$1900 Everlast 315LX TIG Unit Has 100% Duty Cycle @ 250amps
Yeah,
I’m noticing how other welding forums are still wandering in proverbial darkness or ignorance when it comes how Everlast units put others to shame in their superior duty-cycles and pricing values.
Here’s some text of someone seeking advice elsewhere (where I'm permanently banned) on a potent TIG unit with a high duty-cycle:
—————————————
“I am looking for a TIG machine mainly to weld aluminum.
We have only $5000 we can spend on the unit, that's with tax, shipping, etc. We can purchase all the accessory separately on a different PR.
“Can anyone recommend me a good machine minimum 220A with 80-100% duty I would appreciate it!
“thank you”
—————————————
And the responses are like the blind trying to lead the naive:
"80 -100% duty cycle?
A Dynasty 700 would make a great 100% duty cycle 350 amp unit.
A new unit with a 220 amp output with 80 -100% duty cycle doesn't exist AFAIK."
-------------------
"A Miller Dynasty 400 has a 100% duty cycle at 250A but is beyond your $5K limit new. Either your duty cycle expectation has to lower or your dollar limit has to increase or buy used."
[That's not quite accurate, as the Dynasty 400 is 60% duty-cycle at 250 amps on single-phase power, but on 3-phase power it is rated to 100% duty-cycle at 250 amps.]
------------------
"A little birdie told me that the new HTP Invertig 400 will be able to do quite a bit, when it is released in the near future. It is based off of the Stel Tig uP 453H S AC-DC. Supposedly it will cost less than a brand new Miller Dynasty 280dx, but it does need a phase converter to reach maximum output."
-------------------
I mean, it was proven to me, conclusively, by a Mr.TIG “Duty Cycle Shootout” video, that my own Everlast 210EXT unit is obviously very conservatively rated at 60% duty-cycle on the max amps of 210, since the unit ran at a full 10 minutes with no thermal cut out or time out during the YouTube video.
Yes Christian, we try to point this out when we can, but people don't understand duty cycle and the games that they play with them. Duty cycle is supposed to be a gauge on the machines capability and industrial capacity. 60% is the gold standard for TIG, Stick. 50% for MIG, all at max output. But it seems that the ninny's in marketing love to play games with quoting duty cycles that aren't at the machines full capacity. It's really a form of lying. People are so quick to jump on the "duty cycle" band wagon without understanding no one is driving.
And the the way they seem to try to compensate for the poor duty-cycles on other labeled units is to over-buy on a unit (three or four times over), just to get a decent duty-cycle at the welding amperage that they're seeking, e.g., buying a Miller Dynasty 400 or 700, just to be able to weld at 250 amps with a decent duty-cycle.
I mean, if you look a little closer at the specs on Miller and other brands, they usually will post the curves on duty-cycles at various amperages, which is good to know. I mean, Everlast posts that kind of stuff too.
But, that Everlast 315LX is certainly a beast when it comes to duty-cycle, with 60% at 315 amps, and 100% at 250 amps. That's even better than the 350EXT and 325EXT, which are both quite robust in their duty-cycles.
I mean, if you don't really want any added waveforms, what a beast that 315LX is, and at single-phase power input, no less!
Interesting thread and yes it can be very confusing to the consumer, whereas overall consumer behavior also plays a factor.
We all want the 'best' at whatever price point we can afford. Consumers themselves will often laser into a metric that they believe most represents that standard. In the case of welders, it seems that max amps & duty cycle are the measure. For cars, it's horsepower, for grills it's BTU, for stereos (back in the day when such things existed) it was watts and total harmonic distortion. etc. etc.
Funny thing about welders, and I'm stretching my personal knowledge here, but how many people actually need to run a welder for 8-10 solid minutes at 200 amps to weld aluminum? It not likely someone that can't afford more than $5k to purchase said power unit. If you're operating a shop that is producing that much weld and you're not generating revenue to have multiple units or at least a back-up unit to swap out machines, there's something terribly wrong with your business model.
All that aside, much like the other metrics that consumers gravitate toward, there are often laboratory conditions set by each manufacturer to allow them to consistently produce outcomes across a variety of machines or instances of the same machine. The saying goes, "Figures don't lie, but liars figure." This is where marketing departments sharpen their pencil to play games with numbers, and it's my understanding that the two most popular methods for welding is to set ridiculous ambient temperature and humidity variables when conducting their tests. So, you can have two competing machines that both say 200 amp 60% duty cycle, but one is tested at 70f 50%rh whereas the other is 32f 0%rh.... I don't know many people that run their shop at the freezing point and in a humidity-free atmosphere.
Having an outstanding duty-cycle on my particular Everlast TIG unit (210EXT), isn't so critical, as I'll weld at around 125 amps on stuff around .125 and .100. most of the time, and TIG usually has more stops for filler changing and other stuff. If I were shopping for a MIG unit, the duty-cycle would become far more critical to me, as stopping and waiting after three or four minutes of MIG spray arc welding at around 185 amps would undoubtedly be frustrating to most any one doing a long beads on a trailer, etc.
Still, I like that my TIG unit out-performs its conservatively rated/published duty-cycle of 60% at the max of the EXT's 210 amps.
And it's easy to test that, right out of the box, at an ambient temperature, as Mr. TIG did on YouTube some time ago, simultaneously on four different TIG units, including an Everlast 210EXT. So, I know my unit's duty-cycle is better than advertised, and probably stays cooler for that reason, which undoubtedly leads to better longevity. Plus, my 210EXT is whisper quiet somehow, as it uses four smaller fans inside.
Here's that YouTube link/video again, "Duty-Cycle Shootout", revealing how some of the latest Asian-produced welding units exceed their own published duty-cycle ratings.
Yeah, I believe there is somewhat of an industry-standard temperature that duty-cycles are quoted at. I think it's around 60 or 70 degrees F.
Of course, certain working or production environment can typically be higher than that, which would push down a duty-cycle percentage. But in the "Shootout" video, the ambient room temperature is undoubtedly higher than the quoted/testing temperature, yet the 210EXT, and others, still outperformed the rated duty-cycle.
I mean, you hear some people complain about their cheapo 100 amp MIG welders (Harbor Freight, or similar) shutting off after a few minutes of welding, then taking several minutes or more before being able to weld again. And those units seem to be rated, fittingly, at around 25% duty cycle at max amps, etc. So, that's to be expected with a 25% duty-cycle on max amps.
Interestingly, I use some recent-chemistry lithium batteries that have a performance loss the farther below 70 degrees that they're in.
$1900 Everlast 315LX TIG Unit Has 100% Duty Cycle @ 250amps
Reply With Quote
