Welder Prices, WTF?

[Renegade1LI]

Went to pick up a Miller maxstar 161 today, 1445$ At the local welding supplier, almost doubled in price over a few years ago. Ended up ordering a ESAB rouge 180, almost 1/2 the price, good reviews, supplier said he sells 5 of these to 1 maxstar.

 

[zendriver]

Wow, the Chinese welder is half the price of one made in USA?

 

[Renegade1LI]

Wow, the Chinese welder is half the price of one made in USA?

Not sure about that, I believe the rouge is made in south carolina, the rebel is made in china.

 

[dr_clyde]

The Maxstar 161 has been that price for several years now, I have two and they’ve both been around $1500. Worth every penny too, made their money back in two days. I’d buy another one tomorrow if one of mine died today.

The Maxstar is also a professional grade DC CC power source, the ESAB is targeted toward a hobby shop welder.

Miller is also 10x the company to deal with from a corporate level apparently. My LWS has nothing good to say about ESAB.

 

[ItsNemo]

Miller prices have gone through the roof. I paid $1,700+tax for my Multimatic 215 from Air Liquide 5 years ago and Miller had a $250 build with blue on top of that so it was even less in the end. Today, they're listing it at $3,291 though going rate is $2,700 or so. Either way, $1000 more than it used to be and that seems to be across the board with their welders in the last year or two.

(all prices in CAD)

 

[corn chip]

i have to be honest. not sure ive bought anything based on reviews ,atleast not a major purchase anyways. theres just far to many variables involved for me to put any weight in a review. what i like to do is dig in and do my own research without influence of a review, that may or may not even be valid. youtube videos are sugar coated often times and many of the online reviewers are people that arent very knowledgable in the product theyre reviewing

 

[MJD1]

The Maxstar 161 has been that price for several years now, I have two and they’ve both been around $1500. Worth every penny too, made their money back in two days. I’d buy another one tomorrow if one of mine died today.

The Maxstar is also a professional grade DC CC power source, the ESAB is targeted toward a hobby shop welder.

Miller is also 10x the company to deal with from a corporate level apparently. My LWS has nothing good to say about ESAB.

Not really. The ESAB has adjustable hot start and adjustable arc force. Pretty much same features as a lift arc maxstar with more amps and a better duty cycle.

 

[dr_clyde]

Not really. The ESAB has adjustable hot start and adjustable arc force. Pretty much same features as a lift arc maxstar with more amps and a better duty cycle.

That explains all the ESAB equipment I see in industrial environments. Oh wait. And by that I mean, almost none.

Welders are expensive right now because of the same reason everything else is expensive right now. ESAB might be doing this as a loss leader to get back into the market, because ever since they bought out Ltec they haven’t been much of a player in the US industrial market.

My LWS tries to steer customers away from ESAB even if it means losing a sale. That tells me a LOT.

 

[MJD1]

I'm not a fan of higher end ESAB equipment either but on a CC power source like a sub 200 amp stick welder how much difference can there be? Miller is definitely #1 here( especially since this area is less than 100 miles from the Appleton headquarters) but the welding suppliers definitely like to offer lower cost options that are on par with Miller or Lincoln.

 

[Renegade1LI]

Since I needed 2 small welders I ordered a maxstar 161 & an esab 180, letting 2 crews use them for a couple months each, swapping & seeing which one they like best. I had 4 maxstars, two burned up, one stolen & I have 1 left I use for punchlist work, need to try the 180 myself as I've been using the 161 for years.

 

[MJD1]

Since I needed 2 small welders I ordered a maxstar 161 & an esab 180, letting 2 crews use them for a couple months each, swapping & seeing which one they like best. I had 4 maxstars, two burned up, one stolen & I have 1 left I use for punchlist work, need to try the 180 myself as I've been using the 161 for years.

The fact that the ESAB is so much cheaper is one of the main reasons why process piping contractors in my area bought them. It proved to be that the ESAB machines were less likely to grow legs.

 

[fordkid88]

We use the maxstars all the time at work and on the road installs. They just keep on ticking. We have worn out the high freq units and those have been replaced. Ours a bounced around in vans dragged all over plants and the shop. I've burned out torches because I had done so much welding with one that it left red marks on my arm and shoulders where I had the torch wrapped on me but never hit the duty cycle of the machine.

 

[BarrelRoll]

That's nut, I didn't realize how crazy Miller prices have gotten. I bought my 211 probably 4 years about and I think it's gone up $600 in that time.

 

[86turbodsl]

Miller shoots for top quality. You get what you pay for.

 

[dffay]

Rogue. Not rouge.

 

[Steve_P]

That explains all the ESAB equipment I see in industrial environments. Oh wait. And by that I mean, almost none.

Welders are expensive right now because of the same reason everything else is expensive right now. ESAB might be doing this as a loss leader to get back into the market, because ever since they bought out Ltec they haven’t been much of a player in the US industrial market.

My LWS tries to steer customers away from ESAB even if it means losing a sale. That tells me a LOT.

This. I occasionally visit large fab shops for work that do huge weldments and probably have 20 welders scattered around. It's almost all Miller and the rest is Lincoln. I can't remember ever seeing anything else in professional shops over the years: it's mostly blue and the rest is red.
Decades ago I worked in a suspension manufacturing plant that did a lot of MIG and spot welding. For production MIG we mainly used Kobelco, but also had a few Panasonics and Hobarts. These were MIG welders used with robots, 100% duty cycle, 200+ amps, 208V three phase, etc. The maintenance/mobile welders in the factory were Miller.

 

[Renegade1LI]

I ordered an esab 180 & and a maxstar, get them next week, we'll see how it holds up to construction site conditions. For the price if I get a year or two I'ii be happy, especially if it doesn't disappear.