HTP Welders??

I've seen their advertisements in the magazine on a semi regular basis, but I have yet to run into anyone that has actually used one. Does anyone have any experience with this company, and could tell me their thoughts compared to the other major welding companies?

Andrew

Never used one, but they seem popular:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=649793

I like my Lincoln. I also like their policy of not laying off workers during this recession: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120097251

I had a invertig 160 and loved it. Customer service was outstanding. Never should have sold it. My next welder will be a HTP also.

I grew up about 100 miles from the Lincoln factory. Even back then, '60s, they were famous for working conditions and Christmas bonuses. Get a job there, set for life.

HTP welders are very well respected within the fabricator community. Their customer support is excellent as well.

i have one i bought used a year ago. since it is my first one i cant say if it is better or worse than any other... though my guess is that you do actually get what you pay for. my comments are this....

temp control is a little sketchy sometimes there isnt a lot of difference between setting 3 and 4 and setting 2 fluctuates a lot from day to day so setting wire speed and heat is a "by the pants" not "by the chart" adventure. some days i can do 18 gauge on setting two. some days it takes setting three.

the gas hose setup is a little flimsy and you can easily waste ton or gas if the fittings pop off. the setting knob on the HTS gas nozzle i had was not up to the challenge and this happened a lot early on. got a new regulator and it is just fine. again mine was used so that may be the issue.

wire feed (at .023 anyway) can get sketchy if the lining isn't brought back all the way to the feed wheels. especially if you are doing long beads. the tip seems to grab the wire as it cools when you stop. as long as you waste an inch or two of wire a few seconds after you stop a long run this seems to happen a lot less.

power use seems reasonable as i have yet to trip a breaker and i have used it for some very long setting 4 runs.

anyway. so far i have used the wee out of it in the last year and it has more than paid for itself and the new regulator. thats my .02!

Which model do you have?

After checking out a local fabricators shop, I KNOW you get what you pay for. Of course, you also don't need to pay for more than you need. I use a Harbor Freight cheapo TIG, and it works for me, but after watching him TIG the edges of two 1cm x 2cm pieces of tinfoil thick stainless together (with a Miller from the '50s that will run 500A at 100% duty cycle), I know it wouldn't work for him.

I also have a Lincoln 120v mini-MIG, and it works good too. You MUST have very good current capacity at the outlet though. I get my best results by plugging in a homemade super duty extension cord right next to my breaker panel. Any voltage drop and it hardly melts the electrode wire.

I may be wrongm but I seem to recall some connection between HTP and Daytona Mig from when I had a Daytona PowerMIG 130 some years ago.

The Daytona machines were made by Cerbora in Italy, and while not M-L-H quality (Miller-Lincoln-Hobart, the 3 US brands everyone will tell you you to buy, including me) it was a perfectly serviceable little machine and I did a whole car with ~a lot~ of welding, plus innumerable other jobs. A teflon wire liner, a clip on wire cleaner, and good, clean tips made it run quite well.

That said, after a long, long search on Craigslist I lucked into a super clean, low miles Millermatic 185 w/ a huge bottle of C25 included for under $500.

It's totally awesome. I sold the used Daytona for about the $300 I'd paid for it, installed a 220V outlet in the garage (the equally sweet 5HP/60 gallon/4 cylinder-2 Stage Speedaire compressor in the same sale was also 220) and had welding nirvana ever since.

Beware however the slippery slope of having 220 in the garage. A Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster 38 plasma cutter and a Miller Syncrowave 180 TIG showed up pretty shortly thereafter.

I'd hold out for a good used machine from one of the American big 3. Spend a little more up front - you'll be happier, parts availability is excellent, and once the first owner takes the depreciation hit, they hold their value very well.

The rampant problem I hear about buying the BIG 3 on craigslist is they are almost all broken, mostly major items. A guy I know just bought one and it needs a circuit board. I am tempted to try the HTP welders, if only because it is something different, the only part I'm wary about would be the long term stability of the company in 10-15 years, I mean will the recession kill them like so many other great companies, I dunno.

The price, compared to the other brands is on par if not a little bit lower, and the weight of the machines is lower as well, but I guess that could be good or bad depending on how one looks at it.

I am waiting before I purchase, I just bought a house, and a lift is being installed before I buy a welder...

Andrew

I ust severed a relationship with an SIP 170 Mig after the impulse purchase of a Lincon 220 V unit.

I did a lot of welding with the SIP. Consumables were a constant struggle. Electronic repairs were only due to an electronics background that allowed me to fix them myself.

The Lincoln is in a whole new level of welding. Suddenly I am a MUCH better and consistent welder.

Kinda like going from street rubber to R compound.

OK, I give up. I'm selling my Miller 175. See the classifieds. Arrgh.

FWIW, going with the big three doesn't guarantee that you're getting a great product. Case in point, the Miller Econotig was very attractive in that it was under $2k and offered AC and DC Tig. But you'd be hard pressed to find a good fabricator who thinks its worth a E36 M3.

In reply to digdug18:

Andrew,

Thanks for your interest in our products. Regarding the long term stability of the company - obviously I can not predict the future, and anyone that tells you they can is lying to you. And looking at the list of large companies that are in financial straights, in my opinion, the size of the company is no guarantee of its long term viability.

Pontiac will be gone soon, Eastern Airlines and TWA are gone, Enron, Lehman Brothers, I could go on. No, we are not as large as Lincoln or Miller, and no we have not been in business as long as either of them, although we have been around for 28 years.

Generally speaking, if there is a problem with an HTP welder, more than likely it is because we don't know about it.

And let's set the record straight - there is no connection between Daytona Mig, Cebora, and HTP America - other than the fact that we will attempt to help people who own Daytona Mig and Cebora welders get parts for their machines, along with any other off brand welder that most welding distributors will tell them to throw away. And by the way, we sell parts for Miller and Lincoln machines too!

Keep in mind, we offer a 90 day money back guarantee on all of our welders. As a sign of the economic times, we took a machine back last year because the owner was laid off 2 months after he purchased it. So, as you can see, it is a no BS guarantee. I am wondering how many other welding companies would do that.....

When you get your lift installed, and you are ready to get a welder, we would welcome your call to help you select the correct machine for your application.

Once again, thanks for your interest, and if you have any other questions, feel free to call us at 1-800-872-9353.

Jeff Noland

To Kreb- My first welding instructor had an Econotig and loved it. He did say that he did not get the control at very low amp settings that he wanted sometimes. He did a lot of restaurant stainless work with it, and for that he was totally happy. YMMV.

I have two HTP welders at Eclectic Motorworks (I also have a couple of blue welders). We welded up the Classic Motorsports Modern Midget with a HTP 140 MIG unit and we've been very pleased with it ever since--it's had tons of use and not one repair. We also have a higher-end HTP spot welder that is like magic for restoration work.

I see a lot of welders from every brand during the hands-on welding and restoration seminars we offer and I think the HTPs are among the best. Many of our seminar participants have purchased HTPs after using one at our shop.

I'll add a note about buying a welder. People often ask which one to buy, what features, etc.. My sort-of joking reply is that once you've got it narrowed down to a couple, buy the heaviest one you can afford. Heavy welders in a price/size class usually have bigger transformers and more metal/less plastic. The HTP 140 is much heavier than most/all in its class and is a great all-around MIG welder.

--Carl

In reply to Jeff N:

Can you weld canoe's? I keed, I keed........

Didn't I say that the customer service is outstanding?

zoomx2 wrote: In reply to Jeff N: Can you weld canoe's? I keed, I keed........

Dude is a advertiser so Nein on the Canoe.....

cwh wrote: To Kreb- My first welding instructor had an Econotig and loved it. He did say that he did not get the control at very low amp settings that he wanted sometimes. He did a lot of restaurant stainless work with it, and for that he was totally happy. YMMV.

But that alone - for me at least - made all the difference. Working on thin material as much as I do, it made it useless. I sold my Econotig and moved up to a Syncrowave, and have never looked back.

I have an HTP Invertig 201 welder. I knew nothing about HTP, until I saw their ads in GRM. The welder is a nice machine. I think their machines offer good value. Easy to use and dial in.

HTP service is second to none, I kid you not. HTP helped me figure out what I needed - even though I stated up front that I wouldn't be buying for another 6 months. They were very patient with my questions. Six months later, HTP, and I guess GRM, were 'rewarded' by me buying the 201.

HTP is also great for finding parts and supplies for other brand welders and plasma cutters. I was able to find bits and pieces for a Harbor Freight plasma cutter.

My 2 cents on HTP - two thumbs up!

Flexi, What do you think of your Horible Freight plasma cutter?

Thanks for the good feedback, I think I'll talk to HTP first then when looking for a welder... I'm 2 days at the new house, and getting to fix all the old problems that the previous tenants didn't feel like fixing for the last 10 years, YAY...

Andrew

porksboy,

Hmm, I'd say it is a 4-5 out of 10. If I were to do it again, I'd get a better machine... It works, but is a bit flakey at times. I think it was incorrectly wired at the factory. The built in safety mechanism doesn't seem to work properly. The documentation is not quite good enough for me to consider repairing it myself.

In comparison, my Invertig is a 10 out of 10. My Hobart 187 MIG is also a 10 out of 10.

Cheap is good only when it works...

Flexi

Flexi

Thanks for the info, they just had a black friday special on the invertig as well, sorry to say i don't have the money at this time to pick one up though, I need to wait a couple of months. Good to know about the HF plasma cutter, is it the 220V cutter you have then? How do you mean by flaky? Does it decide when to work and when not to work of what?

Andrew