Ive mostly run top brand name vintage engine driven welders and new power source welders, and by far this machine is the absolute best ive ever used and probably will use for decades. It certainly has atleast makes 200amps since i compared it to my engine driven welders 200 amps. 6010 ran like mig and 7018 was a beauty, i accidentally shorted it with my welding leads off another running welder and i almost cried
What they failed to mention is it’s 250 amps at 2 volt output lol. The best readily available cheaper stick welder I have used was a harbor freight titanium 225. I bought one for like 189$ when they first came out. It ran real good for being a minimal setup. Most of those cheap units like the one you reviewed suck lol. If all you’re burning is 1/8th in 6013-7014-7018 they will do it. Great video, thanks for all the effort put into it 👍
That's looks like a nice unit but at the current price of 320$ the value is not so great. The key to the Chinese units is to get one with 4 IGBTs rather than only 2. A lot of the chinese models had 4 igbt's when they were introduced, only to be later cheapened up to only 2 igbt's and a much smaller torroid transformer. Those can only top out at approx 120A. I have the 220V version of the one reviewed here and it has 4 igbts and a suitably chunky transformer. It's a rare configuration, and since apparently everyone wants 110v capability, the 220v model has been discounted to 59 bucks now. It's a steal at that price and quite capable, especially after replacing the sh!te shorty aluminum cables it ships with.
I have a Hitbox Arc200D Mini that was $62. The leads were garbage. 2' cheap ground clamp and a stinger that I didn't trust. I bought Ssmider leads for $29 and thing is great. I have not put an amp clamp on it to see what it actually does. But I set the amps per the chart and rod and it just runs great. I grew up welding with Lincoln and Century A/C machines. 6011 and 7014 run buttery smooth. 7018 runs if it's good dry rod. I obviously don't use an oven with a $60 welder
What settings did u have the ark force because I have one and if I pit the ark force to 80 and u are using 100 amps u will get 80 amps so it is 80% for the original amperage
If you keep the output amperage low, it would probably work okay on a 20 amp circuit. But if you run the welder maxed out it will trip a 20 amp breaker pretty quick.
I’m wondering what that brass strap is doing. It looks from the video that it’s going from the heat sink, which should be to ground, to the output terminal. Now if I’m wrong, the rest of what I’m saying can be ignored. But that would be ground the negative terminal. As we know the negative terminal is part of the live circuit. There is no such thing as a ground terminal in a welder, as you know, it’s a work cable. I’ve examined several cheap Chinese welders, and two others did have the negative terminal to ground. If the welder js not grounded with the power cable, that will work, though the case is live. But if the ground on the power cable is connected inside, the terminal will short the welder. The two welders I tested didn’t have a ground to the wall. A lot of Asian machines have a ground lug in the back of the machine and that’s how the ground is made. Of course, it’s worthless as no one is going to connect the right size wire. One company supplied a small coil of 20 ga wire for that.
I get rid of a lot of these machines, so I don't think I still have this machine to double-check. However, a lot of machines do use the heatsink as one of the sides of the output circuit (usually negative, but I can't say that's always the case). But I don't know that I've ever seen the heatsink "grounded," as in, grounded to the case and therefore to the plug ground.
Strange, A Canadian welding instructor ran this machine & provided a video & no problems at all. He states that his students actually prefer this machine over a bigger Lincoln shop welder by far , especially ease of use. He states that if rod sticks , then simply increase amps by five. Also mentioned is to let machine rest a few minutes before starting on a fresh stick. He ran 7018 3/32 rod flat & vertical @ 85 amp vertical up & 1/8 6010 rod @125 amp & laid an 8 inch bead smooth as a bell. Experienced journeymen who have purchased this unit rave about it. Go Figure.
