MIG175

Been using this for almost two years. It welds like a Hobart, or a Lincoln. Great welder for its price.

I just recieved my new lotus mig 175 welder from Amazon with a very fast delivery. I chose Lotus welders for my welding shop.This is my third Lotus welder I own.I have had very good service on all Lotus products.The latest of Igbt firing transistors work flawlessly.Higher frequency boards.allow me to weld the thin aluminum to the heavy iron out in the field on various farm implements.Newest technology allows Lotus welders to be smaller, lighter weight,and more reliable at a very good price.I have sold my Miller Bobcat, I now use my Lotus welders and plasma cutters, using a small portable generator for ac input power.They have the best customer service and very good technical support for welding questions. I use my Tig 200 for the hobby jobs and heavy iron farm repairs. my new Lotus mig 175 will be used for mainly fabrication. I have found the Lotus mig 175 to be superior over my Millermatic 175, due to finer wire speed an voltage control.I am sold on Lotus and will continue to do my welding business with Lotus products in the future.

After initially setting up and getting dialed in this welder is great works flawlessly I’ve ran 10 pounds of wire through it already and haven’t had a single issue with it

I've been using this welder on steel for about a week now. It is a good welder, easy to setup and use. Today I switched over to the spool gun for aluminum and found the gun's wire feed motor would not turn on. I called support, got right through, and they were really nice. After we double checked a few things to rule out "operator error" they said, "Looks like a bad gun. We'll send you a new gun to start. If that doesn't fix it, a new machine." You can't really ask for better support than that. Thanks, Lotus! It's unfortunate the gun arrived dead, hence the 4-star rating. But it happens no matter what brand you buy. And for the money, with all the things included, I don't think I could find a better starter/hobbie/small shop welder. Even with the gun issue, still recommend this welder. I'll update this review once the new gun arrives. UPDATE: I found the issue with the gun and was able to fix it and I let Lotus know. They are still sending me a new gun just to make sure...amazing. I'll just keep the one I want and return the either one. Additionally, they shipped my $50 worth of consumable items: tips, cups, etc, since I had trouble with the gun. I am shocked by their awesome service. I think they just made me a life-long customer. 5-stars!

Opened it up after 3 attempts to getting 1 that wasn't damaged during shipping. There was some damage on this one but I'm willing to look past it. I hooked everything up and checked all workings loaded the wire and found the wire feed to not be steady. It goes up and down with the speed by itself. And some times it's steady speed. So I checked the spool gun and welded a few pipes and it works ok seems to feed well but not great. Overall I'm questioning keeping this welder I paid good money and this is what I get. I do like the build of the product but with the wire feed problems it's worthless. And previous welders comming with shipping damage I'm overall disappointed. I'm going to operate it a few more times and if it doesn't feed wire at a steady speed I'm returning it for a full refund.

Welders who have little to spend are in a dilemma, up untill now. We had to buy small under powered units or more powerful units with cheap parts. I fell into the latter with a MIG 180 from H.F. The first thing that was a constant problem and unbeknownst to me, was the drive roll motor, 10 watts. For years I welded like the first day, crappy misshaped, inconsistent, splatter everywhere. I used to beat myself up constantly and then get out the grinder and remove part of the abomination I just laid down to "cover up". Not anymore, this little jewel has a 20 watt motor. It drives the wire at a constant rate, no stuttering. The wire also comes out straight and predictable. The next big thing is the transformer. This is a long lasting design as opposed to the "IGBT DC Inverter" which depend entirely on electronics to power the weld. All electronics wear out, but transformers can last decades. Sure IGBT is light weight and cheaper to manufacture, but beware, transistors and capacitors have a high failure rate in the first few hours, especially when powering a hundred amps or more in the rugged hot conditions of a welder. Heat does a number on electronics and when overheated can weaken substantially. I like the "overhead" a transformer gives. The next thing is the gas control valve. My H.F. welder had none, it had a pinching mechanism in the handle to control gas flow which meant it leaked and if you didn't turn the valve off at the tank it would be all gone the next day. In this unit you can hear the control valve click on and off and this unit actually gives a little post flow, which is the way it should be. The next thing is the trigger, it is not a hair trigger. I have tried other expensive welders which if you get even close with your gloved hand it would go off, a constant irritation putting your eyes in jeopardy to flashing. There's more like the included aluminum hand set, extra rollers, standard consumables, it all adds up to an amazing value and a pleasure to use. Don't miss out!!

This is my second MIG welder. The first was a used Hobart 120 that I got cheap and learned how to weld. The LOTUS MIG 180 is awesome. I am blown away by the power and setting ability of this welder. Not to even mention the value you get when buying this welder. Included spool gun, 180A welder, quality of the welder. The only downside so far is the included welding mask is almost a toy; however, I would guess anyone spending $400+ on a welder already has their preferred welding helmet/goggles. The welder was delivered quickly and packaged/boxed well. A+ quality; A++ included accessories; A+++ welds, Great for intermediate to beginners who want to MIG weld stainless, Mild steel, or thin aluminum with spool gun (I have found ways to weld thicker aluminum with the standard MIG gun. This was the best priced MIG 180 on the market that I found, Sept 2018. I would recommend this welder to anyone needing something more than the standard 100-140amp MIG welder.

It welds nicely after you get all the wires and plugins connected properly, if you are not mechanical or electrical inclined I would not recommend this welder, craftsmanship putting this together at the factory is mediocre at best

Great little welder