bestarc 165A MIG Welder, 110V/220V Dual Voltage Gas/Gasless Flux Core MIG Welder/Lift TIG/Stick 3 in 1 Synergic MIG165 11GEN Welding Machine, Flux/Solid Welder Digital Screen Display

The dozens of videos I watched before ordering this little welder all spoke the truth: Amazing!Lightweight and powerful despite its tiny size, it boasts many qualities. It's easy to adjust the power and wire output speed in MIG mode. A chart indicates the required power based on the thickness of the parts to be joined. It operates on 110 and 220 volts and can use flux-cored wire or gas. You can adapt a TIG gun to it, or weld with rods. Honestly, impressive! And the price for that much quality is so attractive. I just hope it will last a long time. It can compare to welders 15 times more expensive.

Update 3 - Purchased the 165 to check it out and bestarc fixed all of my serious complaints about the early 145. See update #3 at the bottom. And I'm changing from 4 to 5 stars now.I purchased this 145 only to review it. I have plenty of welders from Amazon and that something freight store, some good some bad. I also own a decent mid-range quality non amazon MIG / Stick welder set up for flux also. I have a background in production MIG and also stick weld 7018 for critical welds. So here are my first impressions and I will update as I continue to use this machine.The good- it's a Bestarc, from the company that has the absolute best affordable plasma cutters on the market, for a price you can leave out in a garage and not worry about if it gets stolen. Fan is actually intermittent, which is something Pete's tools on YT is a big fan of (thanks Pete for steering me to Bestarc plasma cutters) but I don't really care about noise. The ground clamp is pretty good (does not need to be changed out immediately like the something freight store green one does), and the cable is labeled 16 square millimeters (copper clad aluminum) , whereas that something freight store 125 is only labeled 10 Square millimeters (but they kind of look the same size). Oddly enough the ground clamp is actually longer on the Bestarc. The bottom line on weld quality is, yeah I think I've got a better looking weld with the Bestarc (on 120v) than the later model of that something freight titanium 125amp welder. So I think it will actually weld better along with having a 220 volt capability, and reverse polarity capability to try to run some stainless flux core wire. Last little thing, the latches and the handle on top of the machine is what I wish that something freight store flux 125 had.The bad- I cannot understand why Bestarc would choose to make the gun only be a five and a half foot lead. I got by with it on scrap coupons, but I think it's going to be an issue for real world welding. The something freight store titanium 125 has a 7 ft leadwhich is just enough in my opinion. If the best Arc is set on the floor, the gun just is not long enough to reach your work at all angles. This 5 and 1/2 ft cord might be okay if you are slinging the machine over your shoulder all of the time, but that's rare in most circumstances - so come on Bestarc let's add a half meter to the gun cable. Then there's the drive roll issue which there are only "v-groove" drive rolls supplied with the machine. The something freight 125 has a "knurled v-groove" which is pretty much standard for flux core wire, though it does have a tendency to wear your gun liner more. And honestly on my first use, the Bestarc straight v-groove fed my .030 wire no problem. I'm not impressed with the spool holder as spring tension is not adjustable. The gun has a bit more of an angle than the something freight store flux 125, which is nice. But the Bestarc has a push on mig nozzle I'd like to change out to a flux core nozzle, and I don't know where to get that kind of nozzle (I may try to drill one of my threaded ones).And for my final complaint, there is nothing in the manual that talks about what the rotary switch does when you push it in. The wire I'm mostly running is kind of an oddball multi pass that really likes a short stick out in order to get hot and run right (E71T-11). I had to kind of pick and prod at the display to finally figure out that I needed to push in the rotary knob, then turn it to adjust the ratio so it makes a different wire feed speed versus the voltage. E71T-GS (from that something freight store) ran good at the normal pre sets.In all honesty I'd like to have dials and no digital display as a flux core machine, but still have the capability to reverse the polarity. Yes stick capability is really nice, but I have another cheap machine for that. Then again given its capabilities of TIG MIG and SMAW, I guess it's kind of got to be electronic for all those modes on one machine.Over all, it's a 5 star machine from a 5 star brand. It gets 4 stars because it needs:1. A half meter longer gun lead2. A knurled drive roll for .030 and .035 flux wire3. A few lines in the manual that state by pushing in the rotary knob, you can access the adjustment for manual wire feed speed vs voltage when doing flux core multi pass vs single pass wires4. Get rid of the included "free" spools of wire.Update 1 - push on flux core nozzles are available at that something freight storeUpdate 2 - DEFINETLY NEEDS a knurled drive roll for flux core wire. I swapped one from my "something freight store" flux 125 and it made a huge improvement on arc stability because it made the feed speed constant. I am going to try to re-engineer the wire spool tensioner so that I can adjust to a lower tension also, and that may allow the use of the non knurled V-groove drive roll again.Update 3 - looks like the latest 145's now come with the same up grades as my new 165 and I'm stoked. My new 165 came with2 knurled drive rolls with one having a groove for .035 - now my most used sizeLonger torch lead - long enough to make it work in all situations, but not excessive to where it would be a liability when you are shouldering the machineBut it still needs some improvement in the manual to tell you that pushing in the adjustment knob will allow you to adjust the presets + or -.Still comes with wire I dont need.The spool tensioning system seems to be too tight, so I just made a lighter tension spring out of some galvanized electric fence wire. Works great now.Does not come with a v groove drive roll,which isnt a big deal, since MIG can still get by using a knurled drive roll. But flux core works best with the newly included knurled drive roll.And I think the max amperage for stick welding is only 130amps??? Kind of weird, but I have 2 other machines dedicated to stick welding anyway (one is a bestarc).So when reading through my review, please understand that I origionally purchased one of the early 145's, and now my rating reflects the later 145 and 165 model.

I was skeptical because of the really low price, but I ordered anyway to give a try. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Everything works and it welds pretty much everything. I have used the stick welder for heavy steel, the tig for stainless, and the mig for lighter stuff. It welds like the expensive welders... and as far as a "combo" machine, I haven't seen anything equal. The only dissappointment is the "auto feed" on the Mig part. It does work really great, however, I gave only 4 stars because I like to set up and control my own rate of flow on my wire feed. The stick, Tig, and Mig all work great and it makes beautiful welds on everything I've tried... Thanks!

The Bestarc 145A MIG welder is amazing! Dual voltage, 3-in-1 functionality, and a digital screen make welding easy. Great for flux core, solid wire, and lift TIG. Highly recommend for DIY and professionals!

Bought this unit took it out of the box and set it up for gasless mig welding hooked up some rebar and welded it together and bent the rebar but couldn’t break the weld I’ll keep updating as I continue to use it and test out the gas and stick side of it the unit is very light and can carry it with the shoulder strap no problems. I was also impressed with its size as it is so small but packs a good punch and is really good quality build and is well worth the price can’t wait to see how much more it can do but it has impressed me this far

Nice welder easy to use and transport great wleds quality well built light weight

Fantastic welder for the price. Everything is decent quality and works correctly

This welder offers good versatility with MIG, TIG, and stick functions, but has some issues. The digital screen is helpful, but the power output is inconsistent, especially on 110V. Gasless flux core welding works decently, but the wire feed can jam occasionally. Build quality is average, and the instructions are unclear. A decent budget option, but needs improvements.