Looking for a welder generator, I need one with about 10,000 watts for a backup generator for my office. Welder will mostly be light equipment repair and welding pipe fencing. A 225 amp machine will more than do the welding I need but most of the 250 amp machines are ac/dc +/- CC/CV and have larger generators. Machines I’m looking at are Lincoln Ranger 225/250 used Miller bobcat 225/250 used Or a new Infra Broncho which is basically a Miller clone made in Mexico with a 3 year warranty and service center at the local welding shop. This is a multi state regional pipe and steel dealer and welding supplier not a one man band. Going to stop by and do some test welding with one of there machines next time I’m in the area. I would prefer Miller/Lincoln but it’s hard to justify paying 70-80% new price on a used machine that has 1000-2000 hours on it vs spend just a little more and get the Infra with a warranty. What would you do?
I owned a 225G plus Miller, "great machine". I'm a Hobart or Miller guy, Just my opinion... Nothing wrong with a Lincoln or any good name brand machine. TSC has the Hobart 11,000 watt generator/welder for a little over $3000.00. Hobart Champion Elite DC Welder Generator, 500562 at Tractor Supply Co.. I like the warranty on these machines and they are built in the Miller plant. If you can swing the "new" machine, thats what I'd do. With some used machines, you have no idea how long they ran on the oil in the machine, was it left out in every type of weather, etc... With a new machine, you know what you have. This store is not one in your area, it came up random when I googled TSC but gives you an idea.
I dont know the answer to this, but do the welders produce clean power? Since its powering an office, something that's not pure sine wave could destroy electronics.
Funny you ask that. your answer will be yes and no! A couple years ago someone here on the forums actually had a disscussion about that exact subject and I learned an immense about it through that discussion. Welders are just that, "power" and amperage. Grinding tools, saws, most power tools could care less about "clean power". Here's where this gets the heart of the matter, I have an old Coleman generator 1987 and wanted to recently power up my "New" well pump and we got talking about clean power. Knowing a little from the last discussion years back here, I had a good friend of mine come over and "Tweak" my generator so it would run exactly at 60hz +- a few .00 and very small variations of voltage/power during load. I believe here, my opinion that "most" new, brand name generators "may" produce clean power but should be tested. I use a welder/generator for powering up my house when the power goes out during storms but we don't use computers or such. It's basically the essentials, lights, fridge, freezer etc... Unless you have investigated your welder generator I would assume "No" to the clean power issue. It's a tool/machine and fluctuation in current can happen with simple things like air temp, gas quality and so on. I haven't seen it but heard they make a line adapter to plug into a generator to produce clean power. Anyway, my little 4000 watt is very close but even then I wouldn't trust it for a computer or electronics. I did run my well pump and it was fine. They're are new Generac house generators that state they are clean power. Sooooooo..... My answer here would be read the manual before purchase and ask lots of questions, but that a good point of discussion!
I bought a miller 225A/8500W in 2001 Honda 390GX. Starts 2nd pull every time. One of the best investments I’ve made. IIRC it was around $2200 plus the leads at the time. I have it bolted to a 4x6’ platform on castors with a trash pump, small 1500W gen and small air compressor. Can easily be loaded in PU and taken to camp or in my service truck to fix a remote pice of equipment or truck broke down on side of road. One thing I would recommend is get at least 4 110 outlets and 1 30A . The more the better .
I bought a Miller Trailblazer 325 with excell power. Up to 2500 watts at idle speed and is super quiet. I think 12000 watts is the maximum.
Actually some engine drive welders put out very clean power. Miller has the skewed rotor and lincoln probably does something similar. Holding 60hz is not the only important part, spikes and transients general electrical noise is the issue. This noise is also injected into your house wiring by things you plug in and a lot of times it is worse than the supply coming out of a crappy generator. Led lights cause a lot of electrical noise when viewed on a scope. Also take into account that many things could care less about power quality. Anything that operates on battery replenishment like cell phones and laptops are inherently isolated. Wall worts also isolate your device.
Definitely good to learn! I had heard that "dirty power" from a 12v dc to ac inverter would cause damage to a laptop battery. I likely read it on the internet, so it must be true.
Was planning on looking around some more but found a good deal on Ranger 10,000 purchased in 2008 for a power outage only has 16 hours run time on it! Garage kept and looks perfect. Picked it up yesterday. When I say run the office I’m mostly needing it to keep the lights on and power a couple pieces of equipment so I can keep working. I will have UPS on my computers will look into ones safe to use with a generator. Worst case I can run off of my ipad for customer checkout. Or use my Yamaha 1000W inverter to run my computers. When funds become available I may purchase an actual standby system. Miller does claim to produce clean power however to Lincoln says not to run computers on their generators.
I own this little guy now, Champion® 145 Stick Welder/Generator | HobartWelders. Being I'm retired this does all I need and 145 amps is plenty. What my friend and I did with this was, I have a jumper plug into my house power panel, we ran the machine and tested the Voltage and Frequency in various places through out the house. it was a slight variation from 118 Volts to 121. The hrz's was 59 to 60 continuous so I felt comfortable running this machine for the house. We've used it twice with storms and for a period, at longest 6 hours and no issues with any appliances. My water heater is electric also but we shut that down at the breaker during outages and only keep the basics on. So far, this has been a great little machine and is quite thrifty with gas. We ran it during our last storm, about 6 hours and burned 3 gallons of gas.
