Sunstac 250A Aluminum TIG Welder with Pulse ACDC Foot Pedal Control

Sunstac did it again! Let me start this review by saying I’ve been welding for 20 years now professionally and I’ve got to say I’ve never been more impressed by a company that can put out machines like this at this price point. Quick backstory, I bought the 5-1 MiG tig plasma machine a few months ago from sunstac and was honestly hoping it would last one job to get me through it. Fear not, it’s paid for itself 100 times already. My only kicker with it is it didn’t do ac tig. I was so impressed with the other unit (that I’m still using everyday) that I had to get a matching ac tig machine and I’m glad I did. This little machine pumps some amperage out. It will weld 1/4 aluminum no questions asked (220v). I run both of my sunstacs off of my miller trailblazer which has a 10k generator built into it (50amp output). If you’re wondering if a 10k generator will run this machine the answer is yes, I absolutely can confirm that it will do its job with a 50amp 220 output generator that producing 10k watts or greater. Pros- -for its price point it’s fairly adjustable - light weight and mobile - build quality is quite good, I’ve taken it apart to check if everything was secured and tight inside and everything was great. -35-50 dinse connectors make everything quick and easy to break down and put together. - versatile settings ac/dc tig with pulse and spot weld feature Cons- - the ground cable is on the shorter side, this doesn’t effect me since I am equipped with my own leads but keep that in mind if you’re planning on doing work far away from the machine. - the torch does get quite hot rather quickly when welding heavier material. This is completely normal for an air cooled setup but does need to be mentioned for people that may not have as much experience. I am planning on retro fitting a water cooler to the machine which after taking it apart will be extremely easy to do. Keep this in mind if you’re planning on welding heavy material for a longer period of time. Though I have not been able to make the machine trip into thermal protection even welding thicker material, it does get quite uncomfortable. Summary If I could give this machine more stars I absolutely would at this price point and how efficient it is the home hobbyist will absolutely not be disappointed at all. I use this thing to make money and thus far is been a great addition to my equipment. Bravo sunstac hats off to you for making a great machine. I love it so much I might buy another one just to have a back up machine.

I figured I would gamble on this since it was so much cheaper than every other one. It works great so far. I have a tiny bit of MIG welding experience and no TIG experience. I struggled day one but found a good video that got me going smoothly on day two on 1/8 and 1/16 aluminum. I definitely need practice but I don't think the machine is holding me back. I also order the pedal, a gas regulator, and initially forgot tungsten. As others have said the directions are very limited but there are good reference websites you can get tig settings from. It was a bit overwhelming with how many settings there were until I learned that most don't matter if you have a foot pedal. Overall I'm super happy with it. One other review mentions measuring the output but based on some reading that is often limited by the torch you get. A few of the better known brands with 200+amp welders had information about their torches and most were limited to around 150amp. My understanding is that much above that you need a liquid cooled torch. Anyway I think it's a great buy if you want to dip your toe in or just have a couple small projects. I'll update my review if anything changes.

Doesn't put out the advertised amperage. As soon as I struck an arc, I could tell something was off, so I grabbed my clamp meter to see if I was just imagining things. When I put the meter on it, the actual max amperage read to only be 162a (see pic). I tested this on both the ground clamp lead as well as the torch lead, and got the same result both times. 162a is nowhere even close to the 250a that is advertised on this thing. Just to be sure, I also tested both with a pedal (from another tig welder) fully depressed and without a pedal (using the switch on the torch) and got the same result 162a each time. Other things I noticed: The frequency setting maxes out at only100Hz, whuch is rather limiting to say the least. The icons on the screen are rather small and hard to read making it difficult to do any quick adjustments without getting up close and personal. Btw, I checked the amperage using the same meter on a different brand 200a ac tig welder just to eliminate the meter as the culprit, and it read nearly the full 200a as advertised, so I know its not an issue with the meter.

I bought this weekend after many reviews of several known welders on the market, and Yes, I looked at several ones with the multi process like this Sunstac 250. I mainly purchased it for aluminum tig, which I have not had the privilege since I didn't have one, though I do have a spool gun for aluminum. I am impressed that it is not advertised also for burning 6010, which is a high cellulose rod that most small machines will not run, and this one dose, huge plus, most do burn the 6013 & 7018, this one has no problem there either. I am still dialing in the settings for aluminum. I highly recommend this machine on grounds of 6010 capability, and it's Tig mode AC DC with high frequency and pulse actions. I tend to stay away of the (10 in 1 ) machines all in one, I'm afraid of one thing going down and all fail.

