Thoughts on the Skutt Firebox 8x6 LT mini kiln

About a year and a half ago (March 2024) I purchased my first ever kiln for my home studio — this Skutt Firebox 8x6 LT kiln. I thought I’d give all you people of the internet my thoughts now that I’ve used it nearly every day since.

I bought this specific kiln for three reasons: 1) it’s compact/easy to move, 2) it runs on regular household electric, and 3) doesn’t break the bank.

These were all important factors into my purchase. At the time I wasn’t ready to fully commit to making pottery my full-time gig. Yes, $1,300 is still a huge investment, but it made the most sense at the time. I didn’t want to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a full sized kiln and have an electrician come if I was going to give up on pottery in a few months.

Well, here we are now, and I’m honestly ready to upgrade to a larger kiln.

But first, my thoughts at the present.

I absolutely LOVE this mini kiln! I have no regrets starting with it, and I’m really glad I did. I had no idea how to work a kiln on my own, so being able to fire pieces in small batches was a perfect way to ease into it.

A question I get asked often is “how many mugs can you fit?” Really, it depends. Larger mugs, maybe 3? Definitely 4 espresso cups. I’ve only recently had more interest in my mugs (apparently the masses want giant mugs!), and in the past I’ve really focused on even smaller pieces like dishes and tiny air plant holders.

Putting mugs aside, I found that you can still only fit 3-4 jewelry dishes at a time. I started to feel like it was becoming a waste of energy just firing those small items. To maximize filling up the kiln I bought a very small additional kiln shelf (6”x4” rectangle) from The Ceramic Shop. Now I’ve been able to fit a bit more at one time, as you can see in the pictures in this post (note: that was a small load and I could’ve fit another circle dish under the shelf instead of the air plant holder).

I haven’t had any problems with the kiln. I’ve only had to change the thermocouple once (I have a separate blog post about how I did that) and only kiln washed the shelves a couple times. Changing the elements still scares me, but so far they’re in good shape. I only fire to Cone 5 so that probably helps with the element’s longevity. The top temperature it fires to is Cone 6.

I keep the kiln in my shed and have fired it during the winter and during the summer. Technically, it shouldn’t be fired when the ambient room temperature is below 32F or above 100F. At below freezing I had no problems at all — as expected, it just took longer for the kiln to heat up. Over the summer if it’s super hot out I wait to fire it at night and with the doors open so nothing overheats.

Now that I’m doing a ton more markets and have an increased interest in my wares, I think upgrading soon would be best for me. I feel like I’m starting to spread myself too thin between markets, commissions, selling at shops, and selling on my website. A bigger kiln is starting to feel more necessary.

If anyone has questions about this mini kiln, feel free to DM me on Instagram or shoot me an email. If you already have one, let me know your experience with it! I love chatting about this stuff.