ARCCAPTAIN Stick Welder, [Large LED Display] 200A ARC/Lift TIG Welding Machine with Synergic Control, IGBT Inverter 110V/220V Portable MMA Welder Machine with Hot Start, Arc force and Anti-Stick

We live in the country and purchased the ARCCAPTAIN Stick Welder to help with building sheds for our sheep and goats, and it’s been fantastic! The 200A ARC/Lift TIG Welding Machine is incredibly powerful and easy to use. The large LED display makes it simple to monitor settings, and the synergic control ensures smooth and precise welding every time. It has been a huge asset in constructing sturdy, reliable sheds for our animals. The welder is durable, lightweight, and portable, which makes it perfect for outdoor projects. It’s also versatile, handling both stick and TIG welding effortlessly. Highly recommend this welder for anyone looking to tackle welding tasks on a farm or for DIY projects!

I’m teaching myself to weld and wanted to start with arc welding. This is a solidly built machine at a good price that I have a feeling will last me a really long time. I’m just starting out but have already moved past the presets and am working on dialing in settings for multiple rods and material thicknesses. When connected to 240v power this machine will handle any task I could ever need.The hot start and dig features are really nice for something this cheap and work extremely well, although I’m only now beginning to appreciate their usefulness. I’m still just in the practice stage and have only used it on 1/8” square tubing and angle, and haven’t had to get it anywhere near its maximum power with 3/32 7018 and 1/8 7014 rods. I’ll be interested to try it with some 5/32 rods and on even thicker material eventually. I will say that the ground clamp and stinger are kinda cheap and I upgraded both. I may ultimately upgrade the wires as well but the welder itself is solid, powerful, lightweight, and extremely versatile with the included 110v adapter. I could see this combined with a small portable generator being a lucrative setup… once I get good.

Good quality , light weight , good value for money . Good item !

