress in understanding the issue. I found out that the infinite switch works like it should but the caveat is that it only controls the top elements. The part I consider dumb is that the manual override switch controls the lower elements. The dumb design choice here is that they are on a 60 second cycle timer when using either "manual low" which will cycle forever and automatic which will cycle for 2 hours and then fire all the way. Their is also a "manual high" but im unclear if that means its just always on or if it just stays off and allows me to use the infinite switch for the top elements. I hope that's the case but i have to test this later. Even on manual low with just the bottom elements firing every 60 seconds that was enough heat to fire from 300f to 1000f in about an hour and a half. This seems crazy that its the lowest setting available to me. I have no idea how I am going to bisque pots when this thing appears to be a flamethrower. I might have to prop the lid but that seem like such a waste of electricity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted June 24, 2016 Report Share Posted June 24, 2016 One thing to keep in mind is this is an old kiln with old controls-I personally love manual controls but I only bisque now and then in electric's and they are so easy to fix. I would call Paragon at talk story with them. They are the experts on this old dog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcia Selsor Posted June 25, 2016 Report Share Posted June 25, 2016 The people at paragon are great. Just call them. They are the experts as mark says. They even have a team of ladies for the tech support who couldn't be more helpful. I had an old used 88-A I was trying to rewire about 15 years ago. They helped a lot. Marcia Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levita Posted May 16, 2019 Report Share Posted May 16, 2019 AVPottery, did you find a resolution to your fast firing situation? I have a similar kiln, exact except no black toggle switch at bottom. Kiln is firing to 05 in 4 hours. Seems kinda fast to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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