ARCCAPTAIN Stick Welder, 200A ARC/Lift TIG Welding Machine, 110V/220V

I’m teaching myself to weld and wanted to start with arc welding. This is a solidly built machine at a good price that I have a feeling will last me a really long time. I’m just starting out but have already moved past the presets and am working on dialing in settings for multiple rods and material thicknesses. When connected to 240v power this machine will handle any task I could ever need. The hot start and dig features are really nice for something this cheap and work extremely well, although I’m only now beginning to appreciate their usefulness. I’m still just in the practice stage and have only used it on 1/8” square tubing and angle, and haven’t had to get it anywhere near its maximum power with 3/32 7018 and 1/8 7014 rods. I’ll be interested to try it with some 5/32 rods and on even thicker material eventually. I will say that the ground clamp and stinger are kinda cheap and I upgraded both. I may ultimately upgrade the wires as well but the welder itself is solid, powerful, lightweight, and extremely versatile with the included 110v adapter. I could see this combined with a small portable generator being a lucrative setup… once I get good.

Did exactly what it was built for even though i could only use it with 110. Very pleased.

This welding machine has been a fantastic addition for our home workshop. Right out of the box, it felt like a high-quality piece of equipment, with a build that seems really solid and durable, definitely living up to expectations based on its description emphasizing portability and reliable components. For a 5-star product, the overall feel and construction are exactly what you'd hope for. We got this as my son's first welder, and it certainly hasn't disappointed in usage so far. It's proven to be great for smaller work around the house and garage, performing just as you'd expect for DIY tasks, which aligns well with how it's advertised as suitable for both professionals and DIY users. While the included stickers had many words spelled incorrectly, which was a bit odd, it was a thoughtful gesture to include them anyway, and it's not a real issue with the welder itself. The performance for its size and price point is really impressive, making it a great tool for getting those smaller projects done.

I'm an experienced welder, so have top end welders to compare to. I enjoy buying the budget welders, evaluating them, then give some of them away. . I've done reviews on Yeswelder, and the sleeper of high quality, budget-friendly welders, Amico, which, at $189, is better priced than the Arccaptain. You'll see why I say this at the end of the review. Overall, Arccaptain stick welder is a nice machine, capable of using multiple types of rods. The display is great, and easy to read, even with my auto darkening helmet down. It has adjustable arc force, arc start, and has built in anti-stick feature, making it easier and safer to remove a stuck welding rod, by reducing amps to 10, instead of burning up the rod, as non anti-stick welders may do if you're not fast enough to remove the holder from the rod, or break it off the work. It has a nice rod selection feature, where you select the size rod you're using, and it keeps the amperage selection within the optimal boundaries of that diameter rod (you can bypass this feature as well). The power cord is about 6' long, with a 240-to120V adapter that seems well built but I can't see what the gauge is, or if it's aluminum or copper cable. The fan is high pitched and a little noisy, if that's a concern. No biggie but worth noting. The Yeswelder I evaluated has a much quieter fan. The ground clamp and electrode holder are actually pretty good for this price point! Welder efficiency is .7 which is better than the Bestarc (.6) but not even close to the Amico at .93 (1 is perfect efficiency). The main concern I have for highest efficiency rating, is welding at someone else's house who only have 120V available. On the same 20 amp outlet, the Bestarc may trip the breaker delivering 70 amps, were the Arccaptain may go to 85 amps, and the Amico to maybe 110 amps of delivered welding current. This can mean the difference of getting good weld penetration on 1/4" plate or pipe fence, or producing a weaker weld due to current limitation. Same issue on 220V as well. Something to think about. OK, for the testing. I used 5/32" Lincoln 7018. I put an amp-clamp on it and set it on 200 Amps. Surprisingly it read only 175 amps, with the current dropping on the second stick. I smelled a hot plastic odor coming from the cables. They were very hot! I noticed the wire gauge is only 16mm2, which is equivalent to #6 awg, and for copper cable, is rated for only 50 amps (For gauge, lower number means higher current capacity, wheres the European millimeter squared, higher number means higher amp capacity). This small wire is not good at all! So I pulled off the Dinse 35 connectors, electrode holder and ground clamp and replaced the cables with some spare #2 awg I had. Second surprise: I looked at the Arccaptain cables and was stunned to see they are copper plated aluminum! Even the copper wrap for the Dinse connectors are copper plated aluminum. In my opinion, if you buy this welder and plan to use it over 100 amps, I strongly suggest you swap out the cables. I bought my #2 cables from Temco on ebay but 20' (cut in half) length is $60, and you'll need lugs for the ground. So to do it right, you'll be into the upgrades for $70 with tax. (Are you seeing why I said the Amico is cheaper?) BTW, the Amico comes with 10' #1 gauge wires and heavy duty ground clamp and electrode holder. If you want to upgrade the electrode holder like I did, my favorite is the Lincoln 200 amp electrode holder, and is ~ $24 on amazon. I also like the Lincoln 300 amp ground clamp, and is about $26 on amazon. Once I replaced the cables I was able to get 190 amps out of the machine. One of the workhorses in the stick welding world is 6010 rod. It has deep weld penetration, can bridge gaps, and can weld dirty materials, including galvanized steel, and is great for out-of-position welding (vertical, overhead, etc) It has a mixture of flux materials, more importantly Calcium Carbonate, which burns back slower than the metal rod, creating a concavity at the end of the rod. This shields the steel during welding, and produces CO2 gas, shielding the weld from oxygen, and the CO2 provides more penetration compared to other gases. However this rod requires higher voltage to run, and many welders, including Yeswelder (from my personal testing). The Arccaptain actually does a pretty good job of running 6010 on both 220 and even 110V, although it runs better on 220V. If you look at the spec's for max welding voltage, it's 28v, which is needed for 6010. The high open circuit voltage is an indicator it is set up for higher welding voltage. The Amico also does a great job of welding with 6010 but my Everlast Thunder 255 is the best I've tested on 6010, and it even has a specific setting for running 6010...it's that tricky to run 6010 on inverter type welders. But the Everlast multiprocess welder is $1700 and weighs 78 lbs. So the Arccaptain running all rods including 6010 is great. It weighs about 8 lbs. I didn't test the lift tig but I wouldn't use this welder for tig. Overall, Arccaptain will work for most moderate jobs, and with upgraded cables can approach it's rated 200 amp output for sustained welding. With the upgraded cables, I have $185 into the machine for welding with 200 amp output, using the original ground clamp and electrode holder. For me, at $4 more, the Amico would be my choice, even with it's 17 lb weight and a little larger size. You take it out of the box and weld....no upgrades needed. But for most people the Arccaptain is a lightweight, good machine with a pretty good owner's manual.

