I've just bought as the title suggests, a Clarke 160TM, and it's a very lovely welder. Very impressed. However, it was my intention to buy a unit capable of running off a standard 13A socket, which it would appear the 160 is unable to do. I had my eye on a 151TE that could, until I spotted the 160 for not very much more money, and probably made the assumption that as they are so close in the range, then it too could run off a 13A socket. Ooops.
It's not the end of the world, I can drop an extra MCB and 4mm tails down to a dedicated 16A socket, but before I do all that I want to know are there certain operating conditions where the welder could run off a 13A socket? For example I will be doing light car bodywork with 0.6mm wire, so maximum of power setting 3 (2-Min). Would this be likely to draw more than 13A for any period of time? I'm an industrial sparky so know the ins and outs of the regs, just wanted to see if anyone had more experience with the 160TM than me. Would a blue 16A three pin socket be sufficient?
It's not the end of the world, I can drop an extra MCB and 4mm tails down to a dedicated 16A socket, but before I do all that I want to know are there certain operating conditions where the welder could run off a 13A socket? For example I will be doing light car bodywork with 0.6mm wire, so maximum of power setting 3 (2-Min). Would this be likely to draw more than 13A for any period of time? I'm an industrial sparky so know the ins and outs of the regs, just wanted to see if anyone had more experience with the 160TM than me. Would a blue 16A three pin socket be sufficient?