Tabletop QuikMelt 10 oz PRO-10 Melting Furnace - Stainless Steel Kiln Jewelry Making Metal Melting Casting Enameling Glass Fusing Precious Metal Clay Kiln

Infinitely portable, has done a great job so far.Counterintuitive digital controls, some important information omitted that I discovered through trial and error.

I've been doing jewelry casting for 15 years and this is my 3rd electronic melt furnace (I previously have had a Rio and Kerr melters). I've in the past been satisfied with those, but my current melter (the Kerr) is out for repair for the heating controller (I've had it 6 years) and I needed a unit to replace it and as a stand in. This is clearly not it. Here's what I discovered:1. The outer shell will oxidize and turn black on THE VERY 1ST USE. Doesn't say anything in the description about this, and the pretty picture you see here will only be the case if you never use it. Why don't they paint them to begin with?2. You have to do a "first firing" of the kiln which will make a lot of smoke and turn the unit black, would be nice if they did this for you at the factory, but I suppose it wouldn't look so pretty out of the box if they did. I've never had to do the "first firing" of an electronic melter before (actually pretty remarkable how much smoke there was), and the other melters I've owned (and seen) have looked dirtier but pretty much the same as they did when they were purchased. That the outside of the melter gets hot enough to oxidize the steel on the first firing is a serious design flaw. Seriously, I've had ovens and furnaces aplenty, and none have ever done this.2. The insulation on the furnace is inadequate to say the least. It is VERY hot to the touch, and needs to be kept well away from everything. I received a reply from the manufacturer that "the insulation is the best available", which might well be true, but there's not enough of it, and there's no heat sink of any sort (which there is on other melters). I assumed based on the size of the unit vs the size of the crucible that it was well insulated, but looking at the unit first hand this isn't the case. The outside get's hot (VERY hot), and is difficult to open even with a gloved hand because of the latch (again, other melters have a handy lever arm that stands off the unit to open the lid, you can open these with un-gloved hands, although it's inadvisable) and the temperature of the steel latch. Why is the the only way to open it from the front (where you have to move your hand over the top to move the lid out of the way)? I couldn't tell from the photos that there was no lever arm on the back, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bought it!3. Technically, this should only take 10min to heat from room temp to 2200, at least according to the description here. In reality it takes closer to 30min, because the instructions in the box say this: "Due to the Rapid Fire Technology, and the speed that your furnace fires up, it is imperative that you incrementally fire your furnace per STEP 4 EVERY use. You must always fire your furnace first to 1200F, let it settle, increase to 1700F, let it settle, then increase finally to your desired temperature, all the way up to 2200F." It takes (from testing the melter) ~ 10 min to settle at each of these temps, thus 30min total. Other melters I've had in the past, you set the temperature, it heats up to that temperature and holds it (again usually takes about 10 minutes to settle, so that is a fairly common time). Is there a reason this one has to be heated incrementally? I suspect (although I'd have to open it up) that the heating element is thinner than on melters I've used in the past and more prone to potential breakage. I've again operated other melters that go from 0 to melting temp without any steps, and never had any trouble.4. The temperture control is inaccurate likely because of the placement of the thermocouple. Don't know where it is in this unit, but when I put my pyrometer into the crucible after it was supposed to be to temp, it was 30-40F under what it should have been. I discovered this after trying to alloy 10K gold in it, and was severely annoyed to find it hadn't alloyed completely after sitting in the unit for 25min (which should be more than sufficient time at full temp). Again, a significant design flaw.While we're on the subject of design flaws, the tongs are too small and too short to be held with most gloves (I guess I mistakenly thought it would have longer tongs, like the ones shown in the photos), I don't understand why it has 2 power cords (again, something I've not encountered before), and the exposed wiring between the fan and the bottom of the heating cavity seems like an accident waiting to happen (since both molten metal and graphite are conductive, and I've had pours in the past where metal went where it wasn't supposed to, a grate over that would be nice). Perhaps this would work fine for refining only, where all you have to do is crank it up and melt things down, and I agree it's a very budget priced melter for that. But for any sort of actual pouring of any precision it's a very difficult melter to use.I understand things aren't always as they're described, but after trying to contact the seller (Tabletop Furnace Company) to return this, here's the response I got: "I'd like to speak with you directly and see what we can do for you. Unfortunately since your unit is used, per our return policy we cannot accept a return request. However, I stand by my products and will do whatever it takes to get you taken care of." I also got a nice point-by-point dismissal of my design concerns, despite which the seller still refused to take back my kiln (after only 1 USE, and a few days after I received it).So after one firing the melter goes from worth to worthless? Good to know. I run a business too (3 actually), and I understand how it can be a pain to accept a return on an item, but I do it nonetheless. Why on earth you send out melters that will turn black and smoke on the very first firing is beyond me. These are pretty basic design flaws that an extra $50 of materials could fix. If I had known about the smoking, the oxidation, the temp ramping, the thin insulation, the small tongs and all the other things I mentioned I would NOT have bought this.It can't heat it in 8min as it says in the description. It doesn't come with the tongs shown in the photo. After one use it doesn't even look like the photo. The description said nothing about it smoking when it's first fired, how it has 2 plugs, or that it gets so hot that it's difficult to touch with gloves. Nothing short of a complete design overhaul will make it usable for me.

Fan stopped working the 3rd time I used it, and most of the insulation has come loose