Great welder! Portability and runs well!

I love it! For the money I paid I could not have found a better deal. I am not a welder and for the results I got I feel like I am a professional.

Wow, just wow! For the size of this machine, it most definitely gets the job done. The price is unbeatable, and the quality of the welder is just perfect. Highly recommended! Note I’m not a welder myself first time welding

I used the welder today with 3/32" diameter 308L stainless steel electrodes welding on a 1/4" thick 304L stainless steel fire box. The welds came out perfect. The bead profile was nice and smooth with no spatter. I was pleasantly surprised how well this very small machine welds. I had the machine set on 90 amps powered with 110 volts/GFCI with a 25 foot extension cord. It never kicked the GFCI or 20 amp breaker. I was a former AWS CWI and this machine is great. It welds as good as any much more expensive machine.

I was hesitant about this because its small, cheap and definitely not built in North America. Have used it for a few projects at home. It welds way better than my old miller thunderbolt. Easily burns 3/32 or 1/8” 7018. Put a box of each through it in a week and no issues. Machine has easy paid for itself. I did upgrade with the cables from my old machine, haven’t tried it on 120v but would definitely recommend if you have 220 power.

Was delivered fast and did what I needed to do. Welded 2.5 mm rods on 110 volts .

If the anti stick works they don't mean at the beginning changed a few of the functions don't think they do a whole lot hard to figure out how some of them work.im using it on 220v once you get it going it welds great for the price I'd say it's a good deal depends what you want it for if you want to use the tig functions I'd maybe go with a tig unit that can arc rather then an arc unit that can tig

This is a fantastic little welder. I was very skeptical but figured for a couple of hundred dollars I will give it try. The only drawback was the welding wire size, I believe it to be #8. When welding over 80 Amps the wire gets quite hot. I replaced it #2 copper welding wire and that solved the problem. Today I welded for approximately 4 hours using about 20-7018 1/8" rod at 140 Amps. It worked great. I had it plugged in to 220 VAC. I tried it at 120 VAC and the performance was the same. However after about 30 seconds the 15 Amp circuit breaker tripped. the weld was good though no difference with 220 VAC. So at 120VAC and welding at higher currents the breaker needs to be bigger. Great unit

Amazon had a sale on the 200A unit. Figured I’d try it and ship it back if it sucked. I would have accepted ‘ok’ for the price. Turns out that it’s a really good little welder. The only complaint that I have is that the welding leads aren’t very long and don’t use the common ones that we have around my place. Had to buy different ends to put on my existing cables.