Kiln Helper 4+

Sign in?

I just purchased the app. I might not have purchased it had I known I had to have an account and sign in to it. I wish this was a self contained app. Other then that, I’m giving the app a try. I like the thought of all the glass listing with possible reactions and stuff.

Developer Response ,

Heya.

Yes… the app does require you to log in and create an account. You can use ‘sign in with apple’, though, if you like, and you can even hide your email address from me if you want. It needs an account because all the data for your firings and photos are stored in a cloud service. It lets you access your firings from multiple devices, and you can even access them from a website as well, should that be a thing you want.

I love this App!

I’ve been fusing glass for years and never really found a great way to keep my projects, photos and firing schedules in one place and easily accessible, until I tried Kiln Helper!

I use it on my iPad, but it is available for phones and across different platforms. You can enter each piece as a new project, including information like date, kiln used, the materials used, and a firing schedule or schedules depending on your project. There is plenty of space for project notes as well as firing notes.

When you enter a firing schedule a handy graph is also displayed.

The best part is being able to add multiple photos for your project - no more firing schedules on paper while the photos are on the phone! Projects are displayed as either a card with a large photo or in a detail list with a smaller photo.

The materials aspect is good as well. If you use Bullseye glass you can either enter a product number or scroll through a listing and select the specific product you want. There is also a description field if you used a material not on the list.

It’s not a difficult app to learn although it did take me a little bit to figure it out. I had a couple of questions and contacted the creator who was very helpful.

Regarding having to log in, I don’t find it an issue considering you have to log into almost every program you use that stores data.

I highly recommend this product!

Good but updates are needed

I recently started using this program and I like it except for a few things: 1. It is absolutely necessary to allow fractions or decimals if one uses inches rather than mm, 2. After photos should always show up first. When scrolling through projects those are usually most helpful but it is always the first photo uploaded that is the project photo that shows when scrolling through projects. Either change that or allow users to choose which photo they want to show in the project list for each project, 3. Update the Bullseye color list, they are not all there (peacock blue for example).

Developer Response ,

Hiya.

So... you'll be pleased to know that actually, all of these have been resolved:

1. Fractions of inches are now supported - sorry about that one!
2. Photo ordering now correctly defaults to 'After' if you don't provide a favourite hint (by clicking on the 'Heart' by the photo you want to be used as the thumbnail.
3. Yes - the Bullseye catalogue is a bit of a moving target - Peacock Blue is in there now, as are a few that have turned up since. I'm afraid Bullseye don't re-generate their catalogues (or inventory sheets, etc) when they release new glass, so it can be tricky to know you've got it all right.

Thank you for your feedback!