anyone familiar with the V275s

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I got one of these V275s welders a few years ago used and lately found another one so I have two of them which seemed sensible as I have a 200 amp service but it has a breaker box with 100 amps on one side and 100 on the other since they can be run in parallel.  I have read the manual many times and read the earlier 250 amp version manual a few times as well.  I have talked on the phone to Lincoln and got to someone who was I believe an engineer and gained some info.  They don't want to answer in email and since I didn't buy them new don't want to cost them too much in customer support.I might note there is a disconnect between the sales brochure and the engineering dept if you want to do arc gouging.  I probably am not going to parallel them for gouging and one of them runs 3/16 rods fine way less than full power.  The manual for the 250 says to turn the arc force all the way down for gouging but the 275 manual says nothing.  The engineer thought you would want to turn it all the way up but wasn't keen on using it for that application.  Maybe I will parallel them some day for tig.I wanted to know why the manual says for 230 single phase at 275 amps it draws 67 amps but tells you to use a 100 amp breaker.  Their 200 class inverters tell you to use a 30 amp breaker.  The answer which wasn't very good in my opinion was that the 200 class machines are made in italy and this one was made in Ohio.  I might be answering my own question in that if you turn it up to max in the stick mode and turn it up to max on the arc force it might really draw that much.  Or perhaps it draws differently in micro seconds and those numbers are kind of the average not the peak.  Any input?The other question is I have a pedal for ampreage and made a device so it can be used as a remote ampreage control without the foot. For example If I max the knob on the machine and adjust the remote to be about right for say a 3/32 6010 will the arc characteristics be any different than if the ampreage isn't adjusted by the remote at all?  Of course assuming I don't touch the arc force.One more question,  I have this dinosaur stick/tig machine which says 90 or so amps input at 230 single phase on the tag.  It is Murex brand but I think the welder repair guy said it was made by airco when I bought a little relay thing for post flow or one of the four sockets for various vacuum tube sized things.  These inverters are supposed to be more efficient but how come the copper bar leading to where the leads attach is a joke on the inverter compared to the transformer one?Thanks In advance
Reply:Look again at the spec. sheets. Do not mix three phase power with single phase power requirements. The line voltages start with the lower voltage on the left higher voltages to the right. Match the first line voltage with the first amp rating, Stay in the single or three phase box. which ever matches your type of power.
Reply:Thanks for answering however I have studied the manual quite well.  I did just go to Miller and download the manual for the cst 280 which is certainly more thourough for the most part.  I found it unclear how much more could be got out of it if you upgraded the input cable like the raised number 1 footnote denotes in the lincoln manual.Note the miller for 43.9 amps draw tells you to use a 50 amp time delay fuse (or comparable breaker) of the same type discussed in the lincoln manual which is 67 and 100 respectively.  Though I didn't check today I think the lincoln 200 or 205 inverters tell you to us a 30 amp breaker.Any idea how much of the insides of my v275s are protected by the slow blow glass cylindrical fuse which I seem to recall is 0.6 amps?Last edited by fran...k.; 07-25-2011 at 11:53 AM.
Reply:I see what's confusing you, The CST 280 is only rated for 200 amps on single phase 230 volts.If you want 280 amp you must have 3 phase power.The Lincoln can do 275 amps on 1 phase 230 volt power, if the power cord and circuit breaker are the right size.Compare the 200 amp lincoln spec line to the miller and you will see they are similar.I think if we put both of these machines side by side on my bench. and measured the line current at 200 weld amps, I bet they would real close to the same.You could run the Lincoln on a 50 amp service. Just don't go over 200 amp when welding.This is called derating. This way we can use a larger machine on a small service.welder must have a sign on it with the new (lower) max rating. At home nobody cares. You will just pop the breaker if you forget.Also the Lincoln has 100% duty cycle limit at 200 amps and the miller only has 50% at 200 amps  single phase 230 volt power.This is why the Lincoln is asking for a larger service than Miller is.Last edited by ccawgc; 07-25-2011 at 09:32 PM.
Reply:I won't say I am confused however I am puzzled why a welder with 275 in it's model name and an efficiency of 87% is supposed to have a 100 amp time-delay fuse while one with 205 in the model name is supposed to have a 30 amp time-delay fuse. I chose the lincoln 275 over the miller 280 because of the more powerful ratings and the fact it weight significantly more but not too much that I can't pick it up and place it over the side of a pick up truck and into the bed.  It would appear a majority of the wieght is transformers wound with copper.I might note in a most unorganized fashion the following.A few pages before the page I snipped out of the miller 280 manual there is a footnote which basically says because of the input cable size  the single phase 230 volt (and perhaps other) rating has to be de rated according to some code.  That is why I say it is  unclear if comparing the max output for the miller on an 8 guage wire and the lincoln on a user upgraded 6 guage wire is apples to apples or apples to oranges.For my purposes feeling the wires leading to it for heat and the breaker popping if going too far isn't a big deal and the engineer didn't lead me to believe any harm would come to the welder.  I just have a 50 amp plug on it and a 50 amp socket.  If one wanted to have a 100 amp plug and socket instead of hard wired well that is the kind of stuff the supply places would mark up a lot in price.I won't argue with the confused word about this one.  In the picture below from the cst manual as the lincoln doesn't have this kind of stuff in the manual and the engineer wasn't able to understand what I was asking for or couldn't make available similar.  I am guessing the ratings are at point A in the above tables.  I know watts is volts times amps however does the imput amps go avove those in the tables at point b.  Clearly my v275s manual states multiple times that if in excess of 300 amps is drawn and it gets hot there is a mode that it will only put out 200 amps until you stop the arc.