Generator welders- which sort to look out for?
There are loads of different types of generator welder on the market today. They range from small portable types powered by petrol or diesel right up to great big units that are trailer mounted.
The smaller ones will tend to be around the 150Amp – 170Amp range. Then as you move into the 200Amp range they are usually mounted on a trolley with wheels as they will be too heavy to lift with just 1 person. Then up again in size you get the 200Amp -300Amp units which are quite lumpy and will , more often than not, be trailer mounted.
These are the ones that I would recommend:
Mosa petrol 150Amp and 200Amp hand portable units weighing around 27-30 KG. These are called MOSA MAGICWELD and have a 240volts power take off as well. The earlier models of this type only had a 110volt power socket available.
Usually powered by the very reliable Honda engines they are ideal for the odd repair job on site although I did hear that they struggled to drive a Low Hydrogen rod.
The next model up the chain will be the MOSA T200 diesel or petrol engined. These are 200Amp welding power and will have both a 240volt and a 110volt power take off.
Be careful when buying these TS200’s as there are variations in the output KVA on these machines. The earlier ones tend to give 6KVA where as the more modern ones only give about 5KVA. “Very important if you need 6KVA to drive something!”
These are good industrial “Use every day” machines and usually come mounted in a trolley with 2 wheels. They are heavy though.
Haverhill also make a 170Amp petrol engined unit which I have hired from various companies in the past and it seemed to perform ok.
Moving on up the scale a bit we come to the big boys!
These could be made by MOSA, Lincoln Electric, Miller etc. Any of these would be a good choice to go for. These are the kind of machines that you sometimes see mounted in the back of a pickup truck with all the welding cables wrapped up around reels etc. These are favoured by the guys that erect steel work and have to trail their welding leads up into a scissor lift. The remote amperage control unit comes in very handy at this point although it’s usually an optional extra.
These type of welders usually range in power output from 250Amps up to around 500Amps. Anything bigger than this and you may as well by yourself a large diesel generator as it would probably be cheaper.