GE Double oven

[Scott Amsler]

I have a GE double oven with 4 elements that I was hoping to convert into a larger oven (4'x4'x4') or (4'x4'x6'). Can I use ALL the electronics from the current oven and transfer it to the home made oven?

[Noob2PC]

Yes that is what I did.

My NON-Folding Oven begins!

[Scott Amsler]

As the unit currently works, there are 2 separate control panels with 2 elements each. How will I drive the combined 4 elements from both ovens off a single control panel?

[Noob2PC]

You might not want to. Use all 4 to get it up to temp and then just run 2 for maintaining the temp. IF you want to run all 4 you would most likely have to get a controller

[Scott Amsler]

I don't know if 2 elements will heat the oven quick enough? I'm not sure if the elements are 1500 or 3500 watts (I need to go out and look), but the numbers didn't look too good on the time to warm calculator. I also have a Blodgett bakery oven that does not work that I can score parts from. I think it has a 10k watt element, but I don't know how to test if it is working.

How would I wire it to run 4 elements on startup and 2 at temp?


If I did go the controller route, I've been looking at PID with SSRs. Won't I need 1 SSR for each element? How do you hook up multiple SSRs to one PID? How easy is it to program a PID?

[Mikenstein]

You would only need one ssr, you can run the wire from the ssr to a junction block and connect all your elements there. There are also other options on how to hook multiple elements to a single ssr. Depends on the pid to how hard or easy it is to program.

[Scott Amsler]

I had done some searching around on the forums, and saw where someone was using 3 elements on an SSR and burned it up. So he switched over to 1 SSR per element. The junction block solution clears that up.

I've been looking at PIDs online, and I saw one on ebay that I kind of liked. It has an RS485 to USB adapter so you can manage parameters from a PC. It also has ramp/soak features. I don't know how easy it is to program, I've never programmed one, and I'm still learning how they work. I'm still not sure what separates a high end PID from a budget model. But here's the one I'm looking at:

RS485 Temperature PID Ramp Soak Oven Kiln Furnace USB - eBay (item 350375466247 end time Jul-28-10 18:09:01 PDT)

Would this PID do everything I need it to do for powdercoating, or am I over/under-thinking this?

[Mikenstein]

Your ssr has to be rated for the total amperage that all elements will draw, not just one. You also want to give yourself a little bit of a "cushion" above that. You could go with a pid and a contactor setup, contactors are more reliable in my opinion than ssr's.

[jlengineering]

Scott, so what did you end up doing? Did you use the controls out of the oven or dis you go with a different set up... I installed the oven controls in mine this weekend, I used the two broiler elements... I had to use one on the upper oven control and the other on the lower... I was just wondering if I could use the two off of one oven control... If so could I use the two broil elements off of one and the two bake elements off of the other... I would like to use all four to heat it at first and then shut the two down... The four combined are 10,000 watts... I didn't know if the oven controls will handle all of them at once...

John

[Scott Amsler]

I still havent decided what I plan on doing. At the time I was preparing to do this, my powerstroke decided it wasn't getting enough attention.

I have 3 ideas:

- PID using the oven's elements.
- PID using gas or propane setup
- using original oven setup (control panel, electronics, etc.) The only thing I don't know, is if I can hook up all 4 elements to one side of the oven controls (currently there's an upper and lower oven)