AS a welder of 34 years and a welding business owner for 16 years, I think I can identify a good welding machine when I use it. The Powertig 250 EX that I bought from Everlast has made me a great welding machine. I was smart enough to READ THE MANUAL a couple of times before even powering up the machine. Within 5 minutes of turning the machine on, I was welding aluminum like wiping butter on toast. I like using it in the 2T mode and just holding the button. I have to do alot of work that would make it impossible to use a foot petal. Sometimes I have to tig overhead (a pain) and just need to set the heat and go. I read an article that said I should set the heat 1 amp to 1 thousandth of material thickness. This makes sense to me because today I welded some 14 gauge aluminum on about 75 amps. I also read that if you want increased amperage for the tig welding you can turn up the DIG that normally functions on the stick side, but it turns out it provides increased amps on the tig side as well. I will try this out tomorrow. I can't say enough GOOD about my machine. The people that I have dealt with have been very friendly and have done everything I have asked to my complete satisfaction. I'm very HAPPY that I bought my welder from them.