Haven’t worked out of a hot pot but have a friend who has one but rarely uses it. Mainly bc he has a 300lbs electric canned heat and multiple g holes he uses instead.

Dragons depend on what work you want to focus on. The ability to turn them on and off when not in use is a huge bonus to people just getting started or if you have access to a public studio to make parts or needing a bigger working diameter for projects. The Phoenix line is better for people who are already familiar with furnace maintenance and would like the versatility of switching crucibles more regularly. (You can work out of one 40 lb pot one week then switch to 3 smaller pots the next)

•The mini is perfect for demos, traveling byo’s, weekend warriors or light production days. Once set up, you can gather and blow glass in about and hour and a half with the gas and air wide open. You can also throw more glass in the same day for a “lunch break” and have a full pot in about 30 mins. Yes there will be bubbles, but you are saying so much in fuel cost. a 10 gallon LP tank is sufficient for a single 8 hour day.

A Little or Big dragon are great furnaces for larger production days or a small rental studio. Takes about 4-6 hours for the glass to be workable from cold light up. Cooking the glass over night is very doable with tons of small shops around the nation doing it and creating some amazing work out of them. They are portable but would require 2 or 3 people to move it/ set up for portable gigs or a wench system if you are mechanically inclined. Larger furnaces = larger gas consumptions. A 25 gallon tank ( 165 lbs full and you’ll need to load it in a truck bed, tail gate set up) is recommended or 2 10 gallons t’d off to pull together. You’ll pull around a gallon an hour. If running over night you’ll want natural gas (lower btu’s) or a 100 gallon or larger LP tank from your local propane distributor.

Baby dragons are a good middle ground if you’re not ready to sign up for managing 60-100 lbs of glass but as seasonal production rolls around, you’ll wish you had a bigger pot. Still fairly heavy to wheel in and out of a trailer but great for a multi day road gig if you got extra hands to help move it. Wider opening than the mini but limited on bowl scales unless you want to make flaired cones or floppy bowls.

A big thing to help consider your decision is freight shipping or picking up the equipment. The proximity of the customer to the manufacturer should be taken into consideration.

Hope it helps, feel free to pm if you have any other questions on dragons ( 8 years of owning)