Looking to replace my Clarke 100E

The hose was less than £10, the regulator less than £40 and the gas will be a bit over £50 for a 3-year "right of use" plus returnable cylinder deposit of less than £30 and around £25 per fill-up which will apparently give upwards of 5 hours continuous welding...

From posts on this site it appears that disposables last for about 6 minutes (!) and cost around £10 - so 5 hours continuous welding could cost as much as £500 (wow!)...

Check the various forums and you'll soon discover that there are members who can supply equipment and gas - who you choose to buy from rather depends on convenience of location and the trade-off you're prepared to make between delivery/shipping costs and your time + fuel costs to get your supplies...

- in other words, what works for me in my location may not work for you
so check the forums and message the suppliers to determine who can best meet your needs.

I went for the 151EN gassless as I intend to hook it up to a refillable bottle rather than convert to disposables - it costs £48 less than the 151TE. Sure you could upgrade the TE to use refillable gas, but you would have effectively paid £48 more for the included disposable gas set up which would be redundant... The 151TE does have a rotary power, hinging side door and a more "stylish" red finish... but I preferred to save the £48 and put the money towards the refillable upgrade which I believe will save me £££ over the life of the machine (compared to disposables)... But I suppose if you get so good that you are asked to star in a reality tv show (think Orange County Choppers), then the "Deluxe" welder might "look the part"!

The 151EN is a relatively old model now & has a much higher OCV...Open Circuit Voltage...compared to the 151TE etc. so doesn't perform as well on thin sheet. If you intend doing any amount of work I would forget any of the smaller machines & go straight for something like the 160TM which is already set-up to run from refillable gas cylinders, so no upgrade costs involved, + has the cylinder carrier on the rear so no fannying about dragging welder, then gas cylinder around the workshop (which often results in cylinder going over & smashing gauges)
weldequip

I didn't find the disposables to last that little a time, or rather, some lasted a shortish time but others surprisingly good.

One advantage of being able to run gas on a TE is that you can sling the thing in a car very easily and run it off a disposable out on a visit for a quick job. Takes v.little space and faff.
Same plus a proper cyl would go of course, just more space, more care etc.

Thanks for the tips.

Weldequip: What sort of money are we talking about for the 160TM?

I dont do a huge amount of welding, but i'm fed up with disposable bottles. A quick google shows this:
http://www.toolsbypost.com/product_p...y=1003&id=4377

Can you do any better?