[essiemessy]

Even 600 isn't enough.
Well, Paragon did say "...or higher". Looks like the annealing temperature reading on the analogue is still not enough to account for the kiln's poor efficacy in that position.
The kiln ramped up slowly for a batch firing, soaked at 600 (or 510 on the floor) for two hours, then ramped down painfully slowly at a rate of only 50C per hour to turn off at 420C on the controller which would translate to even lower on the analogue, which would have been well past the annealing range anyway.

That rampdown rate should be more than enough since it's already overkill.
Perhaps cooling at that end of the range is too quick taking note of the vast difference between the temperature within the element collar range, and what actually reaches the floor.
At this point I don't think the probe is far off the mark given its results in my other kiln over the last six years.

Also, apparently (I got this opinion second hand from the only people Paragon will speak to about this - the distributor) they go by the BE films to test for strain because the glasses lenses I use show more strain than BE.
I'll be interested to see if this is true. I have a pair of sheets on their way in the post to make a comparison.
But even so, strain showing up is still strain, and enough to give me my doubts anyway, especially since I've used the same equipment in my own studio for so long, and have been merrily making and using beads with nice clear results on my lenses.

This just gets weirder and weirder.