"hobby" welder running off 13A ring main - "OK"?

[phatmanace]

Folks - I'm considering purchasing a budget welder to do a few small repairs and a couple of small jobs.

Something like This

Will this work from a 13A supply, or do I need an electrician to wire me up a special socket off the 30A cooker circuit at home? it says max input current == 16A, so I guess it might be ok if I don't turn it up to max, although I don't know if will only actually be useful when turned up to max.

Thanks, Ace

[phatmanace]

10penceparalyzed said:

The max amps you will pull from a machine on a 13A socket will be about 160 amp on a mig, If using a extension lead get a good quality one. you won't have any issues running that thing linked, I would possible say go as big as you can, they are very handy things to have knocking around and before you know it................... personally I would only go with a mig/gas setup. bottles are cheap enough these days.

Cool - thanks for the info. out of interest - what's less good about the gasless mig welders? - I assume the wire is fluxed or some such which means it's more money and you have less choice on where to buy?

[phatmanace]

blade7 said:

10penceparalyzed said:

personally I would only go with a mig/gas setup. bottles are cheap enough these days.

When I stopped working at places where I could use their plant I bought a cheap used MIG that uses the diddy bottles. Jeez they don't last long. Back to my ancient stick set now.

Can you give a rough sense of how 'long' is 'not long'?


(appreciate it's tricky as it depends on how much you use your welder etc, but any rough measures would be appreciated!)