Striker Digital Hood Beginners First Impressions

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 13:54:51 GMT

go to see Welding Machine for Striker Digital Hood Beginners First Impressions

Let me start off saying that I am a beginner to TIG welding.  I have had my Everlast 255EXT for only a week and just love the thing.  That said, I have been running practice beads and have a few observations of HTP Striker Digital hood.I am migrating from the Harbor Freight Hood (68782) to the Striker Digital (Black) hood from HTP. The Striker Digital has four sensors and at a sensitivity of 8 has never dropped out of dark mode.  I run a 2 second delay just in case.  At 7 sensitivity it did drop out a few times. The hood has a viewing area about double that of my HF hood.  Its very clear and very easy to see the puddle.  I use shade 9 or 10 depending on what I am doing. The hood accepts standard magnifiers, but I could only get one installed by first removing the entire module.  They don't just slip in as they do on my HF hood.  It seems that the fit is just to tight.I just was not happy with the quality of the view with the plastic magnifiers so started using the lenses from my Optivisor.  I am currently using #5 and have to say I its a perfect match.  The Optivisor lenses are ground glass and provide a very good view into the weld puddle with zero glare. Since the magnifiers only cover about half the screen on the Striker Digital I can peer up (or down depending on how you have the lens positioned) and have a normal unmagnified view.  This is great for locating dropped rods.Please note that the Optivosor lenses aren't a perfect fit. I have to add a small bit of tape on each end so the lens will stay in place.  The hood works very well and does not fog with the default positional adjustments.  Note that with the plastic welding magnifiers it does fog, not sure why.You get 3 shade ranges:Weld 9-13Cut 5-8Grind 4You can select any of the three ranges by toggling the mode button.  Within each range you can set the shade, sensitivity and and delay. (Except for grind which is fixed) It does remember its settings for each range.The hood is powered by batteries but also has a solar cell so it should help with battery life.Overall I am happy with the hood except for one area.  The auto shutoff.  I can take the hood off and set it down and after doing some adjustments go back and FLASH!!!!!.  The unit auto turned off and I neglected to turn it back on.  I have been flashed several time because of this.  As a matter of fact I am writing this while a wait for some spots to subside.My HF hood never has this problem.  I have never been flashed and have to say the standard magnifiers seem to work better in the HF hood.  I get good puddle view and have never been flashed. In addition the plastic magnifier does not fog in the HF hood. Does it look good as the striker digital, No.  The striker does seem to have a clearer view.One closing thought. The striker digital does seem to be a little heavy on my head.  It is not the weight as it is 1lb5oz just 1oz more than the HF hood. The down stop adjustment is a little harder to set on the striker than on the HF.  Would I purchase the striker digital again, no.I would look for something with some of the same features but the ability to auto darken in standby mode.  Will I use the striker, Yes.  I just have to get into the habit of checking the digital display each time I put it on my head.Last edited by msimpson99; 01-15-2016 at 05:45 PM.
Reply:I thought about buying that hood and ended up with the CSV instead. The only thing I don't like about the CSV is that the shade color (a bright yellow) is not the best for TIG. The CSV is always on and doesn't have all the modes of the digital. Clearest hood I have ever used and is my go to hood for MIG and stick. I still use my Jackson Balder wh40 for TIG. I like the blue shade color better for TIG even though it is not a clear. What color is the shade on the digital?Miller Multimatic 255
Reply:Oh and I found that I had better luck wearing my computer glasses under my hood vs. using the magnifiers. You might try that.Miller Multimatic 255
Reply:Computer glasses work really good for metrailblazer 302thunderbolt ac dc machine Hobart fluxcoreAHP tig 200x 2015
Reply:Originally Posted by Louie1961I thought about buying that hood and ended up with the CSV instead. The only thing I don't like about the CSV is that the shade color (a bright yellow) is not the best for TIG. The CSV is always on and doesn't have all the modes of the digital. Clearest hood I have ever used and is my go to hood for MIG and stick. I still use my Jackson Balder wh40 for TIG. I like the blue shade color better for TIG even though it is not a clear. What color is the shade on the digital?
Reply:The color on the striker digital is green, but not a dark green.  I have computer glasses but I like to get in close, they are focused about 18 inches or so.  Im getting better at checking the hood before I put it on. I only got flashed once today.
Reply:I thought I would do an update to my striker welding hood.  I'm 57 years old and need a magnifier lens on my hood.  Since the magnifier inserts are 4" x 2" I loose all that extra viewing area on the hood.  In addition the inserts are a real pain to insert and remove.  It is almost as though they don't fit correctly.I could live with the loss of the viewing area of the striker but no matter how diligent I am, I get flashed if I wait too long between welds and the unit shuts off.  I found myself going back to my Harbor Freight hood but it does not have the lower shades needed for plasma cutting.  Recently I purchased a cheap Antra AH6-260-0000 from Amazon. It supports shades 4-13.  Does not require you to turn the unit on and the maginfyer lenses are a breeze to insert and remove.  It is very light and has 4 sensors.  The hood only cost me $45 and is my goto hood.  I let guests use my other two hoods.  Oh, it came with 6 extra outer lenses and on extra inner.Here is the Amazon LinkWelding Hood
Reply:I have the xxl digital its working great for me my old hood was a speedglas 9000x and auto shutoff would go dark witch go me into turning the hood on so i am in the habit of it also piced up the striker supreme wanted to try the csv bus was out of stock i really like both hoods alot and have a way better veiw with the striker line of hoods i just ordered a jackson truesight 11 wp70 and will send one of the other hoods back been wanting a really good hood for low amp tig work hear alot of good things about the jackson so going to give it a try see what happens.best thing about usaweld is their 90 money back guarantee so any trouble or just dont like it send it back i will be testing that out