loud pop on diversion 180

[kritzky]

so have had my diversion 180 for about year and a half , absolutely love it welds everything I need and then some , tonight I was in the middle of welding and a loud pop came from inside the welder and now it has no power ive checked voltage at the main board , switch and breaker , they all have power,i do not see any burnt spots on any board either. This makes me very upset , I have two other welders that I use non stop for years and have had no issues at all,and they are of other brands, I would have assumed buying the best and spending 2000 I wouldn't have issues , anybody have this issue ?? did have a board go bad already ??? super upset about this for I shouldn't have to buy a new board already ?? any help would help .

[Tryagn5]

so have had my diversion 180 for about year and a half , absolutely love it welds everything I need and then some , tonight I was in the middle of welding and a loud pop came from inside the welder and now it has no power ive checked voltage at the main board , switch and breaker , they all have power,i do not see any burnt spots on any board either. This makes me very upset , I have two other welders that I use non stop for years and have had no issues at all,and they are of other brands, I would have assumed buying the best and spending 2000 I wouldn't have issues , anybody have this issue ?? did have a board go bad already ??? super upset about this for I shouldn't have to buy a new board already ?? any help would help .

Millers have a 3 year warranty, so stop playing with before you void the warranty! Take her in and get it fixed.
Kevin

[WillieB]

TIG welders are like space exploration, they cost a lot! A diversion 180, (I had one), is an entry level welder. Those who won't weld aluminum might be very satisfied with it. For sheet metal crack repair in AL it might be OK. I found the duty cycle to be very limiting. I expected it would get hot enough to shut off. I found mine to taper back the heat it would produce. I was frequently pushing the pedal to the stop, as I couldn't get enough heat. I'd look at the digital readout to see amperage was half what I wanted. Wattage, or power needs are far greater with aluminum. I think it's a great welder for thin steel.

Sadly, a great aluminum TIG machine costs three times what a Diversion does. Used is sometimes a solution.

[iliyahamovic]

I had diversion for couple years, was the first one, I learned how to tig on it, beat the crap out of it many times, to be suprised I dont know how it didnt died on me, sold it and guy is been using it for many years now, still with no problem.
yes it has its power limitation, but otherwise can compare with rest of the Miller high end welders when comes to quality.
Again its electric machine, things happen, as stated above if under warranty dont mess around, just contact miller and youll be taken care of.

[bederer]

Had the same problem as the original poster. Loud pop, but with the extra added excitement of flames shooting out the back. Unfortunately for me, I was a couple months outside of my 3yr warranty and Miller pretty much said go pound sand.

What little info I got out of Miller support was it was going to be expensive to fix so I ended up purchasing another welder.

I recently decided to go ahead and try and get the old Diversion fixed to keep as a backup, or perhaps sell, and I dropped it off at a local Miller certified repair shop. They tell me the control board has failed, and with the cost of diagnostics and the replacement board, it will cost in the neighborhood of $1200 to be fixed. The board itself will carry a 1yr warranty, but the rest of the welder will remain out of warranty.

For 1 dollar less I can buy another green welder that is "better" in many ways and has a 5-year warranty.

For a couple hundred more than that, I can buy a red welder that is pretty similar, with a better torch, and will have a 3-year warranty.

I was originally told this was an uncommon issue with these, but in researching this week I've found there to be quite a few failures along with many like me who are stuck with a high repair cost or the decision to just buy something else. Really it's kind of a shame that the Diversion welders are considered so disposable due to the ridiculous repair costs compared to other brands. Perhaps others can justify a fix that costs as much as simply buying another brand new welder, but for me, it doesn't make sense.