Absolutely love this machine. It performs well for Tig and stick. I've done aluminum, cast iron, stainless steel and mild steel with this machine and it has done me great so far. I've put about 1000hrs on it so far. There are only 2 issues I will mention...1. I have tried a few different 5 pin pedals and can't seem to get it to work with a pedal so I just use the trigger on the torch....2. the part where you connect the gas line comes loose so you have to use 2 wrenches to disconnect the gas line which is kind of inconvenient. All in all, for the price of a 250amp acdc high frequency Tig machine, you can't beat it.

Im completely new to tig welding so i have no way to copare this welder to anything else BUT it seems that the performance is as advertised. The manual it comes with is almost worthless, doesnt really explain anything about how to set it up for what you want to do. It only gives you some example settings to go by for each type of welding it can perform. Im still playing with the settings but ive manged to weld some 3/8" aluminum plate with the current set pretty close to max and the weld looks decent for someone who has about 15 minutes of tig welding experience. The only thing i dont like so far is the ridiculous power cord that is an anemic 12AWG cord with this big 50A plug on the end that is completely unnecessary. I opened it up and replaced the cord with a much longer true 12awg copper wire cord and more reasonable 20 amp 240v plug and it runs just fine on a 20 amp 240v circuit without tripping the breaker

I think for a cheap machine it has a lot of higher end options. I only purchased it for the capability of aluminum tig welding. I have a spool gun on my other machine but I have a lot of jobs come up where a spool gun just won’t work. I like that it’s small and light enough to carry around if needed. I mainly bought this one over others because it has a push button gun. I was pleasantly surprised at the length of the tig lead. Make sure to buy the extra adapter they recommend in the description so you can use the supplied tig lead and have it work correctly. I thought I could just plug it in since the connections matched but it wouldn’t start an arc or purge the gas and kept flashing a foot pedal image on the main screen. Something about that little adapter makes it work for the button gun. Pros- long tig lead, lightweight machine, easy to use, user friendly screen. Cons- included instructions are useless, ground is a little shorter than I’d like.

I would give it less than zero stars if I could. Finding anything online for this company, let alone a welder, is impossible. The instructions are even worse. Also, the machine stopped working after 3 months of occasional use. Don't buy from this company, it's not worth it.

Muy recomendada, más de un año con ella y aún funciona al 100% soldadura de rines de alumno a 200 amp y sin problema

La soudeuse fonctionne très bien avec le tig autant en AC qu,en DC et elle a beaucoup d,ajustement comme AC balance et AC frequence , j,ai acheté la pédale tooliom #TL-FP-5P et elle fonctionne très bien avec cette soudeuse pour varier l,amperage. Le régulateur de gaz n,est pas inclus seulement le boyau.

Easy to use great for small projects.

La he comprado dos veces, y he actualizado mi reseña, como otros comentarios, si hubiese más estrellas se las otorgaría He soldado desde latas de aluminio, hasta cárters de aluminio en 6mm y rines, pasando por prácticamente todo lo posible. Tiene un rango excelente, de 10 a 250 A entendamos que es una máquina económica y que habrá que respetar su ciclo de trabajo, pero es impresionante para el precio, he pensado en comprar otros equipos, desde yeswelder - everlast - Lincoln Definitivamente no he tenido una sola falla, he decidido comprar otra para alternar los ciclos de trabajo y mejorar productividad, pero definitivamente podría comprar 8 equipos iguales por una marca de mayor reputación y creo que durarían más de 10 años sin problemas por esa inversión. Creo que si deseas iniciar algo o tener un equipo para aprender o realizar trabajos domésticos es una excelente alternativa a un preció sumamente accesible! He comprado un pedal y otra antorcha ya que las antorchas de éste rango de precio son incomodas, pero por poco dinero puedes realizar mejoras importantes, el equipo funciona de maravilla! el único detalle es que en ocasiones se afloja el conector y no genera arco correctamente, pero si lo ajustas un poco no tiene ningún problema!

Buen producto, casi un año trabajando y todo OK. Solo en proceso de Stick , tengo que probarla en TIG