kiln Has anyone ever come across this Fix when elements are not working properly?

[karenkstudio]

Last time I wanted to fire my large electric kiln 2 sets of elements would not heat when turned to high. I have a paragon kiln with the "setter-timer" wired to the set of switches. Fortunately, my brother is a retired electrician and brought his testing equipment, at my request, when he visited. He has never worked on a kiln.  After some initial testing, and figuring out how all the wiring was configured, he removed the cover on the "setter-timer" box to examine those connections.  Upon close examination, he noticed a dead SPIDER blocking the connection to the 2 sets of elements that would not work.  He blew the dead spider out, reassembled everything and when we turned it on everything worked.  He said it isn't unusual for insects to cause electrical problems.

 

[Bill Kielb]

Yes, pretty rare but little critters have a habit of causing havoc, especially gas pilots where they often crawl in and make folks wonder what’s wrong with my gas kiln? Only way to figure out is with real stepwise troubleshooting.  Good thing Bro was there!

[karenkstudio]

Bro saved me the expense and mistake if ordering a new switch.

[Roberta12]

I had a problem with wasps building a mud nest in my vent fan.  Cleaned it out and everything was fine!

 

[LostClay]

It has happened to a few electrical boards and between the contacts on the back end of electrical components in my neck of the woods.  Anything that is outside with an electrical board that is not 100% sealed will get the issue at some point.

Thursday my brother told me his HVAC stopped working.  I went to his place after work finding the 3 amp fuse blown and lots of ohm testing we decided it was something in the outdoor unit.  It took me a few minutes of reading the electrical diagram to remember how the outside unit worked again.  After a bunch more testing the only odd stuff we could find was the defrost board and on the back side had a spider that had shorted out 3 different traces leaving some burn marks and a broken trace.  $98 for a new board, $35 for a new cap as his was testing weak, and $22 for a new contactor as his was badly pitted.  Should get the parts in the mail in a few days.

[Hulk]

It's a bug!
"...it's a feature."
Nah, it's an actual bug!

Furnace control consoles (at the steel mill where I worked) had two large circuit boards inside (early 70s stuff, still in service, early 2000s).

Operators called us out for after hours support; the console at the entry pulpit wasn't working.
We found a mouse nest on the board, over the "history unit" (an early hard drive) where it was always snug and warm, and piles of sunflower seed shells.
"No food allowed" in the pulpits, heh.

We kept refurbished replacement boards at the ready; that particular board had an $6,000 price tag, that's if the "core" was rebuildable.

[Pres]

@Hulk, that reminds me of several years ago at my Dad's home the drier wouldn't dry the clothes. It would run, but not dry them on their automatic settings. Checked the vent to outside, no air coming through. Went to the basement and yanked the drier exhaust, found a mouse nest with 3 mice drowned in it. The duct had become blocked and moisture kept going in to fill with water, the weight of the water caused a pocket that trapped the mice in the nest and drowned them. Cleared it all out, re-supported the duct work, and replaced the outside flapper that kept the duct from getting visitors and things worked well.

 

best,

Pres