I have a noob problem/question, if anyone can help me: I just bought a Tooliom TL-1355 135 amp induction arc welder off Amazon. Have not even fired it up once yet. Decided to upgrade grounding clamp. When I cut the old grounding cable to put the new clamp on it, the cable is silver colored metallic inside. Maybe aluminum? This doesn't sound right to me. Do I need to upgrade to all copper cables? Or does the induction require something different? I don't mind changing the cables, I just don't want to take them off if they are somehow necessary.
These types of welders almost all include copper clad aluminum cables. No special need for them, they are just cheaper. You can stick with the aluminum or upgrade to copper. It should work either way. Could you mean the TL-135S (with an S, not a 5 at the end)? I only ask because my guess is that you have a fairly standard arc welder. A welder is either an arc welder or an induction welder, not both. Induction welders are fairly specialized pieces of equipment that heat metal by surrounding it in high frequency, changing magnetic fields. They are VERY different from standard welders.
Happy to help. I've ordered welding cables right off Amazon before. You probably don't have to swap out the cables, but it is nice to have longer cables. Plus, good cables can be used with another machine down the line if you ever upgrade.
@@bigtb1717 Thanks! I just have a small sheet metal repair to do, and I'm trying to get the best results out of 110v@15amp only. I will be able to get 220v@30amp later once I install an outlet in the right place, but I just figured anything I could do to help facilitate good conductivity in the meantime would probably help.
I didn't try TIG welding with it. It doesn't have a TIG mode. In theory, it would probably work for scratch start TIG if you hooked up a torch to it. But since it doesn't have a TIG mode it might not be ideal. Considering all the trouble I had with stick, I didn't bother trying TIG.
Thank-you so much, it is as I thought it would be, to good to be true and they brought the price up to $100 cdn. as of nov.17 2023 it seems honesty in marketing is as useless as this welder is.
Other than a few negative standouts, most of them are pretty similar. The Kicking Horse A220 was unique in that it could provide the full claimed output, despite the tiny size. Overall that one wasn't bad. It was a bit more expensive and 240V only though. The Deko 160 amps welder was decent for the money. Even the Yeswelder ARC205 DS worked okay, it just doesn't have the 200 amps claimed. It is 160 amps max. The Juba ZX7 works well for the money, though it's 240V only. I don't have long term use data for any of them. I can't say how well each will hold up or which are more likely to fail. But I think when you are dealing with stuff like this, you have to be willing to accept the chance that any of them could fail and warranty may be questionable.
Are you looking for a recommendation for a cheap TIG welder? What is your budget? What features you want will play a big part in determining how much you need to spend. Proper lift start, high-frequency start, remote amperage adjust capability, built-in gas solenoid, pulse, etc.
Maybe mine was just defective, but this welder performed worse than a lot the cheap stick welders I've tried. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it even just for home use. It's possible others have better luck with it, but this was my experience.
Cheap arc welders that seems to not be completely absurd: 'Hone 110v/220v, Actual 140amp' 'WETOLS 110v/220v Real 160amp' 'Hey Up 110v/220v 120amp' 'Ironton ARC80' 'Metal Man ARC80T' 'ARCRAFT Arc 80I' There's a lot with a decent review count but if you search enough you'll start to see that they are all just rebrands of simders and other generics. Finally have my 6ga ran. Hopefully finish my plugs (6-50r and a 20a) and start welding this week.
Hope I'm not recovering anything, but I suspect you have really low voltage while running 99 amps and below. My thought is that it somewhat successfully strikes an arc due to the hot start feature, but after a heartbeat the voltage is too low to sustain things. Just a thought, please don't hurt me other commenters... hahaha
@@bigtb1717 Oh I'm sorry, I meant working or short-circuit voltage. Have you tried connecting a volt meter and watching voltage sag? A cheap power source with under sized inductors and conductors would have horrible voltage drop. Why the 99 amps plus or minus makes a difference gets me. Maybe it switches between sections of the board, like a high and a low range. Anyway neither here nor there. Thanks for the response and the great videos!
