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thermocouple failed, what to do?

updated mon 1 dec 03

 

Cindi Anderson on sat 29 nov 03


The thermocouple measures the temperature and gives that information to the
controller. If you "blew your thermocouple" you could not simply resume
firing, you would need another thermocouple. (It is like a fuse, when it
goes bad it is bad, not like a breaker that you can reset.) The only
alternative to that would be if you have a 3 zone control system with 3
thermocouples. Then if one failed, the other 2 can take over. But you
might have hot spots in the kiln so you should replace your 3rd thermocouple
if that is the case.

Cindi
Fremont, CA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Raymond"
> My Olympic kiln with a Bartlett 3K controller blew a thermocouple today. I
reset the controller and resumed the firing. That was a few hours ago and so
far no more problems. I'm not familiar with the guts of this thing yet nor
do I possess a great deal of understanding about electricity. What is a
thermocouple and what does it do? Are there others that go into use if one
fails? If the kiln does not give me any problems, should I replace it? Any
advice would bre appreciated. Thanks

Paul Raymond on sat 29 nov 03


My Olympic kiln with a Bartlett 3K controller blew a thermocouple today. I reset the controller and resumed the firing. That was a few hours ago and so far no more problems. I'm not familiar with the guts of this thing yet nor do I possess a great deal of understanding about electricity. What is a thermocouple and what does it do? Are there others that go into use if one fails? If the kiln does not give me any problems, should I replace it? Any advice would bre appreciated. Thanks

Paul Raymond
Franklin, TN