Gas vs Electric: Which Kiln Should I Buy?

Here at Potclays, we’ve been manufacturing and supplying ceramic kilns for over 80 years. In our experience, we’ve helped to provide a wide variety of industries with kilns perfect for their needs. A question we’re often asked in the decision-making process is whether to buy a gas or electric kiln?

A lot of what we would recommend depends on what you’re using it for and when you’re using it, along with a bit of personal preference. However, in order to fully explore this question, we’ve put together the following guide.

How Much Do You Want To Spend?

One of the most decisive factors of choosing between a gas and electric kiln is how much you’re looking to spend. Electric kilns will tend to cost you less as an initial investment as well as in the long run. This is for a wide variety of reasons, one of which is the running costs. Whereas, particularly for smaller models such as the Rohde Ecotop 43 LEcotop 43 L they can be plugged in and powered off the electricity, a gas kiln would need linking up to a gas supply.

In order to get them working safely, gas kilns will also require a vent or a chimney outside and accessories such as a collection canopy, flue and air inlet.

Where Will You Be Putting It?

As mentioned above, something to consider is whether you have the space for a gas kiln. Generally, more space is needed to achieve the same capacity from a gas kiln as an electric kiln. This is because space is needed for the flames and the accessories to go with the kiln itself. Not only that, but access to a chimney or vent will also need to be considered if you’re looking to bring a gas kiln into a room.

For this reason, electric kilns tend to be the more popular option for more domestic potters. However, if you work in large buildings in the industrial or education industry, a gas kiln may be perfect. Potclays manufacture kilns in a range of sizes from around 12-litre mini-kilns to truck kilns with a capacity of over 2 cu. metres. Therefore, we can cater to any requirements.

What Art Are You Looking To Achieve?

Ultimately, once you’ve considered the factors above, your decision may come down to the style of art that you would like to produce. Both types of kilns are capable of creating fantastic pieces of high quality finished pottery. However, they both come with their own individual strengths.

Electric kilns are fantastic and well renowned for being able to produce pieces with bright colours. Alternatively, if you’re looking for a more rustic feel to your pottery, gas firing tends to be better at producing more earthy brown colours. This makes them perfect to achieve a more aged looking design. Another benefit of gas kilns is that they are capable of performing reduction firing. This opens up a whole new world of different colours and visual effects as metallic oxides give up oxygen and convert to their reduced, more metallic form.

Buy From the Best Brands With Potclays Kilns

Potclays stock a vast range of kilns from all of the leading brands, including ourselves. As a result, if you’re looking for Potclays, L&L, Rohde and Nabertherm, look no further. Our stock variety is huge and contains different sizes, shapes and operation. Thanks to this, we can offer the highest quality industrial, 13amp Plug and Go, Gas, Electric, Front Loading and Top Loading kilns to meet all of your requirements.

If you’re interested in any of our kilns, you can browse online today. Alternatively, if you have any questions, please contact us. Our experienced and friendly team would love to hear from you. Potclays has been building kilns for craft and industry since 1983, with our longest-serving kiln engineer John Currie being with us for over 30 years. Therefore, you can guarantee quality in our products and our advice.