I really like my Evenheat oven, but the controller died.

R

Ross99

Joined
May 31, 2011
Messages
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My controller is a CIC Perfect Fire, no longer made, company out of business. Evenheat will replace the whole control board, but at roughly half the price of a new oven.

My oven will turn on but only shows a scrambled display. I tried the "hold down the select switch and turn it on" to reset the controller but it doesn't work. Tried unplugging and plugging in the power cord, no effect.

Should I repair the old controller? Or buy a new oven to get a big order out on time? Anyone else deal with this issue?

Thanks for the help,
Ross
 
They are fairly easy to build. I'm sure all you need is a new PID and use your existing SSR, etc
 
hey if you decide to buy a new oven send me a email. I might buy the other one if you want to sell it
 
I like Evenheats, if I get a new one I will keep the old one as a spare. Thanks for the offer, but not at this time.

Ross
 
Many here have built their own HT oven and controller (including myself). Your controller consists of some type of PID that decides when to turn on and off the electricity to the elements. It sends a current to your SSR (Solid State Relay), which will send juice to the element. My guess is that only your controller is out, so you could build a new controller box for around $100. You may only need a PID and be able to keep your SSR(s).

Here is a diagram that I drew up of mine
Diagram.jpg


It might take some time, so if time is more valueable than money, you might just want to sell your oven and buy a new one.
 
Yours would be wired slightly different. The SSR would go directly to the heating elements rather than the plug that I have on mine. Here is what my controller box looks like
WilderKiln2.jpg


I have it set up so that it can run a 110v or 220v kiln

I can help you if you are interested in building one or you can send a message to Stacy (Bldsmith) - he is the guru who helped me
 
Hey jawilder,
Thanks for the help. I really appreciate your offer. At this time my options are to send in my controller box and have it rebuilt ~=$400. Get a completely new controller ~=$650 or a new oven at ~=$1100. What do you guys(and gals) think(i have a large order waiting to be HT'ed, I would like to get these out on time)?

Thanks,
Ross
 
Probably buy a new controller for it, if you feel comfortable hooking it up without sending it in. You could send it in to have it rebuilt but that would double your turn around time and a new oven would double the cost. Building a new controller would cost you time and it might have a different method of programming. If you have to send it in to have a new controller installed then buying a new oven could save you a week or more. So, is $500 worth saving a weeks worth of time?
 
I think you might be able to rebuild it for less than $100 but it might be a gamble of time and money
 
Ross,

Have you pulled the trigger on a solution yet? If not, maybe buy a new one in consideration of the following.


  1. Time is of the essence
  2. You do a fair amount of heat treating so it would likely be worth your while
  3. You can afford a new oven, but cannot afford to be sub-par in late delivery of product.
  4. Once you have this behind you, you can repair the old oven at your leisure, expanding your heat-treating capacities (not just in volume, but concurrency of temperature range diversities too such as: annealing, normalizing, tempering...
  5. You could always sell the old oven as is, or with time economically repaired, if you wanted/needed to recover some of the replace purchase costs.

All the best, Phil
 
I have faced other such situations often in the past. I think Phil hit the nail on the head. If I were in your boots that's how I would handle it.
 
Thanks for the advice Phil, I wish I had seen it earlier. I just sent my old controller off to Evenheat. They will try to repair the old mother board and if that is not possible they will set me up with a whole new controller($$$). Now I'm thinking if I should buy a second oven just to get orders out the door on time. It would be nice to have two ovens. And then there are the new Evenheats that are much deeper(like 36").

I really appreciate the help,

Thanks,
Ross
 
If you're thinking of getting a new one anyway, you might have some negotiating strength via being a long time customer with customer loyalty, etc. Evenheat might give you a bit of a price break if you ask for one. You know something like, "I'm in a hurry to get some heat treating completed asap. I really like your ovens, but am not sure I should wait for the repair. Is there any way you could give me a break on the price of a new oven so I can get going right away? That way the repair could proceed at its own pace."
 
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Hey Phil,
I asked for a discount but Evenheat said that they do not sell direct.

Thanks,
Ross
 
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