No, don't be sorry. I got what you meant. I was just pointing out that I tested open circuit voltage, but not running voltage, so I can't say. You could be right. It very likely has an issue with voltage drop.
Looking for a "smart" reviewer to actually address all the settings on the machine not just working amps. Beginners need answers, not just info experienced welders already know.
Yes, I know it has DC output. I didn't try it with 6011. I probably should have, but my main interest was to see if it would run 6010, because many people seem to want a cheap welder capable of 6010. Some welders struggle with 6011 too, but many will run 6011 just fine, despite not running 6010. I'm glad yours is working for you.
All this technical shit is way too much for me. Obviously not experience in welding at all, my profession is something else, but for home repairs, bbq pits etc it should get me by right? Personal use i got mine for, my neighbor is an actual welder but i hate to bother him not only that he is never around. Save money in the actual work from a professional and just Diy .
If you already have it, I'd say just practice and get a feel for what amperage settings work for whatever project you are working on. If you haven't purchased something yet, there are better options for a similar price that don't have some of the issues this unit had.
I was crying laughing at the beginning because I had scoured this listing Sunday (2 days ago) and found the marketing as bizzare as you did.! I ordered the blue 220v version and it arrived 20 mins ago. We’ll see if it works any better tonight. I decided to try to pick the best 69 dollar welder on amzn and chose this from the 3 or 4 options. I don’t want to pay more than that for any of these toaster boxes, regardless of the claimed specs etc. The reason is that I have a fantastic HitBox ARC200 220V unit I bought 3 to 4 years ago. It works great and I wanted another one for another property. I found an amzn coupon deal for the same model for 85 bucks.. The new hitbox arc200 arrived and it’s now a dual voltage 110/220 unit. Taking it apart I immediately noticed it is dramatically less robust. The torroid donut is half the size, heat sinks half the size, and it has two TO247 IGBTS and 2 TO247 output diodes,, versus four and three , respectively, on the old unit. Even worse the rating stickers completely different and says 120A versus 200A on my old unit and the image in the current amzn listing. So that unit is going back for sure... It seems like when these things first came out a lot of them were 220v only, and then they responded to USA market demand by adding an optional voltage doubler input rectifier circuit triggered by a sensing circuit and a relay. But at the same time they cost cut everywhere else. So i’m hoping this 220 v s7 model is a “vintage” design otherwise it looks like i’m screwed!
Yeah, some of them are simple and cheap, but built robust enough. Others just seem to have issues. I don't know if you noticed just how puny the toroidal transformer was in this S7 unit and just how little copper there was on it, but I wonder if that had anything to do with the poor arc starts. Just not enough oomph in that transformer to keep the output voltage up during arc starts. Either way, I hope you have better luck with yours.
@@bigtb1717 I finally got round to using it a few days ago, and it's got guts. I ran it at 208v as i don't have 240v without setting up a boost transformer which i didn't feel like doing. I easily welded with 6010, i think was 3/32. I'll hook it up and do an amp clamp on short circuit. But with its quad IGBT's i expect it will be closer to its rating than we normally see. Out of interest i also tried a 69 dollar S7 110v "200A" unit that was the much smaller size of basic inverter units. It worked fine but seemed to loose steam during a bead and short circuit amps were 123A when it's dial was maxed and displaying "203". It had only 2 igbt's and a much smaller transformer torroid. I returned it for reason of false advertising. The upshot is that for the same price of 69 dollars , this 220v version of the s7 is the almost certainly the best performing cheap welder on amazon presently. It could actually be modified to also run on 110v since it uses dual split/series 250v capacitors, so a neutral wire could be soldered to the capacitor midpoint and then connect the 110v hot to either L1 or L2 inputs (or better yet feed both combined, to share the load across all the bridges rect's 4 diodes) I will definitely make this mod, and will add another 1000uF /250V cap in parallel to each of the two existing caps to give it proper capacitance needed for the voltage doubler topology of 110v welders. There's plenty of room to fit the extra caps in the case, next to the circuit board with short jumper wires. The extra capacitance won't hurt running at 220v, and for my 208v usage, probably will hep a bit.
