Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

PLEASE read carefully why you should NOT by this kiln!!!! Most of you are first time buyers and have no knowledge to compare this kiln to more reputable kilns that have a lot more to offer for not much more money. In fact, based on the fire area of the kiln the per cubic inch cost it is not only cheaper on other models you get a WAY BETTER KILN!!!! I want to give all my input so those considering buying their first kiln you will make the right choice. I do not believe this kiln is the right choice for the money even if it’s your first kiln. You will get a difficult kiln to program, a small firing space and cheaply made kiln that is not worth the price. In the explanation below here are my reasons: 1) The controller is a joke! This is being offered for first time buyers of kilns. Why? Because you’re as ignorant as I was and do not know any better. I ask you if you’re using a kiln for the first time, wouldn’t it be nice that the controller (pmc, glass fusing AND ceramic) programs are already embedded into the controller which you can utilize right off the bat simply by hitting an up or down button? And that you can reuse a saved program again or make custom programs that are saved into the system for later use? This controller does not allow you to have multiple programs in it. It does NOT come with preprogramed schedules at all. It makes you input Every Single Element of the firing process into it. That is, when I was firing glass, I had to enter information 18 TIMES. For the first time it took me an 2 hours to figure it out and I had to write all of the steps down on paper so that I would not screw it up. How stupid is that? Very Stupid! That is, you enter the ambient temp, then the time to ramp up, for the temp you want and the hold time and then you enter the enter the same temp again in the next level. The way it is labeled, “C01” or “TO1” makes no bloody sense at all. Not only is this tedious and horrible, it increases the opportunity for screwing up! And believe me you will! God help you to stop a program you started wrong. There is NO error messages to know you did something wrong so the kiln will run with a bad program and never end it like it’s ground hog day!!! This is the WORST kiln controller on the market. Again, they went cheap and not quality and user friendly. No other controller for any kiln is that UN-USER FRIENDLY! If you are like me and want to experiment adding glass, ceramics or other media using your kiln, good luck as the time to input the firing schedules is a nightmare! Unlike other controllers there is no easy way to do that. And if you screw up which you will eventually, good luck ending a program in the middle! I had to call to get instructions how to cancel a program. If you just turn it off and turn it back on again, it will continue with that schedule at the point when you turned it off. For a beginner that’s a horrible nightmare because you will make mistakes and want to end a program in midstream. Good luck with that-- it’s not easy! Every small kiln on the market has a better controller than the one offered. Again, think cheap because that’s what this product is. 2) Overpriced kiln! Given its size and poor construction and based on others out there that are better built with user friendly controllers and ceramic shelving and not that crappy cheap alumina fiber board it is WAY overpriced. The tricky thing is how shrewdly these people are marketing this kiln. They market a tiny, teeny kiln that is a bit less expensive than their competitors and hope no one makes a unit price comparisons of the firing area. They know their audience is not savvy in their kiln knowledge so they can be duped. Beginners will see a tiny little kiln that is cheaper on the market and not realize for $100, or perhaps a bit more, they can get something infinitely better! On a comparison of prices and sizes of kilns it should be appropriately- priced at around $250-$300, not around $499-479 (depending on where you buy it) for this kiln. For example, after my kiln crapped out because the wires burned out, I bought a Skutt Firebox for $623 (including ceramic kiln shelf, posts and delivery!) which has 384 cubic inches firing area. This works out to $1.62 per cubic inch. Compare that with this badly built kiln for total only 108 cubic inch of firing area (I’m not deducting the approx.. 1 cubic inch that cannot be used because of the heating coils partially sticking out and thermocouple in in the way!) The cost per cubic inch of firing is $2.71 per cubic inch. That 67% more per cubic inch of firing area compared to my Skutt kiln. Another way to put it, you are actuality paying 60% MORE per cubic inch of firing area and a crappy controller, a stupid closure, non fire brick walls and those fragile alumina boards! Really, how can this company justify this price? For less than $100 more you can an amazing kiln with pre-programs built in for ceramics, PMC, AND glass all right out of the box including a ceramic shelf and posts and with 3 times the firing space! Seriously folks, this is a no brainer NOT TOO BUY THIS KILN!!!! Plus, I didn’t have to watch a video how to program it over and over again, and still had to call their customer service to freaking figure out how to program the bloody kiln!!!! Here are other kilns that far exceed the price based on the cubic inch of firing space: a) Evenheat Studio pro is 293.7 cubic inches firing area works out to $2.27 per cubic inch- which the Rapid fire kiln costing about 19% MORE per cubic inch of firing area b) Paragon QuickFire 6 kiln has 224.6 cubic inches firing area works out to $1.76 per cubic inch which the Rapid fire kiln costing about 54% MORE per cubic inch of firing area. c) Paragon Firefly is 276.4 cubic inch firing area works out to $2.22 Cubic inch which the Rapid fire kiln costing about 22% MORE per cubic inch of firing area. d) Paragon Express is 323 cubic inch firing area works out to $2.22 cubic inch which the Rapid fire kiln costing about 22% MORE per cubic inch of firing area. All of the noted kilns are better built with user-friend controllers, fiber brick inside or better material inside, easy door closures and just about everything else about them is better! 