I joined the Everlast club Friday...inbound Everlast PowerTIG 250 EXT with water cooler!! Free shipping and no sales tax!
This was my journey to Everlast...
Okay stick with me. First I purchased a Lincoln PowerMIG 210MP I don't know 6 or 8 months ago, $995. I got one of the first 200 units made (in Mexico by the way). I was mostly interested in TIG but figured hey get it all in a multi process machine for $995 sweet! Wrong! After it arrived I discovered no the TIG kit is another $600 doh! And it wasn't available doh! Today its still not available it looks like they are packaging all the TIG kits they can manufacture with current orders leaving none for those of us who purchased the first few machines to buy. Its a hot seller I get it. But digging further to me it seems like the Lincoln's TIG feature is a hack job, guys taking their machines half apart just to install a foot pedal then you have a cable hanging out side of the machine with the panel door open, ahem no.
NEXT Miller Dynasty 280DX drool - I decided not to throw another $600 at the Lincoln for a hack job TIG and just buy a real TIG welder. I can afford the Miller but dang $7,000 for my hobby welding? Still I'm thinking okay Miller is the top of the line, Made in USA, never have to buy another one blah blah. The first hint of 'wait a minute' was their Coolmate 1.o water cooler. I saw some owner reports that basically said its junk. I'm thinking wait what happened to my Made in USA quality I'm paying all this money for? Its not like its cheap its $565 discounted. Well okay there is a Miller Coolmate 1.3 water cooler for $615 and people are happy with it, sticker price shock but okay. So I continue my research then I discover the Miller is no longer Made in USA its Assembled in USA. Okay hold the phone here. So then I read Miller has factories in China, these inverter machines are mostly electronics so I figure okay the majority of the guts of this machine is probably made in China so why would I pay a Made in USA price tag. To be fair to Miller they have a vast dealer support network, readily available parts and service, and if I was relying on a welder for my business and it was crucial I could see going Miller for that support but I'm not.
NEXT Well if the Miller is largely manufacture in China I decided to step back and reconsider all brands of TIG machines in the 250 to 300 amp range. Lincoln and some other brands were still pricey, not enough to lure me away from the Miller. But the Everlast 250 EXT wow it stood out as offering a lot of value for the money. Yes they don't have 6 service centers within 25 miles of my house like Miller does but I can live with that. 5 year warranty same as Miller. I'd save over $4,000 buying the Everlast wow. Look if the price difference was $1,000 or $1,500 I'm going Miller but $4,000+ savings? The Everlast is less than half the price of the Miller.
So I found a few owners of the Everlast 250EX who are very happy with them. Yes I found some negative commentary on Everlast out there on the interwebs but most of it was older. To me it appears Everlast has been making incremental improvements over the last few years and they seem to be hitting their stride with this PowerTIG 250EXT. I don't look for the occasional sour grapes review I look for patterns of them and the more recent patterns are owners who are happy with their Everlast machines.
So given the huge price savings and more recent happy customer reports I decided to give Everlast a shot. I will also say this. In the machine world, wood working machines in particular what I have noticed is this. These iconic USA brands like Powermatic that command a huge price premium moved to China, their quality fell vs Made in USA yet they never lowered the prices to reflect this. Meanwhile companies like Grizzly who started in China and have perfected it are putting a beat down on Powermatic. Grizzly manufactures some Made in China table saws that cost $1,000 less and are superior in every category to Made in China Powermatic. I have owned both and used them side by side. So in some ways the Everlast story makes sense to me. Your Lincolns and Millers are moving manufacturing off-shore. Maybe they are maintaining that Made in USA quality maybe not but there's no reason an Everlast can't manufacture something of similar quality.
