Cracked hoses

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I bought a POWERARC 280STH in  2017-Dec-29. In March of 2020 I noticed a was getting oxygen contamination in my welds. I eventually stripped away the covering of the hose on the tig gun and saw that the hose was badly cracked, in fact full of cracks all along it's length. Now I thought this was very strange that just a little after 2 years of light use, the hose would fail. I did NOT want to buy another torch/hose combo featuring garbage grade rubber. When I talked to a sales rep at Everlast and tried to get some understanding of why this had happened, I got nowhere. I mean, I just wanted answers. Didn't it interest them at all that they had sold me a hose made out of such a poor grade of rubber that it would catastrophically fail in this manner? I gave up trying to communicate with the guy and just bought another Nova torch and hose set. The new hose lasted less than a year and a half before I started seeing oxygen contamination in my welds. Like the last one, it showed cracking all along the length of the hose and of course because they have that nice looking cloth cover on it, you have no clue it's failing until a weld gets ruined. I was hopping mad this time. There was NO WAY Everlast where getting another dime from me. It was a hassle but I managed to successfully rebuild it using black agricultural tubing from the local farm store and I am now very happy with it and I expect it will last a long time.I now find myself shopping for a 250+ amp MIG welder and once again I am looking at Everlast since they seem to pretty much clobber everyone else on pricing. But I am struggling with the decision because it seems to me that Everlast HAVE to know by now that the Rubber they are using for their premium hoses is garbage which implies to me that their whole business model depends on selling kick-*** welders with garbage grade peripherals so they can bleed their customers perpetually with the need to replace the hoses/guns. This genuinely disgusts me. I had vowed never to buy from Everlast again over this issue.My question is, does anyone know if there are third party MIG guns that can be easily adapted to an Everlast so that I'm not stuck buying a new piece of garbage every year and a half?Also, could I be wrong about this? For instance would a Miller or Lincoln hose be just as likely to fail within the same time period? Am I judging Everlast unfairly?The POWER I-MIG 315 looks unbeatable for the money but I REALLY don't want to get stuck perpetually buying disposable guns for it. So I would love to get some second opinions about my experience.
Reply:Have you taken a look at the torch warranty on a Miller or Lincoln? 12 months on Miller. Can't recall what lincoln is, but I think it's a year as well.  And for MIG, you might just want to look up and see that the Miller MIG guns only have a 90 day warranty.  We cover ours for 6 months. A lot of problems come with storage and stuff in the TIG torches. The type of super flexible rubber used in those type torches regardless of brand has a shelf life. Storage, coolant type, and overall use play into a part of it.  I've sold new NOVA torches to customers that had name brands that lasted a year or so with similar type hoses.FYI, the torches are basically free with the unit. We do have nicer NOVA torches you can upgrade to, OR you are perfectly free to go out and buy other brands to use with the unit. Our connections are not special or proprietary. If you got yourself worked up over that, we apologize, but we try to let customers know that tig torches are pretty universal as are their connectors and connections.  Even Lincoln is using the same quick connects now. The torch component of the package actually constitutes a very small part of our cost to us and doesn't figure much into the retail cost calculation. Most Miller and Lincoln commercial grade packages are sold without accessories, and you can pay up to 1800 or more just adding torches and foot pedals. And you still get a 1 year warranty. As far as the MIG torches go, they are a binzel/trafimet type made by either Innotec or North.  Both good Chinese companies with Italian ownership or ties. But there again, you are welcome to add an aftermarket torch of your own. The Euro connector is the most widely distributed connector in the industry worldwide, and every manufacturer makes a euro back end for their gun.Esab Migmaster 250Lincoln SA 200Lincoln Ranger 8Smith Oxy Fuel setupEverlast PowerPlasma 80Everlast Power iMIG 160Everlast Power iMIG 205 Everlast Power iMIG 140EEverlast PowerARC 300Everlast PowerARC 140STEverlast PowerTIG 255EXT
Reply:

Originally Posted by lugweld

Have you taken a look at the torch warranty on a Miller or Lincoln? 12 months on Miller. Can't recall what lincoln is, but I think it's a year as well.
Reply:

Originally Posted by jswendell

I bought a POWERARC 280STH in  2017-Dec-29. In March of 2020 I noticed a was getting oxygen contamination in my welds. I eventually stripped away the covering of the hose on the tig gun and saw that the hose was badly cracked, in fact full of cracks all along it's length. Now I thought this was very strange that just a little after 2 years of light use, the hose would fail. I did NOT want to buy another torch/hose combo featuring garbage grade rubber. When I talked to a sales rep at Everlast and tried to get some understanding of why this had happened, I got nowhere. I mean, I just wanted answers. Didn't it interest them at all that they had sold me a hose made out of such a poor grade of rubber that it would catastrophically fail in this manner? I gave up trying to communicate with the guy and just bought another Nova torch and hose set. The new hose lasted less than a year and a half before I started seeing oxygen contamination in my welds. Like the last one, it showed cracking all along the length of the hose and of course because they have that nice looking cloth cover on it, you have no clue it's failing until a weld gets ruined. I was hopping mad this time. There was NO WAY Everlast where getting another dime from me. It was a hassle but I managed to successfully rebuild it using black agricultural tubing from the local farm store and I am now very happy with it and I expect it will last a long time.I now find myself shopping for a 250+ amp MIG welder and once again I am looking at Everlast since they seem to pretty much clobber everyone else on pricing. But I am struggling with the decision because it seems to me that Everlast HAVE to know by now that the Rubber they are using for their premium hoses is garbage which implies to me that their whole business model depends on selling kick-*** welders with garbage grade peripherals so they can bleed their customers perpetually with the need to replace the hoses/guns. This genuinely disgusts me. I had vowed never to buy from Everlast again over this issue.My question is, does anyone know if there are third party MIG guns that can be easily adapted to an Everlast so that I'm not stuck buying a new piece of garbage every year and a half?Also, could I be wrong about this? For instance would a Miller or Lincoln hose be just as likely to fail within the same time period? Am I judging Everlast unfairly?The POWER I-MIG 315 looks unbeatable for the money but I REALLY don't want to get stuck perpetually buying disposable guns for it. So I would love to get some second opinions about my experience.
Reply:

Originally Posted by jswendell

The year warranty doesn't prove to me that it's a reasonable expectation that the hoses will dry rot and fail after a year. I think of it as more of a lack of confidence in the integrity of consumers who might abuse the hose horribly in a production environment and then expect it to be replaced after they've shredded it.Then why use this "super flexible rubber"? I know from experience that the black rubber ag tubing I used in my rebuild will NEVER dry rot and fail the way my two NOVA torch hoses did (at least not for MANY years). What ever difference there may be in hose flexibility is functionally irrelevant. I thought the Everlast rep I talked to before would be interested in the fact that your hose supplier is using a rubber formula that is garbage. There are certain areas where a hose is stressed more than others (and no-one would expect it to last forever) but in both cases my hoses were dry rotted along their entire length. To me this is inexcusable. You should talk to your suppliers and remind them that this is the year 2022 and there are a great many high quality rubber compounds they could be using that won't just dry up and crack in a year and a half, and demand better from them. If it cost you 50 cents more per foot of hose to use decent rubber and you passed that cost along to your customers directly, I bet you couldn't find a single customer that would request the cheaper hose to save a few bucks up front.I upgraded to the Nova torch when I bought my welder, so both torches that failed were Nova. Even if it's a fact that Miller and Lincoln are using the same rubber compound in their hoses, that doesn't make it okay and you should exploit that fact to humiliate them (like you already do with your welders) by selling us hoses that are of a reasonable standard for resiliency.When I took my ruined NOVA WP-26F to my local Airgas, they could not find a replacement in their catalogue with matching fittings. Perhaps they were incompetent? I mean, it's weird but none of the guys behind the counter actually weld. If you can explain to me how to find 3rd party torches that will match my POWERARC 280STH, I will be very pleased.That's good to know. You just sold another welder! But you should know that if you ever want to sell me another torch or gun, I need assurances that you have changed the rubber compound you are using for your hoses and that the Nova branding actually means QUALITY!I am now convinced that I should buy an Everlast MIG welder. Maybe you can help me choose? I have very limited experience with MIG. I've been using a Hobart Handler 190 (kind of idiot proof) but now I have a big job welding 1/2" steel and need a machine with a strong duty cycle at the required amperage. I don't want to spend half my time sitting around waiting for the welder to cool down. My concern, when it comes to choosing a unit, is not getting in over my head. My tendency is to want a machine that can do everything but I 'm a little worried that I might wind up with a machine that is too complex for my knowledge level. Like the Hobart has 2 controls and it just works. I don't have to do any thinking. While I'd like to upgrade to a machine that is not only more powerful but more versatile, I don't want to find out that I suddenly can't weld anymore because I don't know how to set the machine. So I'm just asking you to warn me if you think that might be a legitimate concern for me. The POWER I-MIG 275S and POWER I-MIG 315 both look like a good fit for me. They seem so similar that I'm not sure what the advantage is of the 315. I have not ruled out more expensive units such as the POWERMTS 400 and POWER I-MIG 353DPI. I guess I need to figure out the cheapest welder that can REALLY handle 1/2" steel with aplomb and then figure out if I want to spend more money to expand my versatility. Thanks for any advice you care to throw my way.Update: I am looking at the POWER I-MIG 275P now. It seems to be more capable than the I-MIG 315 and for less money. Am I missing something?