Heat Treat Oven Element

ddickey

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Apr 21, 2016
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My oven stopped working. I narrowed the problem down to this element. Cheapest one I can find on eBay is $168 shipped.
Anybody have any suggestions. Could I convert to a cheaper element somehow?

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I have an article on winding your own heating element if your interested.
 
Can you patch the refractory and re-wire the element? You can get just the wire on ebay.
 
Can you patch the refractory and re-wire the element? You can get just the wire on ebay.
I could try to cut out the old element. Buy a new element then patch it. I can't even tell where the wire runs though. Not sure.
 
how many watts is the element? @ what voltage?
you may be able to use Nickel/Chrome wire, if we can ascertain resistance.

the resistance wire most likely snakes and zig zag's around the holes and across the entire inside surface of the ceramic matrix
 
I'm not sure. The two that are good jump all over the place when trying to check continuity. Looks like about 7-8 ohms per element. I have two elements that are bad. Looks like the four elements are wired in series. Wired for 220Vac.
 
Hi... Just want to mention something related to heat treat ovens... When the heating element wire is active, it's very susceptible to chemical attack that can lead to rapid failure. Any kinds of chemicals, salts or chemical-based fluxes used inside the oven will shorten the life of the elements. There are various recipes and products on the market for carburizing compounds and every time I ever used them, I could see the junk crusting-up on the wires and they usually fail soon thereafter. I often use argon gas to purge the oven and when I do so regularly, the elements seem to last about 2-3 times as long.

Merry Christmas...

Ray C.
 
I bet that's what happened. I did some case hardening and the oven was full of smoke.
 
I bet that's what happened. I did some case hardening and the oven was full of smoke.

Can't say for sure but, it looks like a stain on the element, possibly caused by something being spilled on it. That's a death sentence for bare wire heating elements. Anyhow, heating elements don't last forever. I have no less than 3 rolls of A1 Kanthal in the supply cabinet. Some heat treat operations take 4-6 hours so, I often proactively replace the element if it looks fishy.

Ray C.
 
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