Since our Shipping Container House requires lots of welding, we use the Harbor Freight Brand Titanium Arc Welder.
Here is what we think about it.
Many of you asked, “Is the titanium welder any good?”
My husband, a professional welder for 30+ years, had another cheap brand arc welder. But it couldn’t keep up with industrial welding. It would overheat and stop working—a real pain in the patooty when trying to get some work done.
This year in his workplace, they used the titanium welder from harbor freight. My husband doubted it would keep up, especially since they used 50-foot leads. His boss told him, “You’ll see it’s a very reliable machine.”
Sure enough, it didn’t fail once after months of welding day in and day out.
My husband was SO convinced he bought one for our tiny house project.
The PROs
- Affordable for under $379
- compared with Miller Maxstar stick welder sells for $500+ used and $1000+ new
- Manual Voltage Switch for 110v/220v
- Why is that important?
- If the power fluctuates significantly, an auto voltage switch can prevent you from getting consistent welding results. And it can be very frustrating when you want to run a nice bead.
- No limit to welding lead length
- On 220v, I ran 50ft of cables with NO problems. I’m sure you can run the machine with longer welding leads.
- All the cheap brand stick welders don’t guarantee the machine will run well after 10-15 ft. of cable.
- The Cooling Fan always stays on, so your machine doesn’t overheat and doesn’t shut off.
- Overheat Sensor: it has never tripped on me yet.
- The titanium brand welder is 225 amps.
- Most cheap arc welders are only 160 amps, so they overheat easily.
- Dual Plug 110v/220v, no plug adapters needed.
- Extremely lightweight
- Only 6-7lbs, my wife, can pick it up without much effort. She has difficulty with my Lincoln MIG welder, similar in size but weighing over 40 lbs.
The CONs
- On 110v, welding leads may have limitations on the cable length.
- Comes with short 7 ft welding leads
- When you buy longer welding leads, choose 200-300 amp ½” cable.
- No Digital reading – it has a rheostat dial that is not as precise for particular welding applications.
- The stinger is cheap. I broke mine almost immediately, investing a few bucks in a good stinger.
The Titanium Welder from Harbor Freight – In a few words
The Harbour Freight Titanium stick welder is a great little machine. The manufacturer went cheap where they could, but it’s still resistant to welding in industrial situations.
For all practical purposes, Why would you buy a Miller unless you have money to give away?
Buy a better Stinger and longer leads. I think you will be as happy as we are.
*This review is only our personal opinions and experience with this product. Harbour Freight did not pay us for our testimonial.
**But as an Amazon affiliate, we do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. We try to only recommend items we use or think you may find helpful.
4 Walls Overnight 
Cons:. Only has a 90 day warranty.
If harbor freight wants to compete with the big boys and charge big boy prices, they should offer the same warrantees as the other companies.
3 years minimum. 90 days just shows they have no confidence in their relabeled product, which makes many consumers have no confidence in their products. Harbor freight welders are near the same price as Hobart minus the warranty. I’ll buy a Hobart thank you.
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Yes, I’d like to reply to your comment about the welder. I didn’t believe it myself until my boss in Florida tried one out and put it to the test with more than a 50-foot lead, and we welded 1/8″ rod 7018 all-day without any interruptions. Now I took mine down to a Third World country where the current is unstable, used it for over a year with no problems and no hesitation. So until you try it, it’s hard to believe yes, but I told my wife it’s like buying a Mercedes Benz with a VW sticker on it; yeah, it may not seem like much until you try it.
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This welder is HF junk
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