Help

[John H.]

Hello my name is John and I work for a tile company, that specializes in bullnose tile. I work the firing department and have done it for a couple of months now. Recently a tub kiln with an Orton autofire model AF2827 3phase 240v 31a w/Mercury Relay.It was running like a charm until About a month ago one of my bosses accidentally flipped the breaker to it in the middle of it firing. We have the user set on 2 the ramp 1 at 200 the Fahrenheit at 1365 hold time 20min and the 2nd ramp at 0.  Ever since then it  started struggling to reach temperature. It would take up to 13hrs then FTL code would come on. It would under fire each time even when half filled. I changed the thermocouer twice and the wire once. Still no luck it even seems to be lagging when watching it fire. I have also changed the controller and transformer as well as some connections for the coils. I still have no luck. I have been working on this kiln trying to troubleshoot the best I can. I have read the manual and troubleshooted it all. Any idea what I could replace or changed? Maybe something is fried from the breaker being flipped that I haven't changed? Any advice would be helpful thank you in advance.

[LostClay]

If you post a picture of the controller I'm sure someone can look up the code for you.

At around 13 hours when FTL pops up what temp are you at?

Have you used a tester to check the ohm's on all the elements?  I bet it is an element or a relay controlling the an element.  

My gut thinks FFTL = Fired To Long.

I do not use electric kilns often, but I know others do 

[neilestrick]

It shoudn't be related to the breaker flipping at all, but you never know. If you've confirmed that the element resistance is within specs, and the thermocouple is good, then it's probably a relay issue. Does your kiln have standard mechanical relays that trigger the mercury relays? My guess is that a relay is sticking once it gets hot.