Andere Posted October 5 Report Share Posted October 5 (edited) Hello! Several years ago the folks on this forum gave me great advice for getting an old Olympic kiln up and running and our neighborhood has been having a ball with it ever since. It's fantastic for our local, low-fire terra cotta clays and the school kids can fill the kiln in an afternoon of sculpting play! I have recently acquired a much smaller Duncan EA 820-2 for a whole $100 out of someone's backyard with the hope of having a smaller more flexible secondary kiln for cone 6 test and glaze firings without the energy requirements and sheer volume of my great big old Olympic. The bricks are in reasonable condition and the element resistance tests as almost new, but the kiln control box has a lot of moisture damage, corrosion and rust. My electrician says "get a new control box" but I know that's not so easy these days! I do not want a computerized control (kiln will be exposed to ambient outdoor temp range of -10 to 120 degrees, which makes computers unhappy, and I prefer to babysit my firings and have the additional hands-on control anyway). Our options seem to be to replace each component one by one or ditch the relays and "automatic" nature and just wire in four-position switches like my Olympic has, along with the sitter. Before we grab the pliers and the wire cutters, what's other people's experiences with these? Lots of Duncans still in use, and lots of parts still floating around, and lots of different preferences on kiln control and wiring. I am looking for other people's advice and experience in situations like this! Thank you! Edited October 5 by Andere Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Kielb Posted October 6 Report Share Posted October 6 7 hours ago, Andere said: Our options seem to be to replace each component one by one or ditch the relays and "automatic" nature and just wire in four-position switches like my Olympic has, along with the sitter. Before we grab the pliers and the wire cutters, what's other people's experiences with these? Lots of Duncans still in use, and lots of parts still floating around, and lots of different preferences on kiln control and wiring. I am looking for other people's advice and experience in situations like this! Thank you! I think I would ditch all the semi automatic stuff and install two infinite switches with the sitter as my shutdown device. PeterH, Andere, neilestrick and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neilestrick Posted October 6 Report Share Posted October 6 I agree with Bill. Gut the box and use infinite switches. Andere 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterH Posted October 7 Report Share Posted October 7 An older thread on replacing a four-way switch with an infinite switch. Note the infinite switch mindset is rather different from the four-way switch mindset. You probably want 240V/15A infinite switches, and to wire 120v elements in series. Andere 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andere Posted October 7 Author Report Share Posted October 7 Thank you all for taking the time to reply! We'll go with the infinite switches. My electrician is happy with this solution as well! I will be back eventually for help with the other two kilns that came with this one, an EA 1029 N whose controls stayed dry and probably just needs a new relay, and a DE 1029-2 whose computer was out in the weather for a few years and will need replacing. But one kiln at a time for now! Hulk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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