AIM A88T Firing Time? Keep or sell?

[davidh4976]

My communal studio was just gifted an AIM A88T tiny kiln.  It's in good shape and we are trying to figure out what we might do with it.  It's 120V 15 amp, and we have plenty of 20 amp circuits so that's not a problem. It's a kiln sitter, so that means anyone using it would have to keep an eye on it.

Anyone have any idea how long it would typically take to fire to cone 6? Of course, that's assuming the elements are in good shape.

We fire our full-sized cone 6 kilns often enough so I'm not sure if the A88T would be of much use for cone 6 efforts. 

We might be able to use it for testing cone 10 glazes. Not sure if it would really get to cone 10. We fire our gas cone 10 kiln once every other month, so maybe we could use the A88T for "in between" testing of cone 10 glazes.

I'm kind of thinking that it might be just better to sell it to someone who needs a small home kiln.

[neilestrick]

I'm assuming that since you suggested firing it to cone 10 that it's rated to cone 10?

There's a couple of problems with firing it to cone 10. First, it'll only get there for maybe a couple dozen firings before the elements need to be replaced. Second, since you're probably firing the gas kiln in reduction, the results won't be the same because the electric kiln can only fire in oxidation.

It would be better as a cone 6 kiln for test tiles or when someone needs just a couple small pieces fired, or for jewelry. We use my baby kiln all the time. You'll get 100+ firings (bisque and cone 6 glaze) from a set of elements. The problem is that it will cool much faster than a larger kiln, so you really need to slow down the cooling to get the same results, which is difficult in an electric kiln. The only way to do it is to be there when the firing ends, and restart the kiln on medium instead of high. Run that for about 3 hours then shut it off. If it's in good condition it might be worth buying a digital controller for it so you can program it to match the heating and cooling cycle of the larger kilns.