Kiln oven, pottery oven and pottery furnace are all ways of asking for a kiln, usually by someone who has just discovered that a domestic oven will not do the job. It will not, and the reason is a gap of roughly a thousand degrees rather than a matter of time or setting.
The temperature gap
A domestic oven tops out somewhere around 250 degrees. Earthenware matures at about 1100 and stoneware at about 1250. Nothing that turns clay into ceramic begins below several hundred degrees, so an oven is not a slow kiln; it is a different category of appliance that never starts the process at all.
What an oven can legitimately do
Dry work gently, if it is switched off and merely warm, which is a marginal gain over a room with moving air. Cure polymer clay, which is a plastic rather than a ceramic and is designed for oven temperatures. Neither of those is firing, and polymer clay should never go in a kiln for the same reason clay does not belong in an oven.
Why the words persist
Furnace and oven are the everyday words for hot boxes, so people reach for them before they learn the trade word. Suppliers list everything as kilns, so searching for a pottery oven finds either nothing or the wrong thing, which is exactly why this page exists rather than because the distinction is subtle.
The cheapest route to fired work
Not buying a kiln. Many studios and community workshops fire other people's work for a fee per shelf or per piece, and a great deal of pottery is made by people who own a wheel and no kiln at all. That route costs less than most beginners expect and removes the electrical question entirely.
Questions people ask about pottery oven
Can I fire clay in a kitchen oven?
No. A domestic oven reaches around 250 degrees and clay needs roughly 1100 or more. Nothing about the process begins at oven temperature.
What is a pottery furnace?
An everyday way of saying kiln. Suppliers list the equipment as kilns, which is the word to search.
How can I fire work without a kiln?
Many studios and community workshops fire other people's work for a fee, which is how a lot of pottery gets made.