3) Heating Coils are only partially recessed. That is, they do stick out into the firing chamber. Which makes it easy to short them when loading your kiln by accidently touching it with your project and burning it out as I did. The kiln I am using now is superior because it uses fire bricks, not that cheap fiber material to line the sides of the kiln. So the coils are completely recessed into the bricks, whereas this kiln it sticks out partially. Given its microscopic fire area, it’s not hard to have your project accidentally touch the coils and burn them out! Then spend $20+ bucks shipping it out to them and then being all so generous asking you to pay a “reduced” price (LOL!) $75 to repair it. What a deal! More money on this “bargain” kiln. The irony is if the kiln was made better this probably wouldn’t have happened. 4) Thermocouple sticks up from the button of the kiln taking up space in your firing area. Again, like the coils it sticks into the chamber from the bottom up like an intruder, such that you cannot use the area around since your projects cannot touch it. Honestly it’s only going to be a matter of time that the thermocouple, based on its lame location, will be touched by a project. The Skutt Firebox I now use has a thermocouple that does not come up from the bottom of the kiln but from the top area and is bent 90%. That’s smart engineering! How stupid to have your thermocouple coming right up into you firing area? Another accident waiting to happen to ruin the thermocouple so you’ll send it back and they can charge you $$ to replace it. NO thanks! I am now sticking to better engineered kiln which has the thermocouple away from the shelf in order to reduce potential damage. 5) The actual usable size of the area is not as stated. If you take into account that your projects must be away from the heating coils and the thermocouple the ACTUAL inside chamber is at least 1-2 cubic inches LESS. Marketing it as larger than the actual useable size misrepresents reality. 6) The kiln makers are too cheap to provide you with a ceramic kiln shelf. Instead they send it with a fragile alumina shelf. I guarantee you’re going to break it sooner than later and then spend more money with these bozos to send you another shelf. Thus increasing the overall price of what you initially paid. Why? Again, these people are cost cutting so they rather give you something cheap then something well made. 7) Door locking mechanism is lame. It looks like a Home Depot off-the-shelf lock system intended for a tool box, or even grandma’s metal lunch box, but certainly not for a kiln. That is, if you have to prop the door open for burn- off then it will be hard to close being your kiln now is around 1200 F or higher and you have to hope you don’t burn yourself while using the special gloves to shut it and it’s not easy given the idiotic lock they have. You will have a higher than average chance of burning your hand. 8) Why is weighing 12 pounds such a selling point? The claim you can take it wherever you go is meaningless. Who the heck moves their kiln around? I mean, does anyone carry their kiln around like going to their friend’s house saying, “oh by-the-way I’m going to plug it in and fire something while we watch TV.” Even in PMC and glass classes I’ve taken in workshops where the instructor brings in their own kiln, they usually bring in a Paragon or other better built kiln. Why? Because there is NO WAY this kiln would have enough room for all the student projects in your typical class of 4-8 people. It would take multiple firings. What is the point of that?! As far as not having space for a larger better built kiln, I live in an 825 SF house and manage to use my Skutt Firebox just fine which is much more than twice the size. I wished I bought it instead of this kiln! So in a nutshell, the kiln is badly made, its chamber is miniscule you will most likely burn out the coils given the badly designed entire with cheap shelving and the company will charge you for replacement parts and repair thus making more money for a badly built kiln. So I ask you, why settle for this kiln when there is so much better out there? So to put it simply, based on all the flaws of this kiln I recommend you DO NOT BUY THIS KILN! Take it from me: Save yourself heartache and get something better. Who cares if it is 12 lbs? What matters is your craft and that you can count on a good productive kiln that’s built wee, is roomy enough to grow with you craft, and finally, it’s well made and easy to use. Get something that you start using right out of the boxwith a user friendly controller. I recommend a Skutt Firebox or the others listed above and you’ll get so much more! Learn from my mistake that this kiln is a badly constructed joke of a kiln! DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!!!