Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm sure this has been covered some place but, didn't see it in a search.

I'm looking for a tig welder and had been considering a Miller diversion 180. looks like a pretty good unit and I'm comfortable with their reputation and service.

After doing a a little research I spotted the Everlast welders and was considering something like the Power Tig DV or a Power tig 250 EX

I'm just going to use it around the house to learn tig and for repairs. Not a production welder or a pipe fitter.


I understand the Everlast is a Chinese product and I'm kinda worried about reliability. Question is: How reliable is the ever last brand? Hate to buy one and have it crap out after a few uses or go bad in a year of light use.

Any thoughts or experiences with Everlast?

I’m not an everlast owner, but from what I’ve read around here. You have a 80% chance ( just my personal guess) of being very satisfied with an everlast purchase. I’ve had Miller welders die on me so I’m open to the possibilities that off brand being an acceptable risk if your not in a situation where your livelihood depends it.

I've had my Everlast Tig/Stick/Plasma unit for at least 6 yrs now without any issues. Home/hobby use, not production, but still going strong.

I'm not sure I like those odds. I'm sure I'd be in the 20%. Not critical to have one running all the time but I'm pretty sure I'd be unhappy if I had to ship it and pay for their and back.

Still its tempting to get a welder with more features and a little lower price.

I settled for the middle ground and bought a thermal arc. It was made in China but for a company that will stand by there name. Then I got it through an outlet that also had good customer service if I ever needed it. It too has been a great machine. I’ll put the arc quality and features up against any of the blue or red machines I’ve used at work.

thefiremeister wrote:I'm not sure I like those odds. I'm sure I'd be in the 20%. Not critical to have one running all the time but I'm pretty sure I'd be unhappy if I had to ship it and pay for their and back.

Still its tempting to get a welder with more features and a little lower price.

Check out Home depot's site, they sell some Everlast welders, any problems you return it to them

Have you considered buying a lightly used "name brand" off Craigslist, WeldingWeb, WTT's For Sale section, or the local "Trader" rag? Then you can some some $, get local authorized repair, and scratch all your itches. I'm not saying anything negative about any brand, just offering an option.

The diversion 180 has almost no adjustments, is a little under powered and I beleive it's being phased out. I owned 2 everlast p.o.s.'s and will never again. I sound like a broken record on this topic but HTP's customer service is fantastic. Their Invertig 221 is an awesome machine.

sedanman wrote:The diversion 180 has almost no adjustments, is a little under powered and I beleive it's being phased out. I owned 2 everlast p.o.s.'s and will never again. I sound like a broken record on this topic but HTP's customer service is fantastic. Their Invertig 221 is an awesome machine.

+1

For the OP, the Vulcan line from harbor freight is an option (much as it pains me to say it...)
One of the business owners that I trust was a beta tester for the product and said they checked out very good in his opinion. Basically a cheaper version of the lincoln square wave 200.

I like big, old welders though so that's mostly what I have. But I do have a couple nice inverters too - pretty cool tech.

Poland308 wrote:I’m not an everlast owner, but from what I’ve read around here. You have a 80% chance ( just my personal guess) of being very satisfied with an everlast purchase. I’ve had Miller welders die on me so I’m open to the possibilities that off brand being an acceptable risk if your not in a situation where your livelihood depends it.

I am an Everlast owner (Power iTig 201) and I would say Josh is spot on here...and to be honest, 80% is actually not too bad for an inverter. At least the odds are that it would work. Inside the unit to me it looks like it was assembled by someone that didn't take pride in their work. A couple components don't give me the warm fuzzies, but in general it's not too bad for the price I paid...FWIW...

sedanman wrote:The diversion 180 has almost no adjustments, is a little under powered and I beleive it's being phased out. I owned 2 everlast p.o.s.'s and will never again. I sound like a broken record on this topic but HTP's customer service is fantastic. Their Invertig 221 is an awesome machine.

I guess I would just sound like an echo board to sedanman...my issues with Everlast stem from the quality of the unit I have, as well as watching other customers on the Inet. There are more problems than Everlast would like you to believe. More so, Everlast as a company doesn't stock parts and relies on the Chinese manufacturer to supply them. This is all good when you have a new unit, but after your model falls off the most popular model list, parts could be difficult at best. Now you will be depending on the Chinese manufacturer to supply you with replacement parts...(older 210EX machines are dying without a fix except a new motherboard. The cost to fix is high for a cheap inverter...and that is not one of their most expensive models, it's in the middle).

Mine is working ok so far, but am I confident it will last?

Look at how many models Everlast has and how fast they change.

My $0.02 (worth what you pay), the Lincoln SW200, even though it is manufactured in Mexico and it does use Chinesium parts, at least you have Lincoln and their network of dealers for service and support that you don't have with Everlast. One needs to weigh the importance of having someone local to speak to. My LWS continues to encourage me to get the SW200...but I have heard rumors that there could be a new 230amp unit that might be a tad better than the SW200 which may surface towards the end of the year...(as a replacement for the V205-T, which was discontinued). That may or may not be a viable option, but not tangible at this time.

