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Today my Olympic Hotsie P just stopped heating mid-fire. After it cooled and I unplugged it,
I took off the metal cage that surrounds the electronics. As shown in the photo, the wire going to
the top element broke just at the edge of the ceramic insulator. The pigtail from the element
broke, and part of it is still attached to the cable, along with the high temp crimp connector.

So, here are my questions.

I could repair this, but to get some pigtail to crimp onto, I would have to cut the ceramic insulator
about in half so that some pigtail would be exposed. Would this create a safety issue if the insulator
is about half as long as it is now? Also, where can I get those high temp crimpers? Will they crimp down
with a standard electrical crimping tool, or is something special required.

If this is unsafe, then do I have to replace the entire top element?

Worse yet, do I need to send it to Olypmic for repair?

Any sage advice would be welcome. My husband is a mechanical engineer and very capable of fixing
things, but kiln repair is new territory for us.

Thanks,
Emily

Can you push some more of the element through the insulator from the inside?

if you can heat up the inner coil with a torch, and pull it while it's hot, you can stretch the coil without breaking it and then force more of it thru the ceramic piece to connect to.

Steve and Tom -

Thanks for those ideas. I also called Olympic and Bob told me to pull out the ceramic insulator
and stick a small screwdriver back in there and scrape away some firebrick and clean the scrapings out
and then the ceramic insulator will recess further and expose more pigtail. He said 1/4" exposure is
enough. Brad is sending me a high temp connector, so later today I'll try a combination of these methods
and hopefully be back in business.

Cheers,
Emily

I was told yesterday, by Olympic, to use a Linemens Plier to crimp those things. They are tough. My husband broke two crimping tools. Olympic uses Pnumatic Crimping Machine. Lol, cheaters