R-Tech 180, or Parweld XTM 171C

[Sam46]

Hi,

I'm new to MIG welding, and would like to spend around £400-£500 on as good a welder as I can get for the budget. I've narrowed my search down to either the Parweld XTM 171C, or the (IGBT) R-Tech 180.

Any advice on which is best for learning on, and for some basic, home fabrication - or suggestions for other makes - would be great.

Thanks,
Sam.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Welcome to the forum:

They are not two easy machines to compare against each other, the R-Tech has the additional option for MMA welding which would probably be enough to tempt me for the work I do, MIG is fantastic but I like to go back to my roots when I can and burn a few rods.

Plenty of R-Tech owners here with very little negative feedback and if I am not mistaken no negative feedback that has not been resolved by the company, so quite a positive there.

Also plenty of Parweld owners who are more than happy with their machines and also a machine we don't tend to hear issues about.

I don't think you would have a problem with either machine.

 

[PTvor]

I bought an R-Tech 180 and I'm happy with it so far.

Other inverter MIGs worth looking at are these

http://www.weldingdirect.co.uk/mig-welders-510-c.asp

I think a couple of people on here have bought them and are happy with them.

Inverters have continuously adjustable power, rather than a few discrete steps, which I like, and often can be used for stick welding too. They have a very smooth arc in MIG. I've found the R-Tech works very well as a stick welder.

The GYS SmartMIG seems to get good reviews. That's about £420

http://www.weldequip.com/mig-welders.htm

Then there's the question of inverters vs transformer machines.

Inverters tend to be lighter power for power, have far better duty cycles at the top end, more efficient and you can get more out of a 13A plug.

Transformer machines are less complicated internally, tend to go wrong less and when they do are far easier to fix.

I'd say that for the money you are talking about, there are lots of machines around, including the ones you mentioned, which are fine for welding car panels and home fabrication.

 

[Tom Orrow L]

Both good machines, the Parweld is transformer so less to go wrong with and the R-tech is inverter which are a bit more complicated but opens up the use of MMA.

As PTvor said, take a look at the GYS smartmig 162, great little machine with a brilliant front panel. It really help's with new MIG users.

Let me know if you've got any questions about it.

 

[Sam46]

Thanks cumbriasteve and PTvor; I'll have a look at the other suggestions. I keep reading great things about R-Tech's customer service, which is swaying me.

 

[PTvor]

There's also MIgTig and a few others based in places like Italy and Germany. Some sell on ebay.

The story is that the some of the inverter welders they sell are identical to R-Tech, but a lot cheaper. However, if they go wrong you have to send them back to Italy/Germany/Poland which I don't think costs all that much but there's delay and complication. R-Tech collect and return at their expense.

If you want to pay more you can get this with a five year warranty, and the warranty makes it worth thinking about.

http://www.weldequip.com/jasic-mig.htm

But you have to draw a line somewhere and as I said, £450 give or take should get a new MIG set fine for hobby use.

The other route you can take is to buy a used machine and there are some real bargains out there. You need to see it working and it helps if you can use it well enough to put it through its paces yourself, so maybe not so easy an option if you're new to MIG. There can be pitfalls as well. Spare parts may be hard to find for some production quality machines which have been off the market for a few years.

 

[ukracer]

Not sure about the parweld but if my memory serves me correctly the R-tech 180 does not take 15kg rolls of wire.....I think that's what swayed me to the 250.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

the R-tech 180 does not take 15kg rolls of wire

Correct, spec says 5kg only http://www.r-techwelding.co.uk/mig-welder-r-tech-i-mig180/