I'm an experienced welder, so have top end welders to compare to. I enjoy buying the budget welders, evaluating them, then give some of them away. . I've done reviews on Yeswelder, and the sleeper of high quality, budget-friendly welders, Amico, which, at $189, is better priced than the Arccaptain. You'll see why I say this at the end of the review.Overall, Arccaptain stick welder is a nice machine, capable of using multiple types of rods. The display is great, and easy to read, even with my auto darkening helmet down. It has adjustable arc force, arc start, and has built in anti-stick feature, making it easier and safer to remove a stuck welding rod, by reducing amps to 10, instead of burning up the rod, as non anti-stick welders may do if you're not fast enough to remove the holder from the rod, or break it off the work. It has a nice rod selection feature, where you select the size rod you're using, and it keeps the amperage selection within the optimal boundaries of that diameter rod (you can bypass this feature as well). The power cord is about 6' long, with a 240-to120V adapter that seems well built but I can't see what the gauge is, or if it's aluminum or copper cable. The fan is high pitched and a little noisy, if that's a concern. No biggie but worth noting. The Yeswelder I evaluated has a much quieter fan. The ground clamp and electrode holder are actually pretty good for this price point! Welder efficiency is .7 which is better than the Bestarc (.6) but not even close to the Amico at .93 (1 is perfect efficiency).The main concern I have for highest efficiency rating, is welding at someone else's house who only have 120V available. On the same 20 amp outlet, the Bestarc may trip the breaker delivering 70 amps, were the Arccaptain may go to 85 amps, and the Amico to maybe 110 amps of delivered welding current. This can mean the difference of getting good weld penetration on 1/4" plate or pipe fence, or producing a weaker weld due to current limitation. Same issue on 220V as well. Something to think about.OK, for the testing. I used 5/32" Lincoln 7018. I put an amp-clamp on it and set it on 200 Amps. Surprisingly it read only 175 amps, with the current dropping on the second stick. I smelled a hot plastic odor coming from the cables. They were very hot! I noticed the wire gauge is only 16mm2, which is equivalent to #6 awg, and for copper cable, is rated for only 50 amps (For gauge, lower number means higher current capacity, wheres the European millimeter squared, higher number means higher amp capacity). This small wire is not good at all! So I pulled off the Dinse 35 connectors, electrode holder and ground clamp and replaced the cables with some spare #2 awg I had. Second surprise: I looked at the Arccaptain cables and was stunned to see they are copper plated aluminum! Even the copper wrap for the Dinse connectors are copper plated aluminum. In my opinion, if you buy this welder and plan to use it over 100 amps, I strongly suggest you swap out the cables. I bought my #2 cables from Temco on ebay but 20' (cut in half) length is $60, and you'll need lugs for the ground. So to do it right, you'll be into the upgrades for $70 with tax. (Are you seeing why I said the Amico is cheaper?) BTW, the Amico comes with 10' #1 gauge wires and heavy duty ground clamp and electrode holder. If you want to upgrade the electrode holder like I did, my favorite is the Lincoln 200 amp electrode holder, and is ~ $24 on amazon. I also like the Lincoln 300 amp ground clamp, and is about $26 on amazon.Once I replaced the cables I was able to get 190 amps out of the machine.One of the workhorses in the stick welding world is 6010 rod. It has deep weld penetration, can bridge gaps, and can weld dirty materials, including galvanized steel, and is great for out-of-position welding (vertical, overhead, etc) It has a mixture of flux materials, more importantly Calcium Carbonate, which burns back slower than the metal rod, creating a concavity at the end of the rod. This shields the steel during welding, and produces CO2 gas, shielding the weld from oxygen, and the CO2 provides more penetration compared to other gases. However this rod requires higher voltage to run, and many welders, including Yeswelder (from my personal testing). The Arccaptain actually does a pretty good job of running 6010 on both 220 and even 110V, although it runs better on 220V. If you look at the spec's for max welding voltage, it's 28v, which is needed for 6010. The high open circuit voltage is an indicator it is set up for higher welding voltage. The Amico also does a great job of welding with 6010 but my Everlast Thunder 255 is the best I've tested on 6010, and it even has a specific setting for running 6010...it's that tricky to run 6010 on inverter type welders. But the Everlast multiprocess welder is $1700 and weighs 78 lbs. So the Arccaptain running all rods including 6010 is great. It weighs about 8 lbs. I didn't test the lift tig but I wouldn't use this welder for tig. Overall, Arccaptain will work for most moderate jobs, and with upgraded cables can approach it's rated 200 amp output for sustained welding. With the upgraded cables, I have $185 into the machine for welding with 200 amp output, using the original ground clamp and electrode holder. For me, at $4 more, the Amico would be my choice, even with it's 17 lb weight and a little larger size. You take it out of the box and weld....no upgrades needed. But for most people the Arccaptain is a lightweight, good machine with a pretty good owner's manual.

Impressed with the power and ease of use. I did pop some 120 breakers after first. After switching to 220 I had no problems. Read the manual because I had some challenges at first but after switching to sync mode, it worked great and I’m VERY happy. Had I done that initially, I may not have tripled the 120 breakers.So small and light too.

works great, very small amd lightweight compared to my previous ones, but yet very strong

I love this machine, I am a professional specialty welder and I weld every day. This machine performs along side with some big box diesel welders. Best value for money on any machine I’ve ever purchased. Very easy to use and setup and the size and storage ability is amazing. It lays down some premium high quality welds. I run it off a 6500W generator 220v and heat is very hot, stable consistent arc and burns good. I am not tinkering with this machine, I’m welding 1/2inch plate to @20lb I-beam. Easy to adjust the temperature. I cant speak to long term durability because I just got it 3 days ago. So far it’s perfect. 1/8 7018 @ 130A

This can definitely weld, and the electrode holder is good as well. I’m a hobbyist / beginner stick welder and have only been welding for 3-4 weeks. This is my 2nd welder to buy as 1st one was a 125amp & very small. Excuse my poor welding skills. Picture is of this welder at 53amps running 3/32" X 14" E6011 RADNOR™ electrodes.I would definitely buy this at the price point, and it has a digital screen which is a bonus. Great welder.