Joseph Corcoran
07-23-2006, 01:38 PM
Hi there folks.
Let me start by saying that any help is this matter would be great.
I purchased a custom AIM kiln in 1997. It is 18x16x21. The price was an amazing $1900 + shipping. The kiln (I was told) was a 240v 15a kiln. The kiln arrived with the top and bottom bricks cracked and I never said anything...didn't want to go through sending it back ect. The kiln brick was also weird, not white it was brown, vermiculite based, and very crumbly. Oh well, let's start blowing glass....
I have used this kiln for almost 9 years, and one day a couple months back I looked inside to see only the top element running. I waited for the kiln to cool and found that the lower element had melted into the brick of the kiln. The elements were "slid" into holes that had grooves on top of them that were smaller than the elements.
I called AIM and told John my problem and he seemed perplexed to how this could have occured. He said most of the modern elements don't degrade like that unless they get some foreign object stuck in them. I couldn't find anything. He looked up my kiln and I ordered 2 new elements to replace the old ones. He told me that I could just pull the bricks out, and use pliers to slide out the elements from their holes. The only problem is they used TONS of pins through these fragile tiny grooves to "hold" the element in place. So I order some new elements for $100 including s/h.
I thought the whole point of making the design with the small grooves was to enable you NOT to have to use large amounts of pins to secure the element?? Needless to say I could not get the old elements out without destroying the vermiculite brick.
So I call John back up and ask him how much new brick would be, and why they would design it like that with fragile brick and narrow grooves, with pins... He makes up some BS about how thats how they sometimes make them, and they need pins to hold them in.
Even when the brick itself would hold the element in???
So I order new white limestone bricks with open "wide-mouth?" grooves, where you just set the element in, and pin it down with 10-12 pins each. I have to wait over a month for the bricks despite over 15 calls with maybe 2 of those calls returned. Now don't get me wrong...John seems like a nice guy, and AIM seems really understaffed, but still that is no excuse for the amount of times I was never called back. cost: $500 including s/h
So here I am, a few weeks ago about ready to start to fix the kiln after the bricks arrive....
I decide to get a new contactor, and wires, etc. I went to the back of my kiln and tried to unplug the kiln from the wall... I finally had to use pliers to pull it out, only to discover to my horror that the plug was BLACK and had been melted in to the wall outlet.
I was perplexed by this, seeing as how the breaker to that wall outlet is 40a, and the wire is 8 guage in the wall, and the outlet is 20a, how a 15a kiln would do this???
I took the contactor in to get it changed out and they said it was a 40a contactor, and that I needed some 50a dryer hose cable, and that the cable they supplied on the kiln is a joke....well the truth was somewhere in between....
I called John back at AIM and told him the story. He told me that they just have a standard contactor they use for their kilns 40a. He says that my elements are the deciding factor in how much juice is pulled through that 40a contactor. He told me he would call me back and let me know what the amps are for my elements....I never get called back and called him back the next day....he told me the elements draw 16a.......
Now here is my question:
Considering that my shop was almost burned down, because I was sold a 240v 16a AIM kiln with a 15a cord, and that John was so perplexed to why my element melted into my kiln brick, that I should ask him for a refund (full or partial) for the BLATANT mistake that his company made 9 years ago that is costing me over 30% of what my kiln cost new to fix?
Thanks for any input.
Joe :bangHead:
Let me start by saying that any help is this matter would be great.
I purchased a custom AIM kiln in 1997. It is 18x16x21. The price was an amazing $1900 + shipping. The kiln (I was told) was a 240v 15a kiln. The kiln arrived with the top and bottom bricks cracked and I never said anything...didn't want to go through sending it back ect. The kiln brick was also weird, not white it was brown, vermiculite based, and very crumbly. Oh well, let's start blowing glass....
I have used this kiln for almost 9 years, and one day a couple months back I looked inside to see only the top element running. I waited for the kiln to cool and found that the lower element had melted into the brick of the kiln. The elements were "slid" into holes that had grooves on top of them that were smaller than the elements.
I called AIM and told John my problem and he seemed perplexed to how this could have occured. He said most of the modern elements don't degrade like that unless they get some foreign object stuck in them. I couldn't find anything. He looked up my kiln and I ordered 2 new elements to replace the old ones. He told me that I could just pull the bricks out, and use pliers to slide out the elements from their holes. The only problem is they used TONS of pins through these fragile tiny grooves to "hold" the element in place. So I order some new elements for $100 including s/h.
I thought the whole point of making the design with the small grooves was to enable you NOT to have to use large amounts of pins to secure the element?? Needless to say I could not get the old elements out without destroying the vermiculite brick.
So I call John back up and ask him how much new brick would be, and why they would design it like that with fragile brick and narrow grooves, with pins... He makes up some BS about how thats how they sometimes make them, and they need pins to hold them in.
Even when the brick itself would hold the element in???
So I order new white limestone bricks with open "wide-mouth?" grooves, where you just set the element in, and pin it down with 10-12 pins each. I have to wait over a month for the bricks despite over 15 calls with maybe 2 of those calls returned. Now don't get me wrong...John seems like a nice guy, and AIM seems really understaffed, but still that is no excuse for the amount of times I was never called back. cost: $500 including s/h
So here I am, a few weeks ago about ready to start to fix the kiln after the bricks arrive....
I decide to get a new contactor, and wires, etc. I went to the back of my kiln and tried to unplug the kiln from the wall... I finally had to use pliers to pull it out, only to discover to my horror that the plug was BLACK and had been melted in to the wall outlet.
I was perplexed by this, seeing as how the breaker to that wall outlet is 40a, and the wire is 8 guage in the wall, and the outlet is 20a, how a 15a kiln would do this???
I took the contactor in to get it changed out and they said it was a 40a contactor, and that I needed some 50a dryer hose cable, and that the cable they supplied on the kiln is a joke....well the truth was somewhere in between....
I called John back at AIM and told him the story. He told me that they just have a standard contactor they use for their kilns 40a. He says that my elements are the deciding factor in how much juice is pulled through that 40a contactor. He told me he would call me back and let me know what the amps are for my elements....I never get called back and called him back the next day....he told me the elements draw 16a.......
Now here is my question:
Considering that my shop was almost burned down, because I was sold a 240v 16a AIM kiln with a 15a cord, and that John was so perplexed to why my element melted into my kiln brick, that I should ask him for a refund (full or partial) for the BLATANT mistake that his company made 9 years ago that is costing me over 30% of what my kiln cost new to fix?
Thanks for any input.
Joe :bangHead: