Econotig vs Synchrowave 180SD

[Mowjunk]

I plan to buy a TIG welder in the next month or so. I am looking at the Econotig and the Synchrowave 180. Although money is an object, would I be better off spending the extra money for the 180 or go for the economical Econotig? I am just getting into TIG welding. I plan to use it on mower decks and small engine blocks and maybe an occaisional roll bar if I trust my welding enough. Any advice will be appreciated.


Thanks, :confused:

Mowjunk

Hey RockyD, I wanted to put my avatar under my name, but Hobart said it would scare the kids and old folk....

[BugEyedValiant]

I would go after the 180. I have an Econotig and I was in the same situation when I bought it. There is nothing wrong with the Econotig, but it is rather lacking if you do any aluminum in the future. I ended up buying a Syncrowave 300 to upgrade from the Econotig.

[Rocky D]

Originally posted by Mowjunk
I plan to buy a TIG welder in the next month or so. I am looking at the Econotig and the Synchrowave 180. Although money is an object, would I be better off spending the extra money for the 180 or go for the economical Econotig? I am just getting into TIG welding. I plan to use it on mower decks and small engine blocks and maybe an occaisional roll bar if I trust my welding enough. Any advice will be appreciated.


Thanks, :confused:

Mowjunk

Hey RockyD, I wanted to put my avatar under my name, but Hobart said it would scare the kids and old folk....


Hey...it's almost Halloween...so it would be perfect...you'll fit right in! Do it! :D

Get the Syncrowave...you won't regret it.

[Hobart Expert Rock]

MOWJUNK.......... SEEN A LOT OF SCARIE THINGS IN MY DAY...... HEY PUT IT UP THERE DON'T WORK WE WILL ZIP IT OFF.....;)
CONSIDER THIS THE ECONOTIG GOES AS LOW AS 20 AMPS IN AC AND 25 AMPS IN DC...... THE SYNCROWAVE GOES DOWN TO 10 AMPS IN DC AND 15 AMPS IN AC.............
HEY I'M JUST CHIMEING IN WITH SOME MORE INFO........ CAN'T NEVER GET ENOUGH INFO...........ROCK.........
SSCOTT@MILLERWELDS.COM

[Dan]

Originally posted by Mowjunk
I plan to buy a TIG welder in the next month or so. I am looking at the Econotig and the Synchrowave 180. Although money is an object, would I be better off spending the extra money for the 180 or go for the economical Econotig? I am just getting into TIG welding. I plan to use it on mower decks and small engine blocks and maybe an occaisional roll bar if I trust my welding enough. Any advice will be appreciated.


Thanks, :confused:

Mowjunk

Hey RockyD, I wanted to put my avatar under my name, but Hobart said it would scare the kids and old folk....

I recently went through the same dilema. In the end I went with the Econotig. I must admit though that I wanted the Syncrowave, because it is obviously the better of the two machines. However certain limitation made it so that the Econotig was my only logical choice. The biggest problem I had was my input circuit to the machine. If I remember right the Syncrowave required at least an 80 amp circuit for the AC side of the machine. Where as the Econotig requires a 52 amp circuit. My input circuits are 50 amps.

The second problem ended up being cost. My wife said no to the $1400 that a 180 cost. She had a legitimate arguement. In the past year and a half I had purchased a HH 175, MM 210 with spoolgun, and a Hypertherm power max 380 plasma cutter.

Am I dissappointed with having to settle for the Econotig? The answer to this would be no. However , This is because most of my TIG welding is done on .120 wall mild steel and stainless steel tubing. This doesn t mean that I couldn t do an aluminum project with the Econotig. The Econotig will weld aluminum too. I just don t have any current projects that I can come up with that requires the use of aluminum.

If you go to the old message board and do a search for these machines you should find an indepth discussion that I had with others who were asking the same question as you are about these machines.

[Mowjunk]

Thanks to all and Dan, I will search the old board for more information. I bought a MM175 this year but to my surprise, she gave me the OK.

Now how do I make the avatar?

[Mowjunk]

Originally posted by Rocky D



Hey...it's almost Halloween...so it would be perfect...you'll fit right in! Do it! :D




Ok, I did the avatar......but I surely don't know why.