@@louisbaiani6262 Fortunately I did not observe any of that strange behavior. (I'm using the 220v only model, versus the 110/220 dual voltage model used in the review.)
Correction: From 5:27-5:48 the text said it was 3/32" 7018. That was actually 3/32" 6010, not 7018. Sorry for the mixup.
Ive mostly run top brand name vintage engine driven welders and new power source welders, and by far this machine is the absolute best ive ever used and probably will use for decades. It certainly has atleast makes 200amps since i compared it to my engine driven welders 200 amps. 6010 ran like mig and 7018 was a beauty, i accidentally shorted it with my welding leads off another running welder and i almost cried
😂60 bucks can get u another on
What they failed to mention is it’s 250 amps at 2 volt output lol.
The best readily available cheaper stick welder I have used was a harbor freight titanium 225. I bought one for like 189$ when they first came out. It ran real good for being a minimal setup. Most of those cheap units like the one you reviewed suck lol. If all you’re burning is 1/8th in 6013-7014-7018 they will do it. Great video, thanks for all the effort put into it 👍
That's looks like a nice unit but at the current price of 320$ the value is not so great.
The key to the Chinese units is to get one with 4 IGBTs rather than only 2. A lot of the chinese models had 4 igbt's when they were introduced, only to be later cheapened up to only 2 igbt's and a much smaller torroid transformer. Those can only top out at approx 120A.
I have the 220V version of the one reviewed here and it has 4 igbts and a suitably chunky transformer. It's a rare configuration, and since apparently everyone wants 110v capability, the 220v model has been discounted to 59 bucks now. It's a steal at that price and quite capable, especially after replacing the sh!te shorty aluminum cables it ships with.
I have a Hitbox Arc200D Mini that was $62. The leads were garbage. 2' cheap ground clamp and a stinger that I didn't trust. I bought Ssmider leads for $29 and thing is great. I have not put an amp clamp on it to see what it actually does. But I set the amps per the chart and rod and it just runs great. I grew up welding with Lincoln and Century A/C machines. 6011 and 7014 run buttery smooth. 7018 runs if it's good dry rod. I obviously don't use an oven with a $60 welder
@@GannDolph Do you know of any cheap current models with 4 igbts?
What settings did u have the ark force because I have one and if I pit the ark force to 80 and u are using 100 amps u will get 80 amps so it is 80% for the original amperage
Thanks for the review. Another brand to steer clear of.
Thank you for all the awesome and informative reviews.
so this would be fine to use as heavy duty soldering tool
I just bought this, it’s awesome £30 is all I paid
So unless your going to hook up to the main breaker at 100 amps using it on 120 volt setting this just will not work for the average homeowner?
If you keep the output amperage low, it would probably work okay on a 20 amp circuit. But if you run the welder maxed out it will trip a 20 amp breaker pretty quick.
I’m wondering what that brass strap is doing. It looks from the video that it’s going from the heat sink, which should be to ground, to the output terminal. Now if I’m wrong, the rest of what I’m saying can be ignored. But that would be ground the negative terminal. As we know the negative terminal is part of the live circuit. There is no such thing as a ground terminal in a welder, as you know, it’s a work cable. I’ve examined several cheap Chinese welders, and two others did have the negative terminal to ground. If the welder js not grounded with the power cable, that will work, though the case is live. But if the ground on the power cable is connected inside, the terminal will short the welder. The two welders I tested didn’t have a ground to the wall. A lot of Asian machines have a ground lug in the back of the machine and that’s how the ground is made. Of course, it’s worthless as no one is going to connect the right size wire. One company supplied a small coil of 20 ga wire for that.