If you do decide to get an (N)Everlast, the accessories are easily replaceable with common industry standards. They are usable to get you going, but not the type you really want to be using over the long haul. The good thing is that you can use those accessories on most common welders, so I plan to package all the original accessories together with my welder when I decide to pull the trigger on another welder and keep the better upgrades I'm replacing on my inverter for the next machine. Although the Dynastys are expensive, I keep my eyes open for a used on locally as a possibility, and am considering the SW200 per my LWS, they will service and support it while it is under warranty, and will also provide me with a loaner should there be a problem during the warranty period. You can extend the SW200 warranty out to 5 years for a reasonable fee also...

For me, every time I want to replace an accessory, my LWS has no clue on what connectors are needed for an Everlast unit. They know all of the Lincoln and Miller machines like the back of their hand, it is what they know, sell, service, support...so I guess take it with a grain of salt...those units can have problems also, and are not perfect either...but honestly, I wouldn't feel uncomfortable owning and taking my chances on one.

Anyway, I'm not trying to dis Everlast, and even though they point their finger at Lincoln and Miller and tell you how costly they are to repair and replace, I find it poor tactic for a manufacturer to take in talking down the competition. You won't find Lincoln and Miller doing that, IMO...

With all that said (yeah, I'm wordy), there is one machine on my short list that does not have a presence for service/support in the States, and that is HTP. The quality of their units speak for itself, so that is actually one on my short list (221). I take pride in quality first and foremost.

Cheers,
Alan

thefiremeister wrote:I'm sure this has been covered some place but, didn't see it in a search.

I'm looking for a tig welder and had been considering a Miller diversion 180. looks like a pretty good unit and I'm comfortable with their reputation and service.

After doing a a little research I spotted the Everlast welders and was considering something like the Power Tig DV or a Power tig 250 EX

I'm just going to use it around the house to learn tig and for repairs. Not a production welder or a pipe fitter.


I understand the Everlast is a Chinese product and I'm kinda worried about reliability. Question is: How reliable is the ever last brand? Hate to buy one and have it crap out after a few uses or go bad in a year of light use.

Any thoughts or experiences with Everlast?

when I was where you are now I felt the same temptation, bought a Chinese made US distributed machine and had it fail in under 30 days, I wont name the brand because it will start a debate, long story short I bought a Lincoln tig 200 and it has been worth every extra dollar I spent for it. it doesn't have all the bells and whistles they use to sell other machines but I haven't missed any of them so far.

good luck, I know how hard it is to make a confident decision when buying equipment.

I first bought a Lincoln Square wave 200 and then I bought a Everlast. I wanted more features. Both are great welders. The best thing I bought after that was a torch cooler.

tungstendipper wrote:I first bought a Lincoln Square wave 200 and then I bought a Everlast. I wanted more features. Both are great welders. The best thing I bought after that was a torch cooler.

+1 for the Lincoln Square wave. Pretty impressed with mine so far. I’m debating the cooler too, I was a bit sceptical of the duty cycle but from my experience so far you’ll cook the torch before the machine overheats. With Tig anyways. Start burning 3/16 rods and it won’t take long I’m sure.

I understand the Everlast is a Chinese product and I'm kinda worried about reliability. Question is: How reliable is the ever last brand? Hate to buy one and have it crap out after a few uses or go bad in a year of light use.

You really are asking the wrong question. IMHO, what you should be asking is for those people who have had a problem, how was the customer service experience. Do a bit of research on that question and I am guessing that you will pass on the Everlast.

If I ever see Alex from Everlast, i will tell him i have pictures of his mother sucking off a goat. I doubt he'll take it well.

This is based on his handling of a customer complaint.

I owned a Lincoln Square Wave 200 and with a 20% duty cycle id rather not buy it ever again. I sold it then bought a HTP INvertig 221 and its a beast. Rock Solid! i the bought a Dynasty 210DX Tig runner with the 1.3 Coolmate and it gives the HTP a run for its money. If you spend $550 to get the Miller AC Expansion pack for give it the Amplitude upgrade then the Dynasty will take the HTP. I love both but for 2500 bucks you wont find a better 220 amp tig welder.

Strange I had a Everlast and it worked fine but I needed to weld some aluminum, so got the Lincoln Squarewave 200 and I don't seem to have any of the complaints like duty cycle or failures others mention. I was able to sell the Everlast in no time at all. I like having a dealer to walk into for the Lincoln.

The SW 200 isn't terrible just no adjustments bad duty cycle and no adjustable post flow but if you are just doing weekend welding its OK. I didn't like it at all but that's just my opinion

I bought an Everlast DV200 a cpl years ago and it had some problems while welding on AC. It was acting as if the polarity would switch to DC randomly which basically ruined whatever I was welding.

I told Everlast about this and they sent me a new circuit board which didn't solve the problem.

What they did next has made me an Everlast customer, maybe not for life, but I was quite satisfied with the result.

They let me upgrade to the EXT210 by just paying the difference between the two and they picked up all the shipping.

This machine is essentially a Dynasty 200 for half the price.

If you have problems, it might take a minute to get them sorted out, but in my experience, their customer service is pretty damn good. Better than my dealings with 'Big Red'

This all starting to remind me of photography. I don't care what camera you have let us see your photographs.