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Home Pottery Kilns

Electric kilns for firing at home — thirteen pottery kilns from £2,618, plus five glass and enamelling kilns. Eight of the pottery kilns run from an ordinary 13-amp socket, so there's no electrician and no rewiring to arrange: you plug it in, and that's the installation done.

The plug-in kilns run 30 to 61 litres, which is where almost everyone firing in a garage, a spare room or a shed ends up. Free UK mainland delivery on every one. Almost everything here is built to order rather than held in stock — Kilncare lead times are typically 8–12 weeks — so ring us on 01202 144142 for the current queue before you plan around a date. One kiln is in stock right now and ships straight away.

New to this? Read our guide to buying a pottery kiln in the UK, or look at the small pottery kilns and mini pottery kilns collections if you want the most compact options. The full buying guide — every kiln on this page compared on capacity, supply and price, plus the questions we get asked most — is below the grid.

What kiln do you need to fire pottery at home?

For firing at home, a 30–61 litre electric kiln on a 13-amp plug covers almost everything a hobby potter fires. It reaches 1300°C, so earthenware, stoneware and porcelain are all in range, and it needs no electrician. On this page those kilns run from £2,618 to £4,095.

Check your electricity supply first, not last

This is the decision that quietly rules out half the kilns you're about to fall in love with, so do it before you pick a favourite. A kiln rated at 12.6–13 amps comes with an ordinary UK three-pin plug and a two-metre lead. You plug it in. That's the whole installation.

Anything above that needs a dedicated circuit run by an electrician, and that's a real cost you need to budget for on top of the kiln. Five kilns on this page fall into that group: the Ikon V61X at 21.4A, the three Artizans at 26–42A, and the Nabertherm Top 220, which wants a three-phase 400V supply most houses simply don't have.

Everything else here plugs in. If your spare room has a socket, you've already passed the hard part.

How big a kiln, honestly

Capacity is the number you're most likely to get wrong, and you'll almost always get it wrong upwards. A 30-litre chamber handles your test tiles, your small batches and the whole stretch where you're still learning. Forty-five litres takes roughly 20 standard mugs — a solid day's throwing for most people. Sixty-one litres fires a week's work in one go, which is the point at which you stop planning your life around firing days.

Past that you're buying for a class or a shelf of orders, not for yourself. And a half-empty kiln costs exactly the same to fire as a full one, so a kiln that's too big for you is a bill you pay every single firing. Buy for the loads you'll actually have in a year, not the ones you hope for in five.

How many litres of kiln do you need for the pottery you make?

A standard mug takes about 2.25 litres of kiln space, going by our rule of thumb that 45 litres holds roughly 20 mugs. So 20 mugs needs about 45 litres, and 27 mugs fills the biggest plug-in kiln on this page, at 61 litres. Beyond that you need a hardwired kiln and an electrician.

Kiln size finder — three questions, then the kilns on this page that fit.

The 2.25 litres per mug comes from our own rule of thumb that 45 litres holds roughly 20 mugs. Bowls, plates and tall vases take more room, so leave extra for them and check each kiln’s internal dimensions on its page. A half-empty kiln costs the same to fire as a full one, so see what a firing costs to run before you decide.

Every pottery kiln on this page, compared

Twelve pottery kilns. Capacities, supply and maximum temperatures come from each kiln's own specification; prices are what you'd pay today.

KilnCapacitySupplyMax tempPriceVerdict
Potterycrafts Mercury 30 Litre Top Loading Kiln30 L13A plug1300°C£2,618Cheapest
Potterycrafts Aurora 40 Litre Top Loading Kiln40 L13A plug1300°C£2,901Starter
Nabertherm 45L Toploading Home Pottery Kiln45 L13A plug1,320°C£2,910Best control
Kilncare Ikon V4646 L13A plug1315°C£3,495Furniture included
Nabertherm Top 60L60 L13A plug1,200°C£3,230Most litres per pound
Kilncare Ikon V61E61 L13A plug1200°C£3,94561 L at 1,200°C
Kilncare Ikon V61X61 L21.4A hardwired1315°C£3,850Highest spec
Kilncare Ikon V61 GXR61 L13A plug1300°C£4,095Most asked about
Nabertherm Top 220220 L3-phase 400V1,320°C£5,830Not a home kiln
Kilncare Artizan 9090 L26A hardwired1315°C£7,399Workshop
Kilncare Artizan 139139 L31.5A hardwired1315°C£7,449Workshop
Kilncare Artizan 200199 L42A hardwired1315°C£8,179Workshop

One thing worth saying plainly about that table: the two 1,200°C kilns, the Nabertherm Top 60L and the Ikon V61E, cover earthenware and most stoneware but won’t take you to high-fire porcelain. If porcelain matters to you, spend the extra on a 1300°C kiln now rather than buying twice.

