Chinese tig quality

[fuff66uk]

I know there has been a lot mentioned on here about the quality of chinese tig's including by myself in the past.What i am wondering is has the quality of units from china improved any ? I want a tig inverter mainly because of the light weight that and i fancy trying tig but for the amount it would get used i can't warrant paying a lot.

Any particular chinese ones better than others?

 

[shenion]

Still the same. It comes more to the importer. The Chinese will use used or counterfeit parts if you let them. A better importer will specify quality parts and test them when they get them.

The R-tech ones seem to get good marks here. As do the major sellers like MTA or the TEC-Arc.

 

[TechnicAl]

A good chinese set will end up costing the same as a good European. Its only the labour thats cheaper and how much of that is there in an Inverter these days. Even this is offset by the transportation costs, mind you I think the exchange rate is still in their favour.

Therefore the answer is, as always, you get what you pay for. If youre happy with what you get, thats fine.

 

[PTvor]

It's not just labour and component costs though, there are also taxes and charges paid by businesses, regulatory compliance, H&S, the cost of energy etc. I suppose there's also the question of government subsidies to particular industries. I don't know whether that's true of Chinese welding machines, but it's certainly been true of other goods from other countries in the past.

That said, I more or less agree that you get what you pay for, or at least, you don't get what you don't pay for

 

[busastars]

I have got the Giant 200A Tig and have posted up about it before. I realy do like my little Tig, its a doddle to use even has HF start, but the only downside is that it is DC only. BUT for around £160 ish I realy cannot complain.

Saying that I do know it could go belly up and I have no come backs.

 

[atmeco9]

Giant 200 tig

Im a welder to trade and also have a Giant 200 tig welder that i decided to use at work, i used it on a daily basis for approx 7 months, 10hrs a day without a fault and found it to be a good welder with strong arc and plenty H/F untill i was setting up a spool in the vice which spun and knocked off the small tig/stick switch (cant find a new one anywhere) and cant fathom which of the four wires connect together,tried connecting in different ways with no effect so maybe done other damage, does anyone have a photo off the inside to show the wiring so i can atleast get that sorted with a new switch or switches. Anyone thinking of one with the work i've done on mine i cant fault it at all, i've maybe just been lucky tho.
Cheers Guy

 

[busastars]

atmeco9"

Carnt quite figure out what you have done, maybe a few photos to show the damage, cables etc. With mine it only has two cables for the switch, from what I can gather its a standard wp17.

 

[ibrooks]

I'm sort of jumping in here as this is one of the questions I signed up to ask. I'm looking at one of the 3-in-1 machines badged by all sorts of manufacturers but the model number seems to be pretty consistent - CT312 or CT520.

I've been searching and most of the posts about them seem to be dire warnings bordering into rant territory about cheap Chinese rubbish that will definitely break and then you won't be able to get bits or you will have to send it back to China at silly postage costs. But none of these posters seem to be posting from real recent experience of these machines.

There are the odd posts from someone who does have one and they seem to be generally positive like Guy's comments here (OK it's broken now but there's a reason that hopefully most should be able to avoid).

In my case it's strictly going to be a hobby machine so if it breaks I'm not losing income (I still wouldn't be happy). I've also got a possible advantage that I'm looking to buy from Local Tool Sales who are just 5 minutes away from home (my searches also found positive feedback from a guy on here who had bought one of these welders from them and had to return it due to a problem which they seemed to have sorted with no quibbles). In my case then I'm going to be covered by trading standards minimum 12 months warranty on electrical equipment and returning it if necessary will just be a case of throwing it in the car and taking it back. Given this I've almost convinced myself to take a punt at one but just need that extra nudge one way or another.

So is there anyone else here with real experience of these things? i.e. do they do the job well?

