New 325EXT Issue

[kumaichi]

Just got my new 325EXT setup tonight and ran into an issue. Hopefully someone can help me out. After I got everything hooked up, I turned the machine on and there was a POP and a couple of sparks flew out of the bottom front of the machine. I immediately turned it off, didn't really know what else to do. What should I do? I don't really want to turn it on again and possibly do more damage before I get some advice on maybe something I should check first. I have it connected to 230v Single Phase following the instructions in the manual. White/Black connected to the hot legs, green to the ground and red is tied off not connected. Using a 6-50 plug like the manual says.

Thanks in advance,

Craig

[wileyone123]

Im assuming this is a brand New machine?....if so, id call customer service....as it doesnt sound good.
Nor am i thinking U will get much help on here (not that others wouldnt want to help U tho).

Sparks emitted from the machine is never a good sign.
I would guess that whatever happened, is done and over.....as in U let the Smoke out!.....lol

Option A: go to bed, sleep it off and make the CALL 2moro and see what they tell U 2 do.

Option B: power it up and see if things light up as supposed to.(probly what they will tell U to do anyways....??)
given things are OK, i would then disconnect the power and remove some covers.....looking for signs of the arcing/sparks/soot.
it may have popped a cap....or possibly a poor connection at a cable and arced.
my odds would more than likely be the cap than connection.

just my .02

wishing U the best, regardless

[Rambozo]

I would advise you not to power it up again until you have had a look inside. It might be something that shifted during shipping, and while the damage is probably done, you might not have hurt anything, YET! Powering it up again could do it in. For warranty issues, it's probably best that you call in first before removing the covers. Don't like to hear this for a new model.

[kumaichi]

Thanks guys. Yes, it's a brand new machine, first time powering it up. I'll give customer support a call this afternoon when I get home from work. I'm not doing anything until I get some more information. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed but hey, things happen and hopefully not damage was done and it's something simple.

[performance]

Like Rambozo, pull the rear panel, remove the metal cover to open it up and check to see if something got shifted in shipping. If nothing turns up, call ext 201 or 202 immediately and tell them. We'll take care of it.

[kumaichi]

Thanks Mark, I called when I got home from work and left a message. While I've been waiting, I flipped the machine on its side to see if I could notice anything wrong on the bottom of the machine. I did find something very interesting. There is a screw that is melted, so much so, that the grooves where a phillips screwdriver would fit into are actually melted so that a screw driver wouldn't be able to unscrew it. It's also not pulled tight against the case, there is space between the washers and the case. It also looks like there is some melted metal from the bottom of the case between the washers, almost like spatter. The first image below shows the bottom of the machine, the front of the machine is to the right. The screw circled in red on the top left. The other two red circles are of screws that don't have nuts on them. I noticed that there are two screws under those that do have nuts, not sure if they are all supposed to have nuts or not, just an observation. The second photo is a close up of the melted screw, kind of a sucky picture, sorry about that. And finally, the third photo is a side view of the same melted screw. You can kind of see how it's not screwed all the way in. I don't know what the screw is attached to but it does looks like something arced off of it.

Thanks again,

Craig

[wileyone123]

Yep, just like i figured....U let the Smoke out!...lol

i feel 4 ya....new machine and U cant play w it.
kinda sounds as tho the machine was searching for a ground....and arced to find 1.

good thing U werent touching the machine at the time!

thnx 4 the update and pics....keep us informed.

[Rambozo]

Can't really tell anything from those pics. If something had arced to a screw, you would usually see a lot of discoloration and the plating would be burned off. Unfortunately cheap Chinese screws often look like they are malformed. You will have to look inside to see what actually happened. With visible sparking, the results will not be subtle. You will most likely see black soot and burn marks. But it could be something simple like a wire that got nicked by a screw and can be re-positioned and re-insulated. Or it could be a damaged circuit board that will need to be replaced. You won't know until the cover is off.

[kumaichi]

I didn't want to take the cover off until I spoke with someone at Everlast, hopefully they'll give me a call back today so I can find out what they want me to do. Yeah, it really does suck having this new machine and not be able to play around with it .

[Kempy]

Sound like it might be similar to what happen to my 255EXT see post http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...ghlight=255ext #14 for pictures. Mine being off the bench and on a cart it might have done the same.

[Rambozo]

For something that has had to be shipped so far and possibly been exposed to some rough handling, I usually take off the covers and give it a inspection before powering it up for the first time. I know I'm a bit unusual in that regard, but I like to see how something is made and fix anything that isn't quite up to snuff, before I put it into service.
I would guess that even if Miller and Lincoln had to ship most of their machines to China, they would get more DOA units thanks to shipping damage. It would be nice to have ShockWatch stickers on something like this, but that would probably just lead to a bunch of finger pointing, between all the different carriers.

[performance]

pm me your contact information. If you tried to contact me, then it may have gotten lost in the dark whole that my cell phone seems to be descending into this week. Time for a new one.

[kumaichi]

I spoke with someone over at Everlast and they sent me a label to send it back for a replacement. Really nice people over there and great customer support. I won't be able to ship it until Monday but they said they would cross ship me a machine once UPS scans the label and gets it into their system.

I really would have preferred to have tried to troubleshoot, if there is a problem with it, instead of having them spend all that money on shipping but I can understand why they'd just replace it. I just really wanted to try it out I've heard nothing but good things about these machines.

Thanks for everyone's help with this, can't wait to get the new machine .

[kumaichi]

I received my replacement welder yesterday and got it hooked up today. All I can say is AWESOME!!! This is my first Everlast product, they will certainly be getting more of my business. First priority, have to get the water cooler for this beast .

Thanks to Everlast and everyone here for helping me out.