Stephen Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 I have an opportunity to buy up to 8 paragon TNF273 kilns that came out of a school district at around 5-600 a piece. These are 8cf kilns and I don't need them now but thinking about buying 4 or 5 of them to store and use later when we grow a bit. Anyone have any experience with these kilns? The plates I have seen are circa 2004 so they are 16 years old and I assume have been fired a lot in a school setting. Few chipped bricks here and there but appear to be in pretty good shape and prob taken care of. I have no experience with 208. Is this going to be commonly available in commercial shops if I lease? If I buy a lot and put up a studio shop is 208 going to be a hassle to have wired? How hard/expensive is it to convert 208 to 240? Here's a shot of one of them and I love the heavy duty lift kits and have electronic controllers (DTC 1000) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liambesaw Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 208 single or three phase? I believe they're easy to convert by changing the elements. Should be fairly easy to get 208v service to a commercial building if it doesn't already have it, but if you're going to replace elements in them, it may be no additional cost to just replace them with whatever service you end up having. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted February 11, 2020 Report Share Posted February 11, 2020 Converting between 208 volts and 240 volts you have to change the elements. Converting between 3 phase and single phase will be more complicated, probably some new hardware and wiring, and possibly elements, too, but you may already be doing elements anyway. Most commercial buildings will have 208 volt 3 phase service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted February 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2020 Well as an update, decided to pass. Seems like a good deal at first blush but since I don't need them now then matching power to these kilns becomes part of the decision for the next studio or I have to spend hundreds of dollars on each kiln to upgrade them if the power doesn't match. Also have to pay to store them until we grow into them which could be a few years. Just seems like the wrong move for a bunch of 15-20 year old kilns that have prob been heavily used in a school system. I also didn't like make the decision for a bunch of small kilns instead maybe a large car kiln or larger front electric being made now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hutch Posted February 29, 2020 Report Share Posted February 29, 2020 I know thi sis off topic, but I cannot find a Paragon A82 community. Does anyone know how to change out the old switch to a new infinity switch on a Paragon kiln A82B. I bought 2 infinity switches from paragon and there are 6 wire terminals on the new switch and 7 on the old switch. The labels from old to new switch do not match either. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted February 29, 2020 Report Share Posted February 29, 2020 6 minutes ago, Hutch said: I know thi sis off topic, but I cannot find a Paragon A82 community. Does anyone know how to change out the old switch to a new infinity switch on a Paragon kiln A82B. I bought 2 infinity switches from paragon and there are 6 wire terminals on the new switch and 7 on the old switch. The labels from old to new switch do not match either. Any suggestions? Here's the wiring diagram. See if your switches line up with anything on there. A82WD.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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