Switching to 6-30 plug for kiln

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korenfish
Posts: 10
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 2:24 am
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Switching to 6-30 plug for kiln

Post by korenfish »

Hi warmglass users -
I'm having difficulty determining how to proceed with solving my electrical needs in order to purchase a kiln. Our house has a 220 line going to it for the air conditioner and the dryer, but no plug in the area where we're going to keep the kiln. An electrician gave us an estimate of $1800 to bring a plug out to the kiln area, but that's a tad steep. I'm thinking of using the dryer plug (unplugging the dryer first, of course) and purchasing a Jen-ken which uses the 6-30 dryer receptacle. Unfortunately, we have old dryer plugs 10-30 instead of the new 6-30. Has anyone ever switched theirs to 6-30 for this reason? If so, please respond and tell me how you did it. Does anyone have other suggestions? Can we use 220 extension cords from the air conditioning area to the kiln area instead?

Thanks
-Stephanie
Paul Bush
Posts: 52
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2003 3:59 pm
Location: Portland, Oregon

Post by Paul Bush »

$1800 to run 240 service for your kiln sounds outrageous, unless it's a long, long way from the main panel. I had an entire new service brought in, inlcuding new wiring from the pole, a new 200 amp service panel, a 100 amp line to my garage with a 240 outlet for a pottery kiln, AND another 240 line with a 6-50 plug for a Paragon kiln in my basement studio - all for $1800!

Unless you're maxed out on capacity, a reputable electrician should be able to run a 240 line for your kiln for a few hundred dollars.

Let you fingers do the walking.

Paul
Paul Bush
Flying Fish Studio
Portland, Oregon
bernie
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:11 am
Location: snohomish, wa.

Re: Switching to 6-30 plug for kiln

Post by bernie »

Everything in the bay area seems expensive to me. But, get another bid or maybe I should send my electrician down to you. :?
korenfish wrote:Hi warmglass users -
I'm having difficulty determining how to proceed with solving my electrical needs in order to purchase a kiln. Our house has a 220 line going to it for the air conditioner and the dryer, but no plug in the area where we're going to keep the kiln. An electrician gave us an estimate of $1800 to bring a plug out to the kiln area, but that's a tad steep. I'm thinking of using the dryer plug (unplugging the dryer first, of course) and purchasing a Jen-ken which uses the 6-30 dryer receptacle. Unfortunately, we have old dryer plugs 10-30 instead of the new 6-30. Has anyone ever switched theirs to 6-30 for this reason? If so, please respond and tell me how you did it. Does anyone have other suggestions? Can we use 220 extension cords from the air conditioning area to the kiln area instead?

Thanks
-Stephanie
:?
Cher
Posts: 91
Joined: Tue Oct 07, 2003 8:59 pm
Location: MI
Contact:

Re: Switching to 6-30 plug for kiln

Post by Cher »

korenfish wrote: Can we use 220 extension cords from the air conditioning area to the kiln area instead?

Thanks
-Stephanie
the manual with my kiln says not to use on an extension cord. I'm inclined to believe that. Seeing the power cord that is on my kiln, wouldn't want to plug that one into an extension cord. I agree, get some other estimates.
>^..^<
Stuart Clayman
Posts: 224
Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2003 12:35 pm
Location: Virginia
Contact:

Post by Stuart Clayman »

By all means do not use an extention cord.. have the electrician run a line from your dryer to where you want it to go and have the correct outlet that you want.. promise that you will only use one at a time.. and if you forgot and used both then you would blow the circuit.. that is why they make breakers.

Stuart
Kiln Repair by a Clayman kilnrepair@yahoo.com
Glassworks by a Clayman
http://www.GlassArtists.org/GlassworksByAClayman
quill
Posts: 107
Joined: Wed Apr 02, 2003 10:35 am
Location: BC
Contact:

Post by quill »

We just had to run new 240 from our main panel, (about 60 feet) put in a new 100 amp box & reroute the dryer & airconditioner to put in my new 1018 Skutt. Parts were about $500 Canadian, but luckily we had an electrician 'guy'.

He just charged $50 & a bottle of whiskey. It took him about 1 &1/2 hours after we pulled the wire & did the other prep work so I think the price you were quoted is a bit steep.

I would not advise trying to get away with patches like extension cords. This is heavy duty electricity. A house fire is no joke!
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