I get rid of a lot of these machines, so I don't think I still have this machine to double-check. However, a lot of machines do use the heatsink as one of the sides of the output circuit (usually negative, but I can't say that's always the case). But I don't know that I've ever seen the heatsink "grounded," as in, grounded to the case and therefore to the plug ground.
Strange, A Canadian welding instructor ran this machine & provided a video & no problems at all. He states that his students actually prefer this machine over a bigger Lincoln shop welder by far , especially ease of use. He states that if rod sticks , then simply increase amps by five. Also mentioned is to let machine rest a few minutes before starting on a fresh stick. He ran 7018 3/32 rod flat & vertical @ 85 amp vertical up & 1/8 6010 rod @125 amp & laid an 8 inch bead smooth as a bell. Experienced journeymen who have purchased this unit rave about it. Go Figure.
It's possible there was something wrong with mine. Unfortunately the majority of the time my reviews are based on a sample size of one.
@@bigtb1717 That's what I am thinking , lemon machine. Thanks for the fast reply & Good Luck from Canada.
Hi Tony its Timmy!! How are you doing? I'm SO EXCITED FOR THE BIGFOOT NHMBER 2!!!!
Oh well... thanx for the heads up.
You are right every single phase inverter machine took 120 ampir to run smoothly 7018 either 3 phases machine run 80 ampir smoothly
I have a noob problem/question, if anyone can help me:
I just bought a Tooliom TL-1355 135 amp induction arc welder off Amazon. Have not even fired it up once yet.
Decided to upgrade grounding clamp.
When I cut the old grounding cable to put the new clamp on it, the cable is silver colored metallic inside. Maybe aluminum?
This doesn't sound right to me.
Do I need to upgrade to all copper cables?
Or does the induction require something different?
I don't mind changing the cables, I just don't want to take them off if they are somehow necessary.
These types of welders almost all include copper clad aluminum cables. No special need for them, they are just cheaper. You can stick with the aluminum or upgrade to copper. It should work either way.
Could you mean the TL-135S (with an S, not a 5 at the end)? I only ask because my guess is that you have a fairly standard arc welder. A welder is either an arc welder or an induction welder, not both. Induction welders are fairly specialized pieces of equipment that heat metal by surrounding it in high frequency, changing magnetic fields. They are VERY different from standard welders.
@@bigtb1717 Thank you, I think I will upgrade the cables then, and yes, it's probably the TL-135S. Cheap stick only welder off Amazon.
Happy to help. I've ordered welding cables right off Amazon before. You probably don't have to swap out the cables, but it is nice to have longer cables. Plus, good cables can be used with another machine down the line if you ever upgrade.
@@bigtb1717 Thanks! I just have a small sheet metal repair to do, and I'm trying to get the best results out of 110v@15amp only.
I will be able to get 220v@30amp later once I install an outlet in the right place, but I just figured anything I could do to help facilitate good conductivity in the meantime would probably help.
@@SkyForgeVideos how are you finding it at lower settings?
Love the commentary
What about tig welding?
I didn't try TIG welding with it. It doesn't have a TIG mode. In theory, it would probably work for scratch start TIG if you hooked up a torch to it. But since it doesn't have a TIG mode it might not be ideal. Considering all the trouble I had with stick, I didn't bother trying TIG.
Thank-you so much, it is as I thought it would be, to good to be true and they brought the price up to $100 cdn. as of nov.17 2023 it seems honesty in marketing is as useless as this welder is.
great video
hi , out of all the little stick welders you have used now, are there any you like more or would say are pretty good for the cost?, thanks
Other than a few negative standouts, most of them are pretty similar. The Kicking Horse A220 was unique in that it could provide the full claimed output, despite the tiny size. Overall that one wasn't bad. It was a bit more expensive and 240V only though. The Deko 160 amps welder was decent for the money. Even the Yeswelder ARC205 DS worked okay, it just doesn't have the 200 amps claimed. It is 160 amps max. The Juba ZX7 works well for the money, though it's 240V only.
