By budget
Two hundred euros buys a real machine — the question is which compromise you accept. At this price you choose between a published duty cycle, a real importer, gas capability, and raw amperage. You will not get all four.
Two hundred euros buys a real machine — the question is which compromise you accept. At this price you choose between a published duty cycle, a real importer, gas capability, and raw amperage. You will not get all four.
Two to five millimeters of steel, usually outdoors and in an awkward position. Flux-cored and stick cope; gas MIG needs shelter.
Below about a millimeter and a half, the heat goes through before the pool forms. This is gas MIG territory at low settings, and the one place where flux-cored is a real handicap.
Jigs, brackets, carts: short beads on clean, clamped steel. Almost any machine in this bracket will do; comfort comes from fine adjustment, not amperage.
The most forgiving process is stick on thick steel: the pool is visible, the pace is slow, and mistakes show up in the bead immediately.
| What you weld | The process that suits | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| 3–6 mm (0.12 to 0.24 in) steel, outdoors | Flux-cored or stick | Duty cycle at the current you will actually use |
| 1–3 mm (0.04 to 0.12 in) steel, in the shop | Gas MIG | A gas solenoid and a standard torch connector |
| Sheet under 1.5 mm (0.06 in) | Gas MIG, low settings | Fine adjustment rather than coarse steps |
| Thick steel, occasional repair | Stick | Current held over time, not just printed on the case |
A machine in this bracket lasts if three things are watched: cooling airways kept clean, torch consumables kept fresh, and the earth clamp kept tight. No service life can be stated in advance — it depends on use, on how dusty the shop is, and on whether the duty cycle is respected.
Welding brings together three risks that do not offset one another: arc radiation, fume and fire. Welding fume is classified a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer; it is the least visible risk and the most often postponed.
200 A · hot start · overheat protection · €90
Ninety dollars for a 200 A stick inverter — the cheapest way to weld outdoors on steel you have not cleaned.
Best for: Outdoor repairs on rusty, painted or galvanized steel, at the lowest possible entry price
135 A · gasless · 60% duty cycle stated · €110
The cheapest machine on this page, and — unusually for the price — one that publishes a duty cycle figure at all.
Best for: A first machine for someone finding out whether they enjoy welding at all
Gasless · 7.5 kg (16.5 lb) · D100 spools · €140
Seven and a half kilos, a set of tips and a reel of wire in the box — the machine you take to the work rather than the other way round.
Best for: Repairs away from the bench — gates, trailers, a bracket on a machine that cannot be moved
160 A · 230 V · 8 kg (17.6 lb) · €176
An 8 kg (17.6 lb) three-process inverter with a seven-year manufacturer’s warranty and a German importer with a published address.
Best for: A first MIG where the budget is firm and the machine must still be repairable in five years
160 A · gasless only · 3-in-1 · €200
A gasless-only machine, on purpose: no bottle, no regulator, no shielding to be blown away — for people who weld outdoors.
Best for: Gates, trailers, fence posts and anything welded where you cannot close a door
Usually the duty cycle and the documentation. Machines here claim 160 to 200 A and mostly do not say for how long, which means short bursts. Torch fitments are often proprietary, so consumables come from one importer. And a warranty may exist without an address to send anything to.
Sometimes, and with a caution: a used professional machine at €200 is usually a better welder than a new hobby one, but welding machines are bought by people who work them hard, and an inverter with a failing board is scrap. Buy used from someone who will let you strike an arc first.
Not if you go gasless flux-cored or stick. Yes for gas MIG, and then it belongs in the budget: bottle, regulator and deposit sit on top of the machine price. At this level of spend that is often what tips the decision.
Flux-cored carries its shielding in the flux: it works outdoors, dirties the bead and needs chipping. Solid wire needs gas, gives a cleaner bead and does better on thin sheet. Many machines take both, provided you swap the polarity.
That depends on the process and the number of passes more than on the machine. In a single pass these sets aim at ordinary steel a few millimeters thick; beyond that you bevel and weld in several passes, which stays possible as long as the duty cycle is respected.
An inverter is lighter, more finely adjustable and more sensitive to dust and damp. A transformer forgives more but is heavy and adjusts coarsely. At this budget the inverter dominates the market, which makes keeping it clean matter all the more.
It is worth whatever the address you would send the machine to is worth. Two years quoted with no identifiable European importer usually means carriage at your expense and an open-ended wait. Check who is selling before you check how long.
Not straight away, but it is the first worthwhile spend if the machine has a standard connector. A decent torch changes welding comfort more than extra amps do, and it stays with you when the machine changes.
For work that: Outdoor repairs on rusty, painted or galvanized steel, at the lowest possible entry price
Where it is best: Hot start, which is the feature that decides whether a beginner strikes an arc or glues an electrode to the plate
Where it is worst: No published duty cycle — assume brief bursts at the top of the range
For work that: A first machine for someone finding out whether they enjoy welding at all
Where it is best: States a duty cycle, which most machines at three times the price do not
Where it is worst: No EAN published, so the product could not be traced to the French, Italian, Spanish or British stores
For work that: Repairs away from the bench — gates, trailers, a bracket on a machine that cannot be moved
Where it is best: Arrives ready to weld: wire, four tip sizes and the electrode lead are in the box
Where it is worst: D100 spools only — 1 kg (2.2 lb) at a time, which is the expensive way to buy wire
For work that: A first MIG where the budget is firm and the machine must still be repairable in five years
Where it is best: Seven-year warranty from a named German company with a published address, not an anonymous seller
Where it is worst: No inductance control, so spatter on thin sheet is what it is
For work that: Gates, trailers, fence posts and anything welded where you cannot close a door
Where it is best: No gas bottle to rent, fill, store or carry — the running cost is wire alone
Where it is worst: Gasless only: you cannot fit a bottle later and weld clean MIG with it
Tips, nozzles, wire and gas from the same aisle, at the price we read. Confirm they suit the machine you choose before ordering: it turns on the torch and the part number, which the product page gives.
Welder against welder, where the comparison is already written up.
The welders here are taken from the catalog of this site. Specifications come from the maker and from the Amazon product page; prices are what Keepa reported for the date shown, and both move. The order rests on declared specifications, on stated strengths against stated limits, and on price. No machine here has struck an arc in our hands, and nothing on this page pretends it has.
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Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.
Welders and plasma cutters swing by a hundred dollars or more across the year, and the biggest "discounts" often land at prices the same model sold for six weeks earlier. UniverTrack tracks the real price history across retailers, spots fake reductions, and alerts you when it is genuinely the moment to buy.
