Workshop power
Most workshop machines are limited by the building rather than by the machine. A 230 V, 16 A socket sets a ceiling on what any welder or plasma cutter can draw continuously, and that ceiling is usually reached long before the machine’s rated maximum.
Most workshop machines are limited by the building rather than by the machine. A 230 V, 16 A socket sets a ceiling on what any welder or plasma cutter can draw continuously, and that ceiling is usually reached long before the machine’s rated maximum.
Most workshops: a few beads with pauses between them. The duty cycle is almost never reached.
A grinder draws less than a welder but draws it continuously. That is a different regime, and harder on an undersized cable.
The compressor restarts during the cut: it is the two inrush currents adding up that trips the circuit, not either on its own.
Bench grinder, bandsaw, pillar drill: starting current far exceeds rated current, briefly.
| Symptom | Most likely cause | What to look at |
|---|---|---|
| The breaker trips at start-up | Inrush current and trip curve | The breaker’s curve, not its rating |
| The breaker trips after several minutes | Running beyond the duty cycle | Duty cycle at the current in use |
| The machine lacks bite | Voltage drop in the supply | Extension lead cross-section and length |
| The socket or cable gets warm | Poor contact or undersized cable | The state of the socket and the cable rating |
A workshop supply needs little maintenance, but it does give warning. A blackened socket, a warm cable, a smell of heat after a long job: those signals always come before the failure.
The risk of an undersized supply is not the outage: it is a cable heating inside a conduit or a wall.
200 A · synergic · gas and gasless · €330
The synergic 200 A inverter that most German workshops end up with, and the cheapest machine here with a genuinely adjustable inductance.
Best for: A first serious MIG that will still be adequate after two years of use
15–45 A · 15 mm (0.59 in) steel / 8 mm (0.31 in) stainless / 5 mm (0.20 in) aluminum · €330
The first machine here that publishes its cut thickness for three materials instead of one — which is the whole specification.
Best for: A workshop cutting steel plate and section up to about 10 mm (0.39 in), cleanly
200 A · 230 V · rutile, basic, stainless, cast iron to Ø 4 mm (0.16 in) · €263
The only machine in this batch live on all six markets, and the only one that names the electrode types it is built for.
Best for: Someone who welds cast iron or runs basic electrodes and wants the machine to cope
≈ $405
20–100 A · 400 V three phase · 45 mm (1.77 in) severance · €949
Three-phase, 45 mm (1.77 in), and the machine on this page most likely to be stopped by your electrical supply rather than by its own limits.
Best for: A workshop with a three-phase supply and plate that defeats everything else
Usually because the demand exceeds what the circuit can hold, or because the breaker curve is wrong for an inrush load. Welding inverters draw a surge at strike, and a curve intended for lighting reacts to that. Which curve is standard varies by country — in Britain a type B is common on domestic circuits, in Spain a type C — so the right answer depends on where you are.
Only for the heaviest equipment. On this site, one plasma cutter requires 400 V three-phase and everything else runs on 230 V single-phase. If you have three-phase available, it spreads the load and machines behave better under sustained use; if you do not, it is a substantial installation rather than an upgrade.
It depends on current and length: the longer the run, the bigger the cross-section. A heavy site lead costs little next to a machine held back, and it lasts for years.
Electrically, often yes at low settings; in practice the circuit is shared and protected for another purpose. A dedicated circuit avoids tripping the rest of the house on every bead.
Not for this kind of load: such devices are not sized for a welder’s inrush. The remedy is cable cross-section and circuit rating, not a box in between.
Provided it is generously sized and delivers a clean waveform: the electronics in welding inverters are sensitive to it. The power needed is far above the average power consumed.
By hand, after a long job: a warm cable is normal, a hot one is not. A blackened or deformed socket is a later and more serious signal.
Where it is already available, it allows a higher duty cycle and puts less strain on the installation. Having it installed for occasional use rarely adds up: the connection cost far exceeds the difference in performance.
For work that: A first serious MIG that will still be adequate after two years of use
Where it is best: Synergic control: you set the material and thickness, the machine sets the wire speed
Where it is worst: The duty cycle is not stated with its temperature in the listing, so 200 A is a ceiling, not a working figure
For work that: A workshop cutting steel plate and section up to about 10 mm (0.39 in), cleanly
Where it is best: Three cut thicknesses published, by material — the only honest way to quote a plasma cutter
Where it is worst: 45 A maximum, so 15 mm (0.59 in) is the real ceiling in steel
For work that: Someone who welds cast iron or runs basic electrodes and wants the machine to cope
Where it is best: Names the electrode families it handles — including basic and cast iron, which cheaper machines avoid mentioning
Where it is worst: €263, against €90 to €140 for the machines above it
For work that: A workshop with a three-phase supply and plate that defeats everything else
Where it is best: Forty-five millimeters of severance — nothing else here is close
Where it is worst: 400 V three phase: most domestic and many small workshops cannot power 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.
Last checked on
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.