Three of these aren't home kilns, and we'd rather say so

The Artizan 90, 139 and 200 sit on this page because people searching for a kiln to fire at home do sometimes outgrow the plug-in sizes. But an Artizan weighs 280–438 kg, needs a 26–42 amp dedicated supply, and is built for a school or a working workshop firing several times a week. The Nabertherm Top 220 is the same story with a three-phase supply attached. If you're setting up in a garage or a spare room, they are the wrong answer and we don't want you to buy one by accident.

The other honest caveat: almost nothing here sits in a warehouse. Kilncare hand-build in Stoke-on-Trent and typical lead times are 8–12 weeks from order. Nabertherm and Potterycrafts run their own build queues. Ring us on 01202 144142 and we'll give you the real number for the model you're looking at, not a comfortable one. Delivery is free to UK mainland addresses, and a kiln is a heavy two-person kerbside item — tell us about steps, narrow gates or a first-floor room and we'll plan for it rather than improvising on the day.

If £2,618 is more than you want to spend

Then don't stretch for it yet. The cheapest kiln we sell anywhere is the 16-litre Nabertherm Top 16/R at £2,405, and it lives on our mini kilns and small kilns pages rather than this one — 16 litres is genuinely small, but it fires properly and it plugs in.

And if even that is out of reach right now, the honest advice is to keep firing at a local class for another season and put your money aside. A kiln you resent paying for is a kiln you don't use. We'd rather you came back in a year and bought the right one.

Glass and enamelling kilns on this page

Five of the kilns here aren't for pottery at all. They top out between 650°C and 1000°C, which is right for fusing, stained glass and enamelling and nowhere near enough for stoneware. They're listed together so you don't mistake one for a pottery kiln on price.

KilnForSupplyMax tempPrice
Kilncare EN2 Enamelling KilnEnamelling13A plug1000°C£1,399
Kilncare EN3 Enamelling KilnEnamelling13A plug1000°C£2,019
Kilncare SG2 Stained Glass KilnStained glass10.5A650°C£2,739
Kilncare HobbyfuserGlass fusing10A960°C£2,779
Kilncare Eco-FuserGlass fusing10A960°C£3,209

What do pottery kilns for sale cost in the UK?

Kiln Crafts lists 52 pottery kilns for sale, from £2,405 to £39,138. 4 cost under £3,000 (16 to 45 litres) and 22 sit between £3,000 and £4,999. The cheapest front-loader is £3,982. Series pages show their lowest price, and delivery is free to UK mainland addresses.

This page is our home-scale range. The table below runs across the whole catalogue, so you can see where your budget lands before you start filtering. Prices are the figures on each product page on 30 September 2026, and series pages (the Nabertherm N and NW ranges, say) are counted at their lowest price.

BudgetKilnsWhat it includes
Under £3,000416 to 45 litres: the Nabertherm Top 16/R at £2,405, then the Potterycrafts Mercury 30 and Aurora 40 and the Nabertherm 45L.
£3,000 to £4,99922Top-loading kilns from 46 to 190 litres across Nabertherm, Potterycrafts and Kilncare, including the Ikon range, plus the cheapest front-loader, the Potterycrafts Fireworker 68L at £3,982.
£5,000 to £9,99917The bigger top-loaders, the Potterycrafts Heatworker and Lightmaster front-loaders, the Nabertherm N100 and N150, and the hardwired Kilncare Artizans.
£10,000 and over9Nabertherm front-loaders and chamber kilns from the N200 at £10,146 up to the N2200 at £39,138, sized for a school or a working workshop.

Not sure which row you belong in? All pottery kilns lists the lot, and large kilns over 100L covers the top two rows. Or ring us on 01202 144142 and we'll narrow it down with you.

Where to start if this is your first kiln

Start with the room, not the kiln. Work out where yours is going to live, check what the socket on that wall is on, and only then pick your capacity. If it's a garage or a spare room on a normal circuit, you're looking at the 13-amp kilns above, and the 40–61 litre band is the sweet spot — big enough to be worth switching on, small enough not to punish you on electricity.

Two guides do the long-form thinking behind this page: how to buy a pottery kiln in the UK, which walks the whole decision from supply through to installation day, and how much a pottery kiln costs, which includes a calculator that works your cost per firing out from your own tariff. If you'd rather have a shortlist than a range, phone us. That's genuinely faster than reading.

Why potters buy their kiln from us

We're potters ourselves. Matt and Shannon run the showroom, take the calls and answer the emails, and we only stock kilns we'd put in our own room — no grey imports, no rebadged commodity boxes. Every kiln on this page has been checked for UK power supply, UK parts availability and UK-based service, because a kiln with no spares behind it is a very expensive shelf.

