250A MIG Welder,6 in 1 Gas MIG/Gasless Flux Core/Stick/Lift TIG/Spot Welding/Spool Gun Compatible Aluminum Welding Machine Large LED Display 110V/220V Multi Process Welder

My background; Fairly experienced welder in most processes like MIG, Flux Core, MMA, TIG. But retired now so want to "play" with fabrication/prototype design stuff, and wanted a nice portable welder that had 110/220 Volt options but not pay $4000+, as I did with my Miller Multi-Process. I still have this welder and is excellent but I wanted a more portable unit.OK, so what I looked for in a welder is more amps output than I need, easy user interface for the varied processes, lightweight, spool gun-compatible, spot weld option, 110/220V inputs, Auto-Set for amps/wire speed, adequate torch, stick, ground cable lengths, and price. Postitives: Femerol has 250A at a 60% duty cycle, which is excellent, and has 250A/60% on all processes (MIG, MMA, TIG). Figure about 1 Amp required per .001" thick steel stock, so 1/4" plate steel (.250") needs about 250 amps for MIG process, or ~40A/mm. Note: Flux Core or stick will allow a thicker steel to be welded. So for thicker steels using MIG, 250+ amps is needed, and this machine does in theory offer that. I checked the output, and using a shorting bar (not simply weld, as the impedance losses alter true amps output), it would put out ~ 230A, and if it had a heavier duty outlet/plug, it would get close to 250 Amps. I did change out the plug/cord to #10 gauge with a 50 Amp plug, as all welders of this ampacity should have, and it did put out ~245Amps for a short time.User interface: The machine is intuitive to most weldors with experience but the novice users should be able to follow the decent manual (BTW, "weldor" is the person, "welder" is the welding machine). Several good youtube channels, including weld.com, weldingtipsand tricks, are great learning resources. If you buy this welder (or any other brand), note polarity is reversed for Flux Core, vs MIG.Weld features, and weld quality: This machine has almost every feature one would need to weld, except Pulse MIG, and AC/DC TIG, which would add a huge increase to the cost, so this welder works for 99% of my welding needs. This machine can weld aluminum, via the included teflon liner for the MIG torch, or the Spool Gun option (Spool Gun not included but can be purchased for ~$80-95). Some of the features I like are the spot-weld option, multiple sizes of MIG wire compatibility, and the stability of the arc, to name a few. I've welded steel from .024", up to 1/2", the 1/2" using multiple passes. It also welds aluminum quite well, even using the MIG torch with the included teflon liner. Using Lincoln 5356, .035" Al wire, I didn't get any "birdnesting" during the welding. If I did, the drive roller tension can be adjusted to prevent birdnesting. The stick welding is smooth and steady, allowing even thinner materials to be welded, compared to 60Hz AC or DC machines. I haven't used the TIG option, since I already have a high frequency AC/DC TIG machine.The spot function is really handy for welding thinner materials without the need for manually pulling the trigger just the right amount of time. I simply set it to Spot Weld, the menu allows for wire feed (or synergistic auto set), Amps, and weld time adjustments. With this feature, it was easy to consistently weld 24 gauge (.024") without burning through (using .030" ER-70-S6 solid wire).MIG, Stick, Ground cable lengths. All three are ~3meters=9.5' long, which is generous for a welder in this price point. The plug cord, with the 110v-220v adapter measures ~7' on my machine.A design improvement would be to change out the barbed hose connection to a threaded gas fitting, to allow faster hose removal if needed. One can use a short pigtail from the barbed end to a gas fitting adapter, if a faster hose change/removal is needed.So to summarize the positives: Great price, good Amp output, reasonable lengths MIG torch, ground clamp, stick welding, many welding process options, including spot weld, easy to understand controls, Al welding options, spool gun compatible, lightweight.Negatives: Cooling fan kinda loud and runs all the time, 120V plug that should be a 50A, slightly undersized cord, barbed gas outlet.Would I buy it again? Yes yes yes. As a matter of fact, I DID buy a second one during Amazon Prime!Why a second identical welder? I'm lazy. I have one welder set up for MIG, and the other one for Aluminum so I don't have to change liners, spools, and gas (75/25% Argon/CO2 for steel, 100% Argon for Aluminum). My Miller is now set up with the spool gun for Stainless Steel). It's too early to know how long it will last without any problems but I think that for the home shop or light duty fabrication/prototyping shop, it will be a great addition to the shop.UPDATE 11-24. I kept wondering if this welder would die if doing long, high amp mig welds. I just finished a major project where I went through a 10 lb .035" spool in a day, which for me is a lot. I was welding thick (1/4-1/2") long beads and the machine never stumbled. I was going with max amps (250), running multiple passes, and the machine worked great! So for me, and my machine, it passed all the durability tests I gave it. If I had a professional shop, and didn't need to have more than 250 amps, I would use it and my thinking is, "I can buy one name brand for $3000-4000, or buy three, heck, 5 welders, all set up with gas quick connects, and different mig wire for separate operations. And if one died, I have 4 more to fall back on. My thoughts on a general shop: .023" for thin projects, .035" for most/all others, Stainless, Aluminum, hardfacing mig wire, flux core, and a "throw in the work truck for field work (flux core with some MMA sticks. Still happy with it.

