New elements?

You will find the old elements to be very brittle and if thy are fitted snugly thy will not come out easily in one piece. First time when I tried to replace the elements in my wife's kiln, I was pulling out little bits at a time and it was talking forever. The solution is to heat the wire wit a propane torch as you are puling it put using long nose pliers. Heat makes the wire temporarly pliable and it comes out in one piece. When installing the wire, find a midpoint and insert it in the groove there, working towards both ends. That way the distribution will be better balanced. Make very sure that all of the coils are evenly distributed.

-- Boris

That's a good suggestion, that I wished I read before servicing my two kilns yesterday. But it occurs to me that, assuming the elements aren't already burned out, you could achieve a similar effect by turning them on high for a couple minutes before removing them. In either case heavy leather gloves and needlenose pliers to avoid burns would be essential. This also might be the time to replace the thermocouple for the kind of shut off you use, if it's in the housing for the elements. As to replacing kiln elements, brands vary as to how to do it, what kind of connectors, etc. Stainless steel crimp connections are common, and if that's what you have, you'll need a crimping tool to tighten them. Brad Sondahl

Try replacing the switches first. I had the same thing happening, replaced the elements, and it didn't help. Changing the switches did the trick.

Andrew Werby

----- Original Message ----- From: "Sue Roessel Dura" Newsgroups: rec.crafts.pottery Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 6:32 AM Subject: New elements?