FWIW, while I share some of the concerns listed here, having played with one of these kilns, others I do not.
A friend of mine has one, and FWIW, from the standpoint of usability, and function, the controller is very nice. In fact, I'm considering retrofitting an older industrial HT oven I've got with one of these. Heat damage to the controller doesn't seem to be a concern, Evenheat has insulated heavily between the kiln and the electronics that are most sensitive. Also, having seen some earlier evenheat ovens, the build quality of the recent ones is really top notch. Honestly I think they're better built than the Paragons anymore with lots of smart design features.
Yes, they are poorly insulated compared to real industrial models. The one I'm considering converting the controller is an old analog controller, but for a 6x6x20 chamber, it's the size of 4-6 evenheats, mostly in insulation and 1/8" plate. Weighs maybe 600lbs, and I dropped it on it's side trying to lay it over to put wheels under it and it didn't do the slightest damage, although it broke a tie down strap and made the floor shake. It's also completely cool to the touch at max temp after running for hours, and features boxed ceramic element modules in the sides and the roof. Having just replaced a buddy's element in his Paragon, I can tell you, it's junk grade comparatively.
I've digressed. The controller likely has more going on in the software than you realize Kosa, it's as effective as any of the current hobby grade controllers Paragon and Evenheat are running, and from what I saw, seems significantly more so. The thing is, it's entirely software driven, so they don't have lots of microcontroller hardware/logic to tout. Fortunately, capabilities can be added with a mere software update, as no extra hardware should be necessary.
It's incredibly intuitive to use, 1000x more than the button controllers or PIDs, you can setup much more complicated programs, all listed with a name (52100 Thermal Cycle #1 for example) that you can simply touch and click start to run. You can pause easily at any time, or skip around to step without having to know a magic combination of buttons that one mistake will restart your program, etc.
Honestly, this should have existed quite a long time ago, this controller is by no means advanced, but it's the first step of the seemingly slow march of technological progress in this area.
Yes, there are significantly more advanced programmable controllers, but many require extensive knowledge to use, and aren't readily accessible (or properly marketed) to the average knifemaker. This is a good step between, and if it's supported, or improved upon, and implemented into higher end kilns, has pretty great potential.
FWIW, I've got a Sugarcreek kiln also with an old 3-key Orton controller that gets more use in my shop than the other two much nicer kilns. It's un-arguably a piece of total junk, but I got it cheap, and it does it's job very effectively which is thermal cycling and annealing damascus billets. Other than energy efficiency with a more insulated kiln, there's absolutely no reason for me to use a nicer kiln for this job, which because of the size of billets I'm usually slinging, gets beat to shit and back. I got it for like $300 used, so value, is relative to need. Surprisingly, it actually seems to overshoot less than many nicer kilns I've used (10 degrees max), but it's irrelevant in this case, what do I care about 10 degrees in the context of how I use this? Not at all.