Iain

 

[NotANormalCoder]

For what it's worth - I was asked a couple of years ago, to do a technical survey on a range of Chinese manufactured mma & Tig inverters for a reputable wholesaler of welding equipment. Like most of the reputable importers/wholesalers in the UK, they said that they had an 'agent' working on their behalf within the manufacturer, so quality was controlled by them. Whether this is factual, I'm not sure but it seemed to be working.
I had worked on a lot of the early Chinese equipment and did not expect to see good quality kit, however, most of the stuff (about 15 different models) exceeded my expectations. They performed well and mostly exceeded their rated duty cycles. Most components looked as if they were from well known manufacturers, with a few wound components (small transformers etc) obviously from within China. I suggested that they were good value and this company has been supplying them for quite a while now and I have even sold a few with no comebacks.
After testing these machines, I was given the job of fixing any machines that were returned under warranty. I think I saw about 40 machines in 18 months and you have to bear in mind that these people were selling to distributors throughout the country, including Ireland, so this was probably a tiny percentage.
Most of the problems were either user error, pcb failures, cooling fan or switch failures. Pcb failures were generally in the autoswitching machines (110/240V) where the switching relays were not man enough to cope with 30/40Amps @110V (a problem lots of manufacturers face). Surprisingly, most other (quality) inverters I fix, mostly fail when the main transistors (IGBTs) fail - these Chinese sets never had this problem when I was deeply involved. The other major problem was that the on/off switch that is rated at 16A, would fail if the machine was used heavily (all the supply goes through this switch on most of them) This is a design fault without a doubt but other manufacturers do the same.
More recent machines from this importer have been improved but I have no real experience of these yet.
Bottom line is, buy from a reputable UK agent, then you'll get a warranty and 1st year problems should be sorted for free. But remember, some distributors are now working on silly low margins. If they only make £20/30 on a mchine, they are likely to be unwilling to repair them if they fail. My distributor had a deal with the manufacturer in that they got a load of free spares each time the placed a large order for machines, so they could afford to pay me to fix them. Others do not have this luxury.
Also, I would recommend that you buy from a UK agent, not over the internet direct from China - It's tough enough to get service in the UK but impossible to get if you buy direct.
My 2ds worth but I hope it helps somebody.
Dave

 

[NotANormalCoder]

What I completely forgot to mention in my last post was Chinese MIG welders. I have tested a few of these recently and with the exception of 5 I tested very recently (and they're probably not yet on the market) they were all mostly rubbish. Some were inverter style power sources, with apalling construction and odd bits of circuitry hanging off inside. None of them really welded nicely and who wants a 240V mig that draws 63A from the mains!
It seems to me that european manufactured mig welders are much better and some are very keenly priced. There are some machines that are made in the UK, I don't think they look very nice but they are well made, well supported and generally sold by dealers that know their stuff.
As others have said, you get what you pay for. Cheap isn't always the best deal. So many customers have asked for a cheap 'thing' and days later called up and said "this 'thing' you've supplied is very cheap". Well what do you expect, it's what you asked for!
Choose your machine with care, decide whats it's usage will be like and then get a good deal on a good machine, from a good local dealer, that'll last for a few years. That's a cheap deal in my view.
</Rant> (HTML programmers will understand that!)

 

[scarecrow]

very interesting post NotANormalCoder I know a guy who use to make mig welders over here in Ireland a small factory with about 14 and 15 people working for him. went out of business when the cheap Chinese welders came on stream he told me he could compete against the Chinese welders if the retailers didn't need such a big margin but they didn't mind taking smaller profits of the Chinese welders probably because they wouldn't last as long

he also told me that he looked into getting his own transformers wound in China to the same installation class as the ones he was winding himself but when he received the samples they were crap and would deteriorate with constant heating and burn out quite quickly even though they were both class the same

 

[jonnywith]

Chinese Welder

We can't say that there are no good welder from China, what's important is that weather you find the right welder from the right company. I know it is not easy, because there are only few good ones, but a lot of small and cheap ones.

And the manufacturing and techniques have improved significantly in the past years.

We, * , are selling over 400,000 units each year, and half of them are for overseas market. By selling this much, you won't have too much concern of the quality or its performance.

* company name removed - mod

 

[jonnywith]

Well, i dont understand exactly why there are so many bad comment about Chinese welders. You got a rubbish because you found the wrong supplier, and it is just as simple as that.
We here all say the British are gentlemen, but when i was there, there are still drunk men along the way. So we can judge the whole thing when coming across with bad experience, right?