I don't have long term use data for any of them. I can't say how well each will hold up or which are more likely to fail. But I think when you are dealing with stuff like this, you have to be willing to accept the chance that any of them could fail and warranty may be questionable.
@@bigtb1717 thanks im on 240v uk anyway, ive got a cheap mig but its heavy
what voltage is the plug?
The plug built into the machine is a 240V plug. It comes with a 120V adapter so you can plug it into a 120V receptacle.
@@bigtb1717 thank you so much
what size outlet can this be plugged into?
I want to marry this welder lmao. Good review.
Good cheap tig thank you.
Are you looking for a recommendation for a cheap TIG welder? What is your budget? What features you want will play a big part in determining how much you need to spend. Proper lift start, high-frequency start, remote amperage adjust capability, built-in gas solenoid, pulse, etc.
What's a good BDSM dungeon without a metal cage? They know their audience, can't fault them for that.
but for basic home needs, seems to be ok, i guess not for professional welding?
Maybe mine was just defective, but this welder performed worse than a lot the cheap stick welders I've tried. Personally, I wouldn't recommend it even just for home use. It's possible others have better luck with it, but this was my experience.
Cheap arc welders that seems to not be completely absurd:
'Hone 110v/220v, Actual 140amp'
'WETOLS 110v/220v Real 160amp'
'Hey Up 110v/220v 120amp'
'Ironton ARC80'
'Metal Man ARC80T'
'ARCRAFT Arc 80I'
There's a lot with a decent review count but if you search enough you'll start to see that they are all just rebrands of simders and other generics.
Finally have my 6ga ran. Hopefully finish my plugs (6-50r and a 20a) and start welding this week.
How do you find the unit at lower settings?
Hope I'm not recovering anything, but I suspect you have really low voltage while running 99 amps and below. My thought is that it somewhat successfully strikes an arc due to the hot start feature, but after a heartbeat the voltage is too low to sustain things. Just a thought, please don't hurt me other commenters... hahaha
The open circuit voltage is the same, but it's definitely struggling to keep something up when starting an arc at lower amperages.
@@bigtb1717 Oh I'm sorry, I meant working or short-circuit voltage. Have you tried connecting a volt meter and watching voltage sag? A cheap power source with under sized inductors and conductors would have horrible voltage drop. Why the 99 amps plus or minus makes a difference gets me. Maybe it switches between sections of the board, like a high and a low range. Anyway neither here nor there. Thanks for the response and the great videos!
No, don't be sorry. I got what you meant. I was just pointing out that I tested open circuit voltage, but not running voltage, so I can't say. You could be right. It very likely has an issue with voltage drop.
Does this unit really have much poorer control at low current for thin welds? Would like to know what others think of that, and at what input
Metric amps are mint
Just got in the Toolium 200 multi process form Amazon. Ever tried that brand??
I've seen that brand but haven't tried one. How do you like it?
"brand"
@@bigtb1717 just unboxed it Friday. It’s still in the house. Haven’t tried it yet. Seems good quality.
@@BRENT3143945 it’s a toolium
I think his implication is that it's probably the same as many other welders on Amazon/Ebay, but with a different name on it.
Looking for a "smart" reviewer to actually address all the settings on the machine not just working amps. Beginners need answers, not just info experienced welders already know.
These marketing squeems will definitely turn away any serious buyers.
Hi there,
Please could you check out my latest comment on your BMPCC4K lens mount wiggle video?
I would really appreciate it!
Next.
You do know it's a DC welder right. I've been with 5/32 6011s all day long.
Yes, I know it has DC output. I didn't try it with 6011. I probably should have, but my main interest was to see if it would run 6010, because many people seem to want a cheap welder capable of 6010. Some welders struggle with 6011 too, but many will run 6011 just fine, despite not running 6010.
