Hobart ???

[SoCalTA]

I was wondering if anyone can give me some feedback on Hobart welders? Are they good machines?

[cope]

Good machines. Depending on the model, they are same as Miller except for the cabinet. Quite a few regulars at the Hobart forum have Hobarts.

http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/

[Ken Wickliff]

SoCalTA, check out the pics under "saddles" in this forum. I welded all of that with my Hobart Champion 16 gasoline driven welder that I purchased about 6 years ago. I change the oil, filters, and plugs regularly and it has never let me down. With other attachments, you can tig and mig. Also, with stick you have AC, DC reverse and DC straight. It has infinite fine tune and one 230 volt and 4 115 volt outlets for tools, lights, whatever. Once, when our power went out here at the house, I connected it to the house wiring until the power came back on. When I purchased it, a friend was wanting to buy a welder too, but he wanted a Miller. We went to the local welding supply and checked the stats on both welders, they were the same, in fact we were told the parts are interchangeable.

[SoCalTA]

Thanks Ken .. Cope ....

I have my eye on a Hobart 250 and wasnt sure if and how it stacked up against a MM. If there is a difference I would appreciate anyones input.

thanks,

[cope]

The Miller 251 has infinite voltage adjustment whereas the Hobart 250 has a tapped transformer. Many people find the tap systaem easier to use. The Miller may have a higher duty cycle which is important if you plan to run wide open, but as has been pointed out befre, most people, whether welding stick or mig, stop after about the same length bead because you get tired and need to rest. I personally would try to find a Vintage(discontinued) which is a tapped Milelr.

[Danny]

As Cope stated the IronMan 250 is a tapped transformer design machine, and I have to agree that a tapped transformer machine is a more user friendly machine-especially for the novice welder.

Now, in a head to head comparison the Ironman 250 doesn t match up very well against the MM 251. However, the Ironman 250 is still an EXCELLENT machine for the home hobbiest weldor. Anyway the first difference between these two machines is the drive roll system. the Hobart 250 has a single driven drive roll, and idler tensioning roll. The MM 251 has a dual driven drive roll assembly. What this means is that both rolls are meshed together by by gears so that both rolls are actually pushing the wire to the gun. Both systems work fine, however the dual driven helps guarantee that ther is less chance of the wire slipping. However, I have to state that in the 15 years that i have been welding I have never personally experience any wire feeding issues from a drive roll system that is similar to the one being used on the Hobart 250. BTW, I have 3 machine that have a similar drive roll system to the Hobart 250.

Another difference between these two machines is the load voltage that they are capable of outputting.The Hobart is rate at 24 volts and 200 amps where as the MM 251 is rated at 28 volts and 200 amps. Now what the higher voltage on the MM 251 allow you to do is use shielding gases such as 90/10 for spray transfer. Now, this 24 volt, 200 amp output the Hobart 250 is capable of producing spray transfer too as long as you use a 98/2 shielding gas. However in the end if you are just looking for a good short circuit transfer machinethen these higher voltages are nothing to even worry about because both machine produce the necessary voltage range for short circuit transfer.

Now, both machines have a 60% duty cyle at 200 amps however, the MM 251 is outputting 28 volts at this rating and the Hobart 250 is outputting 24 volts. So, I think if the MM 251 was only out putting 24 volts at 200 amps it might have a higher duty cycle yet since at 28 volts and 200 amps it is outputting more power then the Hobart 250 is at the 200 amps and 24 volts. No matter what though you would have to be putting in some serious welding time to ever push the duty cycle on the Hobart 250. What I mean by this is you would probably have to be welding at mass production rates, because for one this duty cycle rating is a conservative rating. Miller/Hobart rate there machine at 104 degrees F. Personally I am not interested in welding when the temp hits 104 degrees so in reality the duty cycle on the machine can be much higher. It all depends on the temperature of the enviroment that you are welding in.

Anyway, I dought you would be disappointed with a Ironman 250. I was going to buy one myself a couple of years ago, but Miller came out with the MM 210 and was offering it with a free spool gun at the time, so I decided to go with the 210 because of the spool gun.

[SoCalTA]

Dan .. wow

Dan ...

Thank you so much for all that info. I am new at this stuff and working my way through the machines types, jargon, etc. and your reply was super helpful. Your response has calmed my nerves since this will be my first purchase and first attempts to weld. You are right about the use being in a non-production mode. Basically is light fabrication, auto and home use. I have some classes lined up and wanted something to help with that as well.

Thank you again for such a detailed reply

[Wheat]

Had a HH 125 for 11 years. Never once missed a beat. Sold it to upgrade to do aluminum. Good forum here. Most of these guys have forgotten more than I know about welding.