I picked one up back in 4/11 as I had a project to build a deck that was going to cost me 1500 in labor. So I put the $$$ towards the 250ex. I have not used any of the blue or red machines so I dont have much to compare to. I can say for the price its hard to beat but if you are going to depend on the machine for a living its going to be rough. I ordered the machine in April and was told I would have it in 2 weeks. A month later still no ETA, then 2 months later I wanted my money back but they said they were in customs and would be going out in the next day or two. A week later I called to find out that the machine was on the way and gave me a UPS tracking number...and I thought all was good till I ran the number and found out you can create the label but that doesnt mean the package had shipped. I called back the next day and they offered to overnight it. Once the machine showed up I tested it out and seemed to work fine. Then loading it on the cart I could hear a part rattling around so I opened the case and found a chip had broken off the board. I found where it came off from and so I called support. They said it was fine as it was just an extra part....that this is normal they add extra chips and then test and clip off the chips that are not needed. Not happy with that I called the owner and he had me talk with there repair guy. We tracked it down to a bank of filter caps and while its not needed to work, its not filtering the current. So he sent me out a few replacement chips that I was able to solder back on and I was back up and running. I was then able to build my deck and quite a few other projects. 9 months go by and I need to weld up a few cracks on my jon boat and I set up the 250 and dial up the right settings. Then as soon as I step on the petal I had the hottest arc this machine had ever put out and the display was ready 850amps...its only a 250 amp machine. So called support and they knew of the problem turns out that had been a bad batch of chips. They sent me another new chip to solder on but this time things did not go as well. I solder on the new chip but now I go now arc at all. Seems the bad chip was not the only problem, called back and they wanted me to pick up the shipping to send the unit back to get fixed. Keep in mind that the machine is like 75 pounds. After a few calls they picked up shipping so I sent the machine back. The ETA was 2 weeks, and they come and go still no machine. So I call back and they had a back log due to the repair shop moving from CA to MN. Another 2 weeks go by and I call back to see whats up they owner was going to track down my machine and get it back to me ASAP. 2 days later I get a tracking number that shows the machine is on it way back. I unbox it and find I got a replacement machine, the only problem was the display was kinda messed up looks like it was melted at some point, but the machine did work so I left things along. So its not the most dependable machine, but you get what you pay for and I still fell I came out ahead at this point