I'm glad yours is working for you.
All this technical shit is way too much for me. Obviously not experience in welding at all, my profession is something else, but for home repairs, bbq pits etc it should get me by right? Personal use i got mine for, my neighbor is an actual welder but i hate to bother him not only that he is never around. Save money in the actual work from a professional and just Diy .
If you already have it, I'd say just practice and get a feel for what amperage settings work for whatever project you are working on. If you haven't purchased something yet, there are better options for a similar price that don't have some of the issues this unit had.
I was crying laughing at the beginning because I had scoured this listing Sunday (2 days ago) and found the marketing as bizzare as you did.! I ordered the blue 220v version and it arrived 20 mins ago. We’ll see if it works any better tonight.
I decided to try to pick the best 69 dollar welder on amzn and chose this from the 3 or 4 options. I don’t want to pay more than that for any of these toaster boxes, regardless of the claimed specs etc. The reason is that I have a fantastic HitBox ARC200 220V unit I bought 3 to 4 years ago. It works great and I wanted another one for another property. I found an amzn coupon deal for the same model for 85 bucks..
The new hitbox arc200 arrived and it’s now a dual voltage 110/220 unit. Taking it apart I immediately noticed it is dramatically less robust. The torroid donut is half the size, heat sinks half the size, and it has two TO247 IGBTS and 2 TO247 output diodes,, versus four and three , respectively, on the old unit. Even worse the rating stickers completely different and says 120A versus 200A on my old unit and the image in the current amzn listing. So that unit is going back for sure...
It seems like when these things first came out a lot of them were 220v only, and then they responded to USA market demand by adding an optional voltage doubler input rectifier circuit triggered by a sensing circuit and a relay. But at the same time they cost cut everywhere else. So i’m hoping this 220 v s7 model is a “vintage” design otherwise it looks like i’m screwed!
Yeah, some of them are simple and cheap, but built robust enough. Others just seem to have issues. I don't know if you noticed just how puny the toroidal transformer was in this S7 unit and just how little copper there was on it, but I wonder if that had anything to do with the poor arc starts. Just not enough oomph in that transformer to keep the output voltage up during arc starts.
Either way, I hope you have better luck with yours.
@@bigtb1717 I finally got round to using it a few days ago, and it's got guts. I ran it at 208v as i don't have 240v without setting up a boost transformer which i didn't feel like doing. I easily welded with 6010, i think was 3/32. I'll hook it up and do an amp clamp on short circuit. But with its quad IGBT's i expect it will be closer to its rating than we normally see.
Out of interest i also tried a 69 dollar S7 110v "200A" unit that was the much smaller size of basic inverter units. It worked fine but seemed to loose steam during a bead and short circuit amps were 123A when it's dial was maxed and displaying "203". It had only 2 igbt's and a much smaller transformer torroid. I returned it for reason of false advertising.
The upshot is that for the same price of 69 dollars , this 220v version of the s7 is the almost certainly the best performing cheap welder on amazon presently. It could actually be modified to also run on 110v since it uses dual split/series 250v capacitors, so a neutral wire could be soldered to the capacitor midpoint and then connect the 110v hot to either L1 or L2 inputs (or better yet feed both combined, to share the load across all the bridges rect's 4 diodes)
I will definitely make this mod, and will add another 1000uF /250V cap in parallel to each of the two existing caps to give it proper capacitance needed for the voltage doubler topology of 110v welders. There's plenty of room to fit the extra caps in the case, next to the circuit board with short jumper wires. The extra capacitance won't hurt running at 220v, and for my 208v usage, probably will hep a bit.
@@GannDolph did you find the sub 100 amp settings as erratic as in the video?
@@louisbaiani6262 Fortunately I did not observe any of that strange behavior. (I'm using the 220v only model, versus the 110/220 dual voltage model used in the review.)
@@GannDolph do you have a link to that unit? Thanks