Before you settle on a size, it's worth knowing what each one costs to fire. Our kiln running-cost calculator shows the electricity cost per firing, per month and per year, with the arithmetic shown so you can check it against your own bill. Not sure yet? Ring 01202 144142. We'd rather spend twenty minutes on the phone than sell you the wrong kiln.

New to firing altogether? Start with firing pottery without a kiln and drying clay at home without a kiln — both are honest about what you can and can't do before you own one.

Home kiln questions we get asked most

What kiln do you need to fire pottery at home?

For firing at home, a 30–61 litre electric kiln on a 13-amp plug covers almost everything a hobby potter fires. It reaches 1300°C, so earthenware, stoneware and porcelain are all in range, and it needs no electrician. On this page those kilns run from £2,618 to £4,095.

Can you run a pottery kiln from a normal plug socket?

Most of the pottery kilns on this page, yes. Seven of the twelve draw 12.6–13A and come with a UK 13-amp plug on a two-metre lead, so they go straight into an ordinary socket with no electrician and no dedicated circuit. The Ikon V61X, the three Artizans and the Nabertherm Top 220 all need hardwiring.

What size home pottery kiln do you need?

Thirty to 61 litres is where almost everyone firing at home lands. A 30-litre chamber takes test tiles and small batches; 45 litres holds roughly 20 standard mugs; 61 litres fires a week's work in one go. Go bigger only if you're firing for a class or selling regularly — a half-empty kiln costs the same to fire as a full one.

How much does a home pottery kiln cost?

The cheapest pottery kiln on this page is the Potterycrafts Mercury 30L at £2,618, and the plug-in kilns most people buy run £2,618 to £4,095. Our smallest kiln overall is the 16-litre Nabertherm Top 16/R at £2,405, which sits on the mini kilns page rather than this one.

How much do pottery kilns for sale cost in the UK?

Kiln Crafts lists 52 pottery kilns for sale, from £2,405 to £39,138. 4 cost under £3,000 (16 to 45 litres) and 22 sit between £3,000 and £4,999. The cheapest front-loader is £3,982. Series pages show their lowest price, and delivery is free to UK mainland addresses.

How many litres of kiln do you need for 20 mugs?

About 45 litres. As a rule of thumb a standard mug takes around 2.25 litres of kiln space, because 45 litres holds roughly 20 mugs. The biggest kiln on this page that runs from a normal plug is 61 litres, which is about 27 mugs. Bowls and vases take more room, so allow extra for them.

Can you put a pottery kiln in a garage?

A garage is usually fine, and it's where a lot of home kilns live. You need a non-combustible floor, clearance around the kiln, ventilation, and a socket on a circuit that can take the load. A wooden shed is harder — it can be done, but get an electrician to look at it before you order.

How long does a home kiln take to arrive?

Almost every kiln here is built to order rather than held in stock. Kilncare hand-build theirs in Stoke-on-Trent and lead times are typically 8–12 weeks. Nabertherm and Potterycrafts vary with their own build queues. Ring us on 01202 144142 and we'll give you the real date for the model you're looking at.

How much does it cost to run a home pottery kiln?

Our kiln running-cost calculator puts most home firings between £2.50 and £9, depending on your kiln's power rating, how long the schedule runs and what you pay per unit. A 2.9 kW plug-in kiln is cheap to run precisely because 13 amps is all it can draw.

Do you need kiln furniture as well?

Yes — shelves, props and batt wash aren't optional, they're how you stack a load. Some kilns here include a furniture set and some don't, so check the individual listing. The Ikon V46 and the V61 GXR come with one included.

How long does a pottery kiln take to fire?

A typical bisque firing runs 8–10 hours and a glaze firing to stoneware at 1260°C runs 10–12 hours. Every kiln here has a programmable controller, so you set the schedule and walk away. Then add cool-down time before you open it — usually overnight.

Do you really need a kiln for pottery?

If you want durable, waterproof, glazed ceramics, yes. Pottery clay only becomes true ceramic above roughly 1,000°C, far hotter than any home oven reaches. Air-dry clay skips the kiln but stays porous and fragile, so it suits decorative pieces only — we've covered the alternatives honestly in our guide to drying clay at home without a kiln.

Is a second-hand pottery kiln worth buying?

Sometimes, but go carefully. Elements and controllers wear with every firing, and a second-hand kiln rarely comes with a warranty or a known firing count. If you view one, check the brick lining for cracks, ask how many firings the elements have done, and confirm spare parts are still available for the model.

Narrow it down

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