I'll preface this by saying I've bought the leading multi-process inverter welders from the primary competitors: YesWelder and ArcCaptain and I won't keep you in suspense...This welder beats both competitors and is substantially less expensive.I'll start off with what I think can be improved:The spool holder - It's awkward to put a 10lb spool onto the holder. You have to support the whole spool while trying to compress the spring and the tiny nut like the Yeswelders. The ArcCaptain design is better here. It has a large spool adapter so you just slide the spool on and then has an easy to turn large plastic knob that tightens it.The gas inlet - The gas inlet is just a nipple on the back of the machine that you slide a gas hose onto with no fittings. You have to use the included clamp and hope for the best and the other end of the supplied gas hose has no fitting so you have to go buy one to attach to your regulator unless your regulator happens to come with barb fittings.Inductance control - It's amazing that such a budget friendly welder has an inductance setting at all, but it's in a shared setting button/menu. ArcCaptain has them beat here with its own dedicated inductance knob that you can easily fine tune on the go.No ability to switch from metric to IPM on wire speed when in manual mig mode. In Syn Mig mode, you adjust Amps in lieu of wire feed speed. In manual mode you have wire feed speed, but it is in meters per minute instead of IPM (inches per minute). Not a huge deal. You can just use syn mode OR convert the metric in manual mode OR use trial & error.Fan stays on - The ArcCaptain turns off the fan when the thermostat says it doesn't need it. This welder like most others stays on all the time while powered on.Moving on the the good stuff. Like....a 2 year warranty!!Unlike most other multi-process inverter welders available, this one can put out an unheard of 250 amps. The ArcCaptain can only do mig on 120v up to 120 amps or 160 amps on 240v. This machine will do mig @ 160 amps on a regular 120v household outlet and 250 amps on a 240v outlet.It has a 60% duty cycle at 250 amps, which is awesome. Other budget welders have a 20% at much lower amps. Even the expensive Millers our parents grew up with don't go above a 50% duty cycle at this amperage.As I wrote above, this has induction control which allows you to fine tune your welds to eliminate spatter and get the penetration you want.This is a 6 in 1 welder so you don't need to buy a different welder for stick, tig, mig, flux core mig, etc. It does it all. Unlike the competition it doesn't even need a spool gun to do aluminum (but can power a spool gun if you prefer). It has a free included special lining to be able to use aluminum right through the mig torch.It has 2T/4T mode like some of the modern high-end welders so if you're welding a long bead, you don't have to hold the trigger down. You hit the trigger to start, hit it again and release to stop the weld or you can leave it in 2T mode and it will behave as usual.It has Pre/Post gas settings so you can specify how long you want to gas to come on before the weld and stay on afterwards.It's ridiculously light weight. How many 250 amp welders do you know of that you can easily pick up with one hand and effortlessly put on your welding cart?With common mig welders like your Lincolns, you have your main 2 knobs with just a handful of positions to adjust your voltage and amps. This unit not only has "easy mode" (syn) to sync the two for you, but it has manual mode where you can fine tune the voltage to the 10th of a volt as opposed to A, B, C, etc. so you can get perfect welds. It can also burn hotter than the competition by going all the way up to 26 volts.If you're like me, you likely started on a cheap flux core or stick welder and outgrew it and had to buy more welders to branch out into gas shielded mig, tig or just to a more powerful machine for heavier material. The nice thing about this welder is that it's perfect for a newbie to start on flux core, then branch out to everything else without outgrowing the machine. It can do it all.Some of the other modern inverter welders come with ZERO documentation or instructions, not even a getting started card and if they do, they're in broken English and hard to understand. This welder comes with the best manual I've ever seen on a welder. It not only tells you exactly how to set everything up and suggests what settings to use, but it actually has sections teaching you how to do each type of welding the machine can do down to weaves and types of joints and it is in proper easy to understand English.The wire feeder/roller assembly mechanism inside isn't plastic like most others. It's made of metal so less likely to break.I like how the connectors on the front are labeled. Unlike older standard welders that have pos/neg terminals inside that you swap, modern welders have positive and negative euro style connectors on the front that you swap depending on what process you're using, but most other competing machines are poorly marked and require switching all the wires around just to swap from flux core to gas shielded mig leaving you unsure about what to plug in where. On this unit, for example, to switch polarity, you put the polarity swap cable in the clearly marked positive or negative and to help you cheat, it even is labeled gas and flux. (The pictures haven't been updated on the amazon listing)So far I've only tried gas shielded mig on this (75% argon, 25% CO2) .30 solid wire on 1/8" plate. I was really impressed with what I saw. It exceeded my expectations.This has gotten extremely long. You can't tell I already love this welder, can you? I'll just wrap this up by saying BUY THIS. You won't be disappointed.Update: The machine tries to turn itself on every 5 seconds after turning it off and the screen comes on then shuts off. This is with the power button off... I sent an email to the manufacturer's email address that you are supposed to use for warranty claims and a whole week later I still have not received any response of any kind. As a result I am lowering my rating a bit on this as they do not return email and have no phone number you can call.This is a really cool machine, but buyer beware because the manufacturer isn't reachable. I had Amazon send me another of these and I'm going to send this one back.Update 2: The replacement welder did the same thing where the display flashed on every 5 seconds or so after turning it off. It does it for a couple of minutes. Perhaps it's discharging built up energy, but does not affect the performance of the machine.TL/DR: very cool and powerful machine at an awesome price. It does it all and works great, however the manufacturer does not return correspondence and the screen flashes every 5 seconds or so for a couple of minutes after turning it off for whatever reason, but it does not affect performance of the welder.