Where to buy Kanthal elements?

M

Mstrick96

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Mar 6, 2018
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Where is a good source for Kanthal heating wire and elements?

I contacted Kanthal and got some design information, but their minimum order size is $600. Their Kanthal Handbook has a lot of design information in it.

Kanthal referred me to Duralite.com and I have a set of elements on order from them that use Kanthal, but I am looking for other sources.

Any suggestions?
 
I bought my wire on amazon (or maybe ebay, don't remember for sure) and wound my own element.
 
There are suppliers on Amazon, Aliexpress, etc, who sell Kanthal A1 or an equivalent FeCrAl wire.

I'm in the UK, which doesn't help you very much, and bought my last elements from a kiln maintenance/repair company (KineticaCNC) that did all the calculations (they checked mine and were happy with them) and wound the elements for no more money than I could buy the wire to wind them myself.

Try Kiln repair companies.

Work out what you are trying to achieve and write a spec. Try to understand, and note down, what is flexible and what is not. Accept that they WILL know more than you and will usually offer sound advice. If they suggest any change from your spec, ask why and see if it makes sense.

For example, if you think you need 15ga and they tell you they can supply 14 ga because that's what they have in stock, the coil will need to be a bit longer or fatter and you may need a longer groove, can you accommodate that? Bear in mind that if you say no, they'll need to spend that $600 minimum order charge with Kanthal for the 15ga.
 
Thanks for the kiln repair company suggestion! I'll start searching.

I bought some heating elements from Amazon, but one roll turned out to be for making vaping heater coils. I'm not into vaping at all. That seems to be mostly what is being sold on Amazon. Another turned out to be correct, but is the same as what burned out on me. My order from Duralite will arrive on Monday.

I like the idea of working with a kiln repair company. One of the art groups I'm in has a kiln for their pottery classes, so they should have some contacts.

My homemade heat treat furnace had an element to burn out when I tried to go above 2000 degrees F. It's been working fine for several years f occasional use, but I always kept it under 2000F.

Thanks!
 
Krueger is good, as Spalted suggested. They’ll coil it for you and you get to choose the diameter of the coil as well.

They say they charge a nominal fee for coiling, but I don’t think they even charged me for it. However they might have done that as a favor because it took them a couple weeks to ship my order since they were real backed up at the time I guess. Can’t imagine it’d be too much anyways though.

Don’t forget to order extra to use as staples too.
 
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