Kiln Testing

Evenheat Kiln

After finally getting around to installing a 240V outlet in the garage I plugged in an old kiln for a test run. The kiln was manufactured by Evenheat (probably about 30 years ago) and consumes 4140W. Since it requires 18A, I used 8AWG SOW Cable rated for up to 35A.

Kiln Nameplate

As luck would have it everything seemed to work. Unfortunately, it had no thermometer and the only way to control it is by flipping the 3 switches for the 3 heating elements. My goal was to use the kiln to anneal and temper steel so I required some kind of temperature sensor. I decided to buy a cheap thermometer off amazon to check out what the actual range of the kiln was. I ended up going with this one off amazon.ca for ~$30.

Dual Two Channel Digital Thermometer 2 K-Type Thermocouple Sensor 1300°C 2372°F

It's no Fluke, but it still works pretty good. Once I had the thermometer I ran it for about 2.5 hours and got the following data:

 I also learned that my thermocouple probes are not very good. One melted at around 500
°C, so I'm hoping to get a higher rated stainless steel one soon.

But I was happy it reached 1000°C and decided to end the test since the room was getting pretty hot.

Hot!