Kiln Controller Settings FAQ

Accessing and editing settings is easy on your TAP Controller!

From the Home Screen of your controller, press Menu, then Settings to access and edit your settings. Alternatively, you can edit settings via the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app by selecting your controller and clicking Settings on the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen.

Follow the video below to find the Settings options on your TAP II or TAP II Pro:

TAP Products give users the ability to automatically track life expectancy for relays, elements, and thermocouples via the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app.

Here’s how:

• From the app’s Summary Screen, select your kiln.
• Click Settings at the bottom of the screen.
• Scroll down, and you’ll find fields to enter this information.

Once you’ve entered this information, clicking Diagnostics at the bottom of the app will allow you to track your usage for each of these components.

Your controller will alert you automatically when it’s time to replace these components before they impact the performance of your kiln.

How to Find Component Life Expectancy

Need help finding this information? Typically, you can find these on the datasheet for each component or by contacting your kiln manufacturer.

Relays generally have a data field called out on the datasheet for Contact Rating Cycles or Mechanical Endurance.

Thermocouples and elements may not have a datasheet readily available, or you may not know what brand/model your kiln uses. In this case, it is best to reach out to your kiln manufacturer. 

Need help connecting your controller to TAP Kiln Control Mobile? Find detailed instructions for pairing your controller and troubleshooting common issues.

TAP’s Delay Start function is the amount of time from now that your controller will wait before starting your schedule.

You’ll enter it on your controller in HH.MM format (the number of Hours followed by the number of Minutes). So if you entered, 01.20, your controller would wait one hour and twenty minutes before starting your firing schedule.

When creating a schedule, your TAP Kiln Controller will ask you if you want to program a delayed start. Click “Yes” here, and you’ll be presented with a keypad where you enter your preferred delay start time.

Below are examples of possible Delay Start entries, as well as what they’d command your controller to do:

• 00.00 – Start the firing immediately 
• 00.01 – Start the firing 1 minute from now 
• 00.15 – Start the firing 15 minutes from now 
• 01.01 – Start the firing 1 hour and 1 minute from now 
• 12.00 – Start the firing 12 hours from now

We recommend adhering to the format above. But your TAP Kiln Controller will also translate any numbers entered into the Minutes Field into hours, i.e. the examples below:

• 00.90 – The controller will start the fire 1 hour and 30 minutes from now 
• 01.90 – The controller will start the firing 2 hours and 30 minutes from now (1 hour + 90 minutes) 

As an alternative to Delay Start, you can use Remote Start with a premium subscription of TAP Kiln Control Mobile to start your firing any time from your smartphone or tablet.

Advanced Settings contain manufacturer specific settings related to:

• Max Temp
• PID Tuning
• Thermocouple Type
• Temperature Zones
• Firing Modes

Adjusting any of these settings could drastically impact your safety and the functionality of your kiln or heat treat oven.

If you believe access to the advanced settings is necessary, please contact your kiln manufacturer.

In the Advanced Settings, you can find settings that allow you to adjust cycle times to take advantage of the faster switching capabilities of solid-state relays (SSRs).

However, access to these settings is restricted. Editing them can drastically impact your safety and the functionality of your kiln or heat treat oven. 

If you believe these settings need to be updated, contact your kiln manufacturer for assistance. 

Setting up your TAP Kiln Controller to track your electric kiln firing cost is super easy. For the TAP II and TAP II Pro Controllers, as well as the other kiln controllers in the TAP Ecosystem, you will set up your kiln firing costs via the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app, so you can skip ahead to the next section for instructions!

For the discontinued original TAP Controller, you can also input cost settings right from your controller screen or via the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app. 

How to Set Up Electric Kiln Firing Cost Tracking on the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app

You can program cost settings for all of our kiln controller models from the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app – and track your electric kiln firing costs on the go! 

Just follow these steps:

1. In the TAP Kiln Control Mobile app, select your kiln from the Summary Screen. 
2. Press Settings on the bottom center of your screen. 
3. Scroll down to Cost. Here you will find the fields to input ‘Cost per kWh’ and ‘Kiln Power.’ 
4. Enter your kiln’s power rating in watts in the field for ‘Kiln Power.’ If you’re unsure of your kiln’s power rating, you can usually find it on the kiln’s data plate or in your kiln’s user manual. If your kiln’s power rating is in kilowatts, just multiply that number by 1000 to convert the power rating into watts. For instance, if your kiln was rated for 2.16 kW, you’d multiply that by 1000, and enter 2160 in the field for ‘Kiln Power.’ 
5. Enter your utility provider’s cost per kilowatt hour in the ‘Cost per kWh’ field. You can find this information on your latest electric bill or on the website for your electric utility provider. In the example below, we’ve highlighted the ‘Cost per kWh.’ Make sure to round up or down to the nearest whole cent! So for this example, you would enter $0.04 under ‘Cost per kWh.’ Once you’ve input this information, your TAP Controller will automatically calculate your electric kiln firing cost – so you can ditch the pencil, notebooks, timers, and calculators!

Example of Electric Service Details:

Steps for Programming Kiln Cost Settings on the Original TAP Controller UI

For the discontinued original TAP Kiln Controller, you can also program kiln cost settings from your controller’s touchscreen:

1. From the Home Screen, go to Menu>Settings>Cost.
2. Enter your kiln’s power rating in watts in the field for ‘Kiln Power.’ If you’re unsure of your kiln’s power rating, you can usually find it on the kiln’s data plate or in your kiln’s user manual. If your kiln’s power rating is in kilowatts, just multiply that number by 1000 to convert the power rating into watts. For instance, if your kiln was rated for 2.16 kW, you’d multiply that by 1000, and enter 2160 in the field for ‘Kiln Power.’ 
3. Enter your utility provider’s cost per kilowatt hour in the ‘Cost per kWh’ field. You can find this information on your latest electric bill or on the website for your electric utility provider. In the example above, we’ve highlighted the ‘Cost per kWh.’ Make sure to round up or down to the nearest whole cent! So for this example, you would enter $0.04 under ‘Cost per kWh.’ Once you’ve input this information, your TAP Controller will automatically calculate your electric kiln firing cost – so you can ditch the pencil, notebooks, timers, and calculators! 

Check out this blog article for more in-depth information on cost tracking!

No, there is no way to get an annualized cost of firings without reviewing each log. However, we’re developing a set of Kiln Notebook features that will include this kind of information. 

In the meantime, you can program your controller to automatically calculate firing costs for individual firings and then add up that information manually.