20 Best Stick Welder For Home Use (Jan 2023 Update)

Great looking welder. I have not been able to use it yet though. As one person wrote in their review, the instructions are vague and only state the power rates for all of the models they make, but no instructions on what does what or how to assemble the different components. Admittingly I am a newbie to welding. And I'm waiting for the money to buy argon, Co2 or helium to start learning how to TIG weld. I found out that a 60 Cubic foot bottle of argon costs around $450.00 and that was a big hurdle. One other thing is, the TIG welding gun does not come with any tungsten welding points. Sorry for not giving a good review. I should have researched better before I bought it. I will start wire MIG welding here real soon. Do yourself a big favor before you buy any welder, do your research and get to know the task beforehand.Paul

The Good – This little welder is light, easily transportable, runs off a 25ft outdoor extension cord and welds with flux core wire or 6011 rod without any problems. I've welded holes in sheet metal fenders, welded on both 1/8" brackets and 1/4" inch brackets and also welded 2.5" pipe. It comes with the wire feed gun, a stick welding stinger and a TIG torch. The polarity of all the welding methods is easily changed. I haven't tried the TIG since I don't have any shielding gas. It comes with a roll of low quality flux core wire and while you can weld with that you'll be happier with Lincoln or Hobart wire. The Bad – Instructions are almost non existent as the manual that came with mine is for different models. There is no settings chart, so you're on your own with getting it set up and in the ballpark (Hint – the readout is for amps, so set that to roughly what you'd use for 3/32" or 1/8" rod and set the voltage to the same rotational position and you'll be in the right zip code). The welding glasses are garbage, use a decent welding hood if you value your vision. I've got a lot done with this little welder and quite frankly if it came with a real manual and settings chart I'd give it 5 stars. Others have said theirs wasn't packed well, but mine was.Chuck

I am super surprised how well this worked and how much it comes with! Laid down a really nice bead. This wouldn't be for structural but great for hobby or making some brackets, welding an exhaust etc. I highly recommend if you just need a little buzz box for around the house! Great price and fast shipping.oopsthatsatypo

I bought this to begin learning welding on thin sheet metal. This is an excellent machine, easy to use. You set the current and wire feed speed based on the metal gauge. It is spot on, doesn't burn through and is not to cold. This Lincoln welder is Excellent quality!tcabece427

This welder is excellent. Very well built. Welds MIG, Tig, & stick. I've read reviews where people complained about the tig torch and foot pedal not being included. If it had been this unit would have been well over a grand and out of my price range. This thing works great! The mig gun and stinger are both good quality. If you're looking for a good welder quit looking. Buy one of these. You'll love it.eviltwinz71

Used my Miller 210 Thunderbolt Welder in the flat and vertical positions. Works wonderful with all electrodes so far. Happy with my purchase of this welder. Also the welder has lots of amperes for welding jobs.Don

Plenty of power for a compact machine but it comes with an odd plug. Had to spend half a day searching for an adapter to hook it to my generator. Also the ground clamp, and leads are sub par, going to have to upgrade them asap.Erik c.

Best little welder for the money Miller have really out done there self on this one…it will run stick rods as long you want to burn them on the 220 volts plug…but 110 plug won't work burning welding rods…you can also tig weld all you want to with this machine..
So glad I bought this…Tony Daniel

Weld very well the only one I could find to weld at 5 amps for very fine aluminum. Very good quality and set up for a water cooler. Even the torch is set up for cooler. You dont have to use one but already plumbed for it for the future if needed.jrbailey7

Great welder. This is a high quality welder. I bought the cooler that matches the welder and am glad I did. Hooked it up and started welding right away. Set it up the way Jody did on YouTubedavidagne

Still using my grandfathers 1940's model with the crank for backup. Runs as good as ever and a lot of fun to use for those misc repairs.poricia_secret_storm

This welder is amazing. I got it last week have used it everyday since. I have all 4 cwb tickets and if you can use the rods right it will do anything you ask. I've done vertical flat horizontal and overhead position on 1/8" 1/4" 1/2" and 3/4" steel and it worked perfectly. definitely great for homes and farms and has very good long lasting reputationWelder22

We purchased this welder almost 20 years ago for our business. I personally used it for constructing many industrial projects. I absolutely loved it! Gots all the power ya need. I've been gone from that business for a long time but see it's still available. I'd buy it again if needed.ohwhoaisme

This as a great welder I upgraded to this from a basic harbor freight unit. I'm not a professional welder but I am a retired auto tech with 29 years and I will say lincoln welders are the best of both worlds they do a professional job and they are very forgiving to amateurs learning. Make sure you get yourself a tank of shielding gas so you can use the full potential of this unit.Brian

Upgraded to this setup because I wanted a cover gas. Welder worked great right out of the box using the flux core wire and worked even better after adding the cover gas and solid wire. Worth it.M.B.

I had bought this machine for minor jobs because of its 120v. The first day I used it I was very impressed on its performance I've used it with gas and gasless wire and it welds great. From that day on I've been using it as my daily machine on the field. If your a professional welder or a average person this is the welder for you I highly recommend.H.E.D.C.

Bought this a few months back; I use it for body work and frame work. Spot welder works great after some tuning. Been practicing stick welding and I’ve even told by people who weld for a living say it works great. I’ve had one issue with the gas like which is understandable for the price, (had a spare one). Is lightweight and you get decent hardware. Would give 4.5 for the priceStance Accord

I bought this little guy last week and have put mainly the mig function to the test. It lays down a nice bead on sheet metal (AK rifle receivers). Bought this to replace a recent stolen old Clarke I had from decades ago and man I'm kinda happy someone stole my old one lol. This rig does it all with style. Mig torch is very sensitive and I like that, don't have to squeeze the crap out of it to get it going like my old one! I was a little hesitant buying a welder online, but this thing is built nicely. Time will tell about longevity, but it has a 3 yr warranty so that's a plus. I've heard great things about these. This is my first tig unit so I'll be toying with that function soon! Get one you will not regret it!Brandon

This Machine is Great. I'll be using it to completely restore a 1969 Z 28. New One Piece Floor and One Piece Firewall. I have never done any TIG welding until now. I am almost through my first 150 Cu Foot Argon tank. I used the TIG aspect of the welder to build an Oil Burning Heater for the garage and get use to TIG welding before I start on the Camaro. This is an Awesome Welder. I am sure to get many many hours of use out of it.Bruce

Great looking welder. I have not been able to use it yet though. As one person wrote in their review, the instructions are vague and only state the power rates for all of the models they make, but no instructions on what does what or how to assemble the different components. Admittingly I am a newbie to welding. And I'm waiting for the money to buy argon, Co2 or helium to start learning how to TIG weld. I found out that a 60 Cubic foot bottle of argon costs around $450.00 and that was a big hurdle. One other thing is, the TIG welding gun does not come with any tungsten welding points. Sorry for not giving a good review. I should have researched better before I bought it. I will start wire MIG welding here real soon. Do yourself a big favor before you buy any welder, do your research and get to know the task beforehand.Paul

The Good – This little welder is light, easily transportable, runs off a 25ft outdoor extension cord and welds with flux core wire or 6011 rod without any problems. I've welded holes in sheet metal fenders, welded on both 1/8" brackets and 1/4" inch brackets and also welded 2.5" pipe. It comes with the wire feed gun, a stick welding stinger and a TIG torch. The polarity of all the welding methods is easily changed. I haven't tried the TIG since I don't have any shielding gas. It comes with a roll of low quality flux core wire and while you can weld with that you'll be happier with Lincoln or Hobart wire. The Bad – Instructions are almost non existent as the manual that came with mine is for different models. There is no settings chart, so you're on your own with getting it set up and in the ballpark (Hint – the readout is for amps, so set that to roughly what you'd use for 3/32" or 1/8" rod and set the voltage to the same rotational position and you'll be in the right zip code). The welding glasses are garbage, use a decent welding hood if you value your vision. I've got a lot done with this little welder and quite frankly if it came with a real manual and settings chart I'd give it 5 stars. Others have said theirs wasn't packed well, but mine was.Chuck

I am super surprised how well this worked and how much it comes with! Laid down a really nice bead. This wouldn't be for structural but great for hobby or making some brackets, welding an exhaust etc. I highly recommend if you just need a little buzz box for around the house! Great price and fast shipping.oopsthatsatypo

I have been looking for a compact stick welding machine that I can occasionally use. When I first used it, it BLEW ME AWAY! It works very good for the size that it is. I had been using my neighbors more expensive name brand "H" machine, and this welded much smoother. It strikes an arc very easily, and it's easy to set up and operate. I was a little skeptical about what the quality of the leads would be, but I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I looked at all the features that this one had and talked to a bunch of guys who have AC/DC machines, and they all told me they only use DC for their welding. I made the decision that I wasn't going to pay for features that I wasn't going to use. I like the dual voltage option. I have 220 in my garage and will primary use it on that, but if I get into a bind and have to do welding away from a power source, I have the option to weld with the 110 and use a generator!Scott

Bought this welder so I could eliminate my 800 pound Miller 300 amp welder that takes up way too much space in my garage. I saw some good reviews on YouTube about this harbor freight 225 welder, so I thought this would be adequate for my needs, and would give me more room in my garage. When I brought it home, I decided to put a clamp meter on it, to see if it actually put out 225 amps. Well, I was very surprised. This welder actually puts out 260 amps on maximum setting. If this welder turns out to be reliable, it will definitely be one of the best deals out there. I read a lot of reviews on the cheap Amazon welders, that don't come close to putting out the rated output, so that's what I sort of was expecting from this one. I was definitely happily surprised.Steve

I dont think you can beat this little welder for the price easy setup and easy to run not bad for a 1/8th 308 wire and tunstinjayz99dime82

After watching several reviews on Youtube from folks that bought this welder-generator, I decided it would be a good choice for me. I have used it a couple of times so far and it welds a smooth weld bead. I have not tried running my multi process inverter welder off of the generator yet but I am very confident it will do the job.Grumpy rdub

I purchased the machine for tree service machine repairs, it came with in a week in perfect condition. The shipping company will call you and set up a delivery time or you can go to a hub and pick the machine up. All I had to do was fill the machine with gas, install the exhaust tip and connect the negative battery cable. It fired right up! Unfortunately I haven't had time to burn some rods yet but overall I'm extremely happy. I purchased 100 ft 2/0 cables with plans of buying more leads in the future ($300) and 200 amp stinger, 300 amp ground clamp, 6 connectors and two lugs ($150). As a professional pressure vessel builder metal fabricator I chose this machine because of it's price, 6-50R plug (plug plasma cutter, inverter tig directly into machine) and ability to provide 9500 watts of power, some machines are split bank providing 4000 watts for 220v/110v plugs and 5500 watts for welding. This is great for a job site when you want a constant weld amp but for my side work needs I wanted the ability to run any other electronic equipment off the generator.Joe

Well the welder works great. But 5 hours after getting it the valve cover bolts came loose and blew all the oil out all in the generator. I called Hobart they said to get with tractor supply and get it swapped out. Well then I called tractor supply and of course they gave me the run around wanted me to take it to Nashville to some place and get it checked out. Well that place said they send them off it would be atleast 6 weeks before I get it back. If you paid 3500 for a welder and it blew all the oil out you would want a new one too. Especially if it blew it all in the generator. But that's tractor supply for you I'll run it till it won't run. But I would say if you have any problem you would be better to blow it up or burn it to get any thing do with tractor supply.Gejdj

I am a welder by trade as a mechanic where I work. I bought this unit and used it in my shop where I make custom metal work on my days off. Here is my honest opinion of the Lincoln. For $325 it is a good deal, but for heavy welding or for long periods of welding time it will overheat and you will be waiting for it to cool down. The flux core is decent to weld with, I did most of my welding with gas and it was clean, could be better penetration but you have to remember it is only a 110 welder so it is only going to do so much. The regulator does not come with a gauge so you do not know how much is left in your bottle or how much is coming out, I ended up buying one with a gauge on another website. If you are doing small jobs like lawnmowers, 1/16" and 1/8" metal it will work, but after a while you will figure out what it actually can do. I ended up selling it and buying a Miller 211. The shield that comes with it is more like a toy in my opinion and the plastic used on the tension wheel to hold down the wire is cheap. But I will say, it never broke down for the year I used it.L.S.

Awesome! So, I'm a cabinet maker. A buddy of mine is a certified structural welder, great welder, owns a huge Miller. He found it shameful that I don't know how to weld. He said, "its great to be able to fix stuff around the house". For the money he said this is a great welder, it's all about the electronics. Then he said, "could you stop by latter and fix one of my cabinet doors? Lmao I enclosed some pics. It's a piece of 1/4" plate from Home Depot. I sepperated the pieces a 1/32", and beveled the edge for better penetration. I flap sanded with a grinder and cleaned the steel with acetone. I also put on a 100% solid copper ground clamp. Im new at this so the weld is kinda ugly. It's ok. I then put the piece on an anvil and beat the living sh__ out of it with a 12lb sledge. I'll be keeping this welder. 🙂 hope this helps.J.W.

Haven't mastered the machine with nice beads yet but in time as I weld more feel it will happen. Had a couple adjustments which was able to figure out and really like this welder for the price ….I am sure the more I spend the better the welder would be but this one will do what I need to get done ..small around the house and body work type jobs. Did have the trigger stick which feed the wire out non stop and had to take the gun apart but it fixed itself it seems and works fine at this point. Very happy with the product at this time . thanksr.h.

Great looking welder. I have not been able to use it yet though. As one person wrote in their review, the instructions are vague and only state the power rates for all of the models they make, but no instructions on what does what or how to assemble the different components. Admittingly I am a newbie to welding. And I'm waiting for the money to buy argon, Co2 or helium to start learning how to TIG weld. I found out that a 60 Cubic foot bottle of argon costs around $450.00 and that was a big hurdle. One other thing is, the TIG welding gun does not come with any tungsten welding points. Sorry for not giving a good review. I should have researched better before I bought it. I will start wire MIG welding here real soon. Do yourself a big favor before you buy any welder, do your research and get to know the task beforehand.Paul

The Good – This little welder is light, easily transportable, runs off a 25ft outdoor extension cord and welds with flux core wire or 6011 rod without any problems. I've welded holes in sheet metal fenders, welded on both 1/8" brackets and 1/4" inch brackets and also welded 2.5" pipe. It comes with the wire feed gun, a stick welding stinger and a TIG torch. The polarity of all the welding methods is easily changed. I haven't tried the TIG since I don't have any shielding gas. It comes with a roll of low quality flux core wire and while you can weld with that you'll be happier with Lincoln or Hobart wire. The Bad – Instructions are almost non existent as the manual that came with mine is for different models. There is no settings chart, so you're on your own with getting it set up and in the ballpark (Hint – the readout is for amps, so set that to roughly what you'd use for 3/32" or 1/8" rod and set the voltage to the same rotational position and you'll be in the right zip code). The welding glasses are garbage, use a decent welding hood if you value your vision. I've got a lot done with this little welder and quite frankly if it came with a real manual and settings chart I'd give it 5 stars. Others have said theirs wasn't packed well, but mine was.Chuck

I am super surprised how well this worked and how much it comes with! Laid down a really nice bead. This wouldn't be for structural but great for hobby or making some brackets, welding an exhaust etc. I highly recommend if you just need a little buzz box for around the house! Great price and fast shipping.oopsthatsatypo

I would like to take this time to thank the Owner of Primeweld for having awesome welding equipment. I purchased the Primeweld 160st welder. It is a 160 amp stick welder at 220 volts and 120 amp at 110 volts on a 20 amp circuit. It also has the capability of tig welding, I have not used the tig at this time, I will at some point and time purchase the tig torch. I used 3/32 rod size at 110 volts 6010, 6011, 6013, 7018 and Messer 80t ac plus rods, at their recommended amperage, buttery smooth arc. The little Primeweld welder is a lot better than the person doing the welding (Me). I tried to get the over heat light to come on, one rod right after the other, I got tired of trying the Primeweld 160st won out, it did not overheat. It is a very lightweight lunch box size. I purchased the Primeweld 160st due to size and the fact it has the best warranty of all the small welders that I saw on the market. I called the tech and warranty line and within 5 seconds or less a tech. of Primeweld answered the phone and was very pleasant and super helpful. I am very glad that I purchased a Primeweld product. I gave the Primeweld 160st 5 star review and I also will recommend this welder to all home, farm welders, hobbyist, and anyone looking for a small compact welder. Great product thanks again.Rodney P

Ran 7018 1/8†rods with no problem at 100 amps. I haven’t tried to tig with it, however, it doesn’t come with a tig torch and I didn’t buy it to tig with. If I could change anything it would be the ground clamp. It seems a lot of inexpensive welders come with cheap ground clamps. I love my Prime Weld 225 and the only reason I bought this is because for some reason the 225 would not run the 7018’s. It will weld the crap out on 6011’s but for some odd reason didn’t like the 7018’s. It didn’t want to light them off or if they lit it would not continue to burn. After Ranting on I would definitely buy this little guy again.Brantly

Great welding machine and the price point makes it a steal. Runs 7018 like a dream on 120V. 6011 and 6013 run good too. I swapped out the ground clamp but that is personal preference. Been using it a couple months so far for small projects/repairsSteven

Low quality and they do NOT back their product!
You're better off buying harbor freight, they have good warranties.
My Everlast 200st broke on the second use. They want to charge me almost what I paid for it to repair itmm California

These are great machines. I am a professional welder of 20+ years and have used every machine out there. I have a everlast 255ext in my garage and use it hard. Been using it for 3 years, the only issue I have had is the control knob on the front panel starting acting up and jump 10 amps at a time, I contacted everlast and they sent me a whole new board no questions asked and arrived at my house 4 days later. Took 15 minutes to switch out the board. I cannot recommend this machine enough. Best value for your dollar. It really is a wonderful, Reliable machine.Avocadoman34

If your impatient, like me, you can skip to the last paragraph, where I will wrap up my review. ;-D I purchased this welder because I had a lot of work to do on a 1996 S10 that I foolishly purchased, and I had never MIG welded before. I wanted a welder that I knew was quality, so that if there were any problems I would know that they were caused by me and not a cheap welder (like those HF welders…you know the ones I mean ;-D). I have welded the front passenger-side bumper bracket back on; fabricated the drivers-side floor pan, from scratch; repaired the passenger-side foot well, again from scratch; replaced the passenger-side rocker panel; and, I still have the drivers-side rocker panel and both cab corners to replace. I had to fabricate the floor pans because, to my knowledge, nobody offers floor pans for this body style of S10 (at least, I couldn't find any and I looked pretty hard too). If I had paid a body shop to do this work, it would have cost me many times the price I paid for the truck and the welder. The Handler 190 has been more than I needed in a welder, and I am sure that I haven't come close to pushing the limits of the machine. There IS one thing that I don't like about the welder, though. Because you don't have an infinite setting on the amperage, it can be difficult to weld on thin sheet metal. I am sure part of this is my lack of skill and part is due to the thinner metal that I am trying to weld (it has rusted through, and I had to use a wire cup wheel to clean it up, but the rust 'thinned' the metal so it is even thinner than it would normally be). Because I am not a skilled welder, I have suffered from the dreaded burn through. When using thicker metals, I haven't had any problems with the amperage settings on the machine at all, so it may just be the rust-thinned metal that is causing all of my problems (aside from the fool operating the welder, of course). I have included some pictures of the S10 project that this welder was purchased for. I know that my welds are ugly, but they are solid (at least, they are much stronger than the rusty holes that existed before). I have applied seam sealer to the seams and proper rubberized undercarriage to the bottom, to make sure that the rust stays away. In one of the images, I show the results of a destructive test that I performed using a commonly available material (I won't list it here, because I don't know about T.S.C.'s rules on such things, but if you watch videos on "welding tips and tricks" on YouTube you can find out the material). This destructive test is a great way to gain confidence in the weld beads that the machine is creating. It shows the depth of penetration achieved with a given setting. In closing, I would like to say that this welder has met, and exceeded, my expectations. I was hesitant to purchase a welder at this price range, because I was concerned that once I had finished my initial project that it would just sit there. I currently have a list of over 17 different projects that I plan to do (not counting the S10), many of which involve welding aluminum. I am sure that this welder is up to all these tasks and more. And, I am sure that it will pay for itself many, many times over by the end of these projects alone. The lack of an infinite dial for amperage is the only thing that limits this welder, and I am sure that a skilled welder would know some tricks to work around this. It isn't for a professional welder, but for a hobbyist/beginner I couldn't find a better welder anywhere, at any price close to what I paid for the Handler 190 from Tractor Supply. I gave this welder five stars because it deserves it.Rabidgoalie

I purchased the Hobart welder a month ago. After looking at multiple units in various stores, this was a no brainer. The big company units had many bells and whistles and came with a price that doubled this unit. I do small auto repairs, heavy equipment repairs and craft welding for horse stalls. Does exactly what I need and priced to sell. All the accessories are in store such as wire, tips and even a small bottle. Instructions are easy to use and a chart on inside explains what setting to use for various metal thickness. 2 friends have used mine and now purchased their own.James Slim Hoss

Used it for a day to weld 11 gauge steel. Hobart recommended settings seemed to work well. Good penetration, strong welds. Fan is loud and runs continuously. At about 70 lbs. kind of heavy. Overall seemed good quality.shel11