Flex Core Welder, 115 Volt, 70 Amps, Portable, Thermal Overload Protection, Infinite Wire Feed (Campbell Hausfeld WF215001AV)

This is a fantastic little welder ! I haven't welded for many years and only a few times "back in the day". This was purchased to weld mostly angle iron (bed frames) to build a pedicab trailer. I watched Youtube videos while I was waiting on the welder to arrive, that was pretty much my education. Unit arrived on time and with great instructions. I dove right into the fire and was laying down some nice beads in no time. The best settings for what I was doing was 3 on the heat and 1 on the feed speed. Make sure your metal is very clean and maybe it's just me, but I keep the ground clamp pretty close to the lead. My first project was a welding cart for the welder. It was the perfect project to learn on. Two days after the cart was finished, our basement was flooded by a bad rain storm. I waded into the waist deep basement (basement in Florida ?) and quickly put everything I could on higher shelves. The welder was in about two inches of water before I could grab it (a minute or two). The flood quickly receded and the next day was bright and sunny (this is Florida). I lifted the cover and let it dry out thoroughly for a few days before even attempting to fire it up. I couldn't see any signs of water inside the unit. I've run 4 spools of wire through it since then and it's always run perfect. Since this is my first welder, I can't compare it to the red or other blue brand. For what I'm doing this welder is EXCELLENT !!!

Works as it should. not meant for large jobs, unless breaking to let it cool down... Burned out the resistor on the wire feed motor, pushed wire out at Max speed no matter the settings

My only hesitation in giving this item a rating of 5 stars is that I am such a novice at arc welding that I may not be qualified to give such a high rating to any welder.Prior to purchasing this welder my only experience with arc welding was a brief introduction to stick welding I got as part of a Junior High School shop class back in the late 1950s. I still have vivid memories of how hard it was to try to start an arc and keep it going while also having to flip the helmet down at the same time. Those memories were enough to keep me from even considering the purchase of an arc welder until the morning I got the wild idea to order this welder and an auto darkening helmet.WOW, what a difference using this is from memories of trying to learn to stick weld in Junior High School! After only a few practice welds I was able to create functional welds for use in various projects around my home. The welds I am getting are anything but "text book quality" in appearance. However an experienced welder has looked at some of them and assures me that they are strong and will hold. He also said that my welds will get better as I get more experience. Another experienced welder has told me that it is nearly impossible to get "good welds" with a "cheap welder". That may well be true, but at this point I am sure I would not be getting "good welds" no matter how expensive a welder I had purchased. One reviewer here commented that the trigger seemed to be a bit touchy. Occasionally when I think I have pressed the trigger on my unit nothing happens, however I am more inclined to believe it is due to something I am not doing quite correctly, rather than anything wrong with the trigger itself. This has never seriously hindered my ability to create the welds I want.I am not planning to be using the welder for any large projects, but for a variety of small projects where having the ability to weld will save me from trying to figure out how to bolt together "whatever I can find at the hardware store" to create something I am trying to kluge together. Over the last year I have spent a small fortune on pre-drilled steel, bolts, and miscellaneous hardware to modify commercial scaffolding and build additional scaffold railings so I could work on a part of my home that is nearly impossible to reach. If I had had this welder when I was doing that, I could have saved myself a lot of time and money.I wasn't sure what to expect from a "low end" welder like this! I have found that it does all that I expected and more. One of my first projects involved welding 2" x 3/16" angle iron, and I very happy to find that it handles this material with no problems. (It should be noted that I am using the welder on a dedicated 20 amp circuit as is recommended when using the highest power setting.)While no "low end" welder will meet the needs of everyone looking to purchase a welder, this welder definitely meets my needs extremely well.

Would give this item AND the company 0 stars if the option was available. Received item and was excited to check it out. Right off the bat the wire feeder would not feed. Spent hours trying to determine the problem. Attempted to call the company but the customer service line was ALWAYS busy. Tried for 2 more days to contact the company. Finally found a different customer service number on another company's website. Reached customer service on the first attempt. The customer service person said that the wrong number is on the contact paper enclosed in the box and that the phone company was supposed to direct callers to the new number. Service person took no responsibility; just blamed the phone company. Service person suggested plugging the welder in without an extension cord to get more power. Tried plugging the unit in directly to the outlet without any difference. The wire still wouldn't feed. Called the new customer service number and this service person was discourteous and almost insulting. Sending back the unit and will never buy a Campbell Hausfeld product again.

The drive assembly for wire feed is unbelievably (even for the Chinese) cheaply constructed. Mine came out the box completely broken. Screws with brittle plastic shoulder guides hold the drive assembly halves together and attached to the inside of the metal case. These brittle plastic guides were all broken off with the wire feed assembly apart. Rather than suffer through the returns process, I re-engineered the assembly using longer screws with metal washers (instead of brittle plastic) to hold the thing together. This and a little other reworking allowed the thing to work.(also the plastic wire feed tube was pinched completely closed on the end stopping any wire feed from happening, something impossible to have occurred in shipping it had to be done at the factory intentionally).Surprisingly, I got the thing to work and it does actually weld and feed wire now.