I am with tgslampwork - love my kiln from Michael Crowley at the Glass Hive even though I have only had it for a month. Michael is great to deal with. Like you, I did extensive research on forums and internet and finally decided on The New Fuswer Bead Kiln Annealer with Fuji Digital Controller PXR3. This is not the only Emily has on her AIM (I assume) since I can input 2 programs - one for batch annealing and one for garage annealing.
Here are the reasons I chose this kiln over the others, e.g. AIM, Paragon, etc.
1) It has an interior dimension of 4"H x 18"W x 6"D – the width allows me to put lots of mandrels in (the ends stick out under the door(s) and sit on an exterior shelf) without bead rack
2) The 2 (you can get just 1) side-by-side 4" x 10" bead doors give me plenty of space to put larger beads and small sculptural beads in. I personally think a 2" high door is too small
3) Michael builds each one himself so if you have any questions or problems, he knows exactly how to help you. My thermalcouple got losen during shipping and the kiln had an error indication. He called me back early the next morning (I emailed him the evening before) and walked me through step by step how to fix it.
4) It does fusing (small) and PMC3 too in case I want to get into that later!
Hope this helps.
Hayley
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