Short Answer: TAP Kiln Controllers revolutionized the kiln control industry by combining simple touchscreen controls, PID-driven precision, and fully remote monitoring and firing capabilities.
At a time when other programmable kiln controllers still used keys, complicated menus, and small alarm clock-like screens, the original TAP Kiln Controller by SDS Industries revolutionized kiln control by introducing intuitive touchscreen controls and an attractive graphical user interface.
Our competition has been scrambling to keep up ever since!
When designing TAP, we kept the focus on making it easy for artists and craftspeople to do everything they needed with just a few taps of your finger. Instead of complicated firing codes and having to constantly recreate schedules, TAP focused on designing a controller anyone can pick up and begin using right away.
This includes menus that just make sense, full-text title displays, and the ability to create, name, and save unlimited firing schedules (with unlimited steps!).
See for yourself how TAP Kiln Controllers simplify your firing operations!
But we didn’t stop there!
SDS Industries also pioneered remote monitoring and control capabilities through TAP Kiln Control Mobile. We’re still (to our knowledge) the only kiln controller manufacturer that allows you to remotely create, edit, adjust, or execute firing schedules from your smartphone or tablet.
TAP combines this revolutionary user experience with a host of cutting-edge technical features like PID-driven precision, preventative maintenance alerts, advanced diagnostics, push notification alerts and alarms, error reports, and storage capabilities that allow users to save an unlimited number of unique schedules with an unlimited number of steps.
You might think that this technological edge might come at the expense reliability, but we built the TAP Kiln Controller to be an industrial-grade component that can withstand workshop, at home, and industrial environments. Across over 700,000 hours of recorded firing time and 500,000 successful firings (that’s just for controllers connected to WiFi), TAP Kiln Controllers have well under a 1% field failure rate.
Plus, we support our mainline TAP Kiln Controllers (TAP II and TAP II Pro) with an industry-leading 3-year warranty.
Today, we’re still pushing the envelope on what’s possible when it comes to temperature control with constant refinement and new, innovative products like TAP Micro and TAP II Pro.
You can read a full comparison between TAP Kiln Controllers vs controllers by other